Even Political Rivals Agree That Medical Debt Is an Urgent Issue
In red and blue states, state lawmakers from both parties are expanding protections for patients burdened by medical debt.
The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
141-160 of 416 results
In red and blue states, state lawmakers from both parties are expanding protections for patients burdened by medical debt.
Former President Donald Trump has presided over a landslide shift in Republican views on vaccines, reflected in false claims by candidates in election primaries, puzzling conspiracies from prominent conservatives, and a surge in anti-vaccine policies in statehouses.
State Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo spread more anti-vaccine misinformation by telling Floridians to avoid mRNA vaccines. Vaccine experts and historians can’t remember another state health leader urging residents to avoid an FDA-approved vaccine.
Clinics in states where most abortions are legal, such as Kansas and Illinois, are reporting an influx of inquiries from patients hundreds of miles away — and are expanding in response. Despite the Supreme Court’s overturning of federal protections in 2022, abortions are now at their highest numbers in a decade.
An increasing number of Americans struggle with energy poverty, the inability to adequately heat or cool one’s dwelling. Health officials and climate experts are sounding the alarm as record-breaking heat sweeps the nation.
As states wait for Deloitte to make fixes in computer systems, Medicaid beneficiaries risk losing access to health care and food.
Regulators have been under the gun to curb unauthorized Obamacare enrollment and switching of plans. Separately, a pending lawsuit was amended with additional defendants and new allegations regarding tactics to garner greater ACA sales commissions.
Hospitals in several states are partnering with a private equity-backed company to offer combined emergency and urgent care in a single building. But patients may not realize prices vary between the two services — often by a lot.
Florida’s RSV season begins earlier and runs longer than anywhere else in the U.S., according to the University of Florida’s Emerging Pathogens Institute. New vaccines can help, but most older adults, who are vulnerable to RSV, haven’t gotten them yet.
Although Novo Nordisk and Lilly lump together the pharmacies that compound semaglutide and tirzepatide with internet cowboys selling fake drugs, there is a distinction. The FDA has offered Americans little clarity about the vast gray and black markets for the drugs.
State lawmakers are advancing two bills aimed at protecting children from the harms of social media, part of a nationwide wave of efforts to address the issue. Yet the bills’ proponents face hurdles in finding an approach that can survive legal challenges from the tech industry.
Public safety and health care organizations are using drones to speed up lifesaving treatment during medical emergencies in which every second counts.
Misleading money-for-groceries ads helped lure people to call centers where some were enrolled in Affordable Care Act coverage — or switched from their existing plans — without their express permission, a new lawsuit alleges.
911 outages have hit at least eight states this year. They’re emblematic of problems plaguing emergency response communications due in part to wide disparities in capabilities and funding.
Even after multiple massive power outages — including one from a 2021 winter storm in Texas that prompted a U.S. Senate investigation — little has changed for older Americans in senior living facilities when natural disasters strike.
The Biden administration set stringent new federal staffing rules. But for years, nursing homes have failed to meet the toughest standards set by states.
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder is estimated to affect around 5% of people who menstruate, but a lack of research and limited awareness of menstrual disorders — even among health care providers — can make getting care difficult.
A Florida woman with no training in mental health services pretended to be a licensed social worker during online therapy sessions with Brightside Health patients.
The United Way of Greater Kansas City gave $1.2 million to victims and $832,000 to 14 community groups Thursday, hoping to reach other victims from the violence at the Kansas City Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade, as well as those working to prevent gun violence.
© 2026 KFF