The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Even though one Colorado woman had health insurance, she was swamped with $250,000 in medical debt from surgeries for a twisted intestine. āIt was five years of hell,ā said her husband.
A small infection related to diabetes on one New York manās foot set off a cascade of medical emergencies and financial struggles that his family is still struggling to cope with.
One seriously ill Arizona man was denied care because of past-due bills. His only choice was to go to the ER, where he was stuck with thousands of dollars of additional bills he couldnāt pay.
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine takes a sweeping look at how heat ā which can be a byproduct of air pollution and climate change ā adversely affects peopleās health, especially that of kids.
The U.S. health system now produces debt on a mass scale, a new investigation shows. Patients face gut-wrenching sacrifices.
People talk about the sacrifices they made when health care forced them into debt.
In carrying out the federal covid-19 ātest-to-treatā initiative, California is targeting the uninsured by outfitting 138 testing sites with screenings for free antiviral drugs. But as of mid-June, fewer than 800 people had been prescribed the medicines. And two-thirds of those undergoing screenings are insured.
Today, debt from medical and dental bills touches nearly every corner of American society.
Have you been forced into debt because of a medical or dental bill? Have you had to make any changes in your life because of such debt? Have you been pursued by debt collectors for a medical bill? We want to hear about it.
Noble Health swept into two small Missouri towns promising to save their hospitals. Instead, workers and vendors say it stopped paying bills and government inspectors found it put patients at risk. Within two years ā after taking millions in federal covid relief and big administrative fees ā it locked the doors.
One million Americans have died from covid-19 ā far more per capita than in any other developed country. A new variant is doubling case rates in some states, and more than 300 people are dying a day. But our nationās pandemic response has become mild-mannered and performative, backed by neither money, urgency, nor enforcement.
Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers cannot charge consumers for various preventive services that have been recommended by experts. But if those screenings indicate more testing is needed to determine whether something is wrong, patients may be on the hook for hundreds or even thousands of dollars for diagnostic services.
The Biden administrationās latest plan to address opioid overdose deaths includes $30 million for harm reduction measures, but many conservative states donāt allow them.
Physicians have long believed itās good medicine to consider race in health care. But recently, rather than perpetuate the myth that race governs how bodies function, a more nuanced approach has emerged: acknowledging that racial health disparities often reflect the effects of generations of systemic racism, such as lack of access to stable housing or nutritious food.
In early 2022, Illinois joined a growing number of states where lawmakers and school leaders are trying to combat the ongoing student mental health crisis by granting days off for mental health needs.
Researchers say the billions in pandemic funding available for ventilation upgrades in U.S. schools provides a once-in-a-generation opportunity to combat covid-19, as well as making air more breathable for students living with allergies, asthma, and chronic wildfire smoke.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Hereās a collection of their appearances.
Trauma surgeons say that the weapons used in mass shootings are not new but that more of these especially deadly guns are on the street, causing injuries that are difficult to survive.
Colorado is among about 15 states that have met federal goals to reduce infant mortality, an important indicator of overall population health. Breaking down the data by race and ethnicity, though, makes clear that major gaps remain.
People in jail who have serious mental illness and cannot stand trial because of their condition are waiting months, or even more than a year, to get into their state psychiatric hospitals.
Noticias en espaƱol