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At issue is whether transplant patients who refuse the shots are not only putting themselves at greater risk for serious illness and death from covid-19, but also squandering scarce organs that could benefit others.
The polarizing abortion issue threatens to tie up Congress, the Supreme Court and the states for the coming year. Meanwhile, Congress kicks the can down the road to December on settling its spending priorities. Joanne Kenen of Politico and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, Yasmeen Abutaleb of The Washington Post and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHNās Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.
Also this week, Rovner interviews KHNās Aneri Pattani, who delivered the latest KHN-NPR āBill of the Monthā episode about a covid test that cost as much as a luxury car.
After experiencing multiple quarantines and school closures in less than two months, covid vaccine approvals for 5- to 11-year-olds canāt come soon enough for a KHN editor in Montana.
In Maryland, it’s now illegal for a hospital to sue a patient who qualifies for charity care. But in many other states, that’s still a thing.
Dr. Francis Collins, who announced he is stepping down as chief of the National Institutes of Health, used his communication skills and political insights to help protect the highly acclaimed federal research institutes through difficult times.
Patients are caught in the middle as insurers clamp down on paying for treatments or force prior authorizations for care.
Even though they perform the same intimate tasks as nursing home and hospital workers, in-home health aides initially were left out of Californiaās vaccine mandate. They must be fully vaccinated by Nov. 30.
Opponents of free needle programs in California are using environmental regulations to shut them down. On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that will end that strategy.
The covid pandemic has caused millions of people, particularly LGBTQ adults, to lose their jobs and enroll in Medicaid or insurance through the Affordable Care Act. Yet these plans often donāt fully cover the basics needed by many transgender Americans, such as injectable estrogen, a hormone therapy commonly used by trans women.
An estimated 300,000 people were held in solitary confinement in U.S. jails and prisons at the height of the pandemic. An international movement is pushing to limit the form of incarceration due to its damaging physical and psychological effects.
Dr. Paula Braveman, director of UCSFās Center on Social Disparities in Health, shares her insights on a provocative new study that identifies racism as a decisive factor in the gap in preterm birth rates between Black and white women.
The Biden administration is requiring workers at health care facilities that accept Medicare and Medicaid payments to be vaccinated. For the minority of nursing students who have refused a shot, the new policy could mean they canāt get the training they need in a hospital or other health care venue.
Officials are enthusiastic about the Allcove initiative, modeled on an Australian program. But it will need to show effectiveness and find funding.
As the pandemic has raged so has the countryās drug epidemic. California is looking to a controversial solution for certain drug users, but despite its effectiveness, critics have scoffed at the idea calling it unethical or a bribe.
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.
Mimi Hall and Dr. Gail Newel, health director and health officer for Santa Cruz County, California, will receive PEN Americaās 2021 PEN/Benenson Courage Award for soldiering forward in their work amid death threats and personal attacks.
Despite big 2020 campaign promises to deliver lower costs on prescription drugs, Democrats have failed to unite around a legislative plan.
Negotiations continue on Capitol Hill over President Joe Bidenās health agenda ā along with a long list of other items. With Republicans on the sidelines, liberal Democrats delayed a House vote on a Senate-passed infrastructure bill to extract moderatesā support for a social-spending bill that includes expansions of benefits for Medicare, Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. Meanwhile, the Biden administrationās new rules to prevent āsurpriseā medical bills pleases some health stakeholders and angers others. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Tami Luhby of CNN and Kimberly Leonard of Insider join KHNās Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, Rovner interviews Anna Flagg of the Marshall Project about how a century-old report on medical education contributed to racial inequities that persist today.
San Juan County, Colorado, is one of the most vaccinated counties in the U.S. Leaders across the country continue to expound on the vaccine as the path forward in the pandemic. But San Juanās experience the past few weeks with its first covid hospitalizations shows that, even with an extremely vaccinated population, masks are still necessary.
Patients sickened in heat waves, flooding and wildfire have raised awareness of climate changeās impact on health. Now, some hospitals are building solar panels and cutting waste to reduce their own carbon footprints, with support from a new office at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. But the industry is moving slowly.
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