KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.
KHN reports on how the health care system — hospitals, doctors, nurses, insurers, governments, consumers — works. In addition to this website, our stories are published by news organizations throughout the country. Our site also features daily summaries of major health care news.
We also produce the website and newsletters for California Healthline, a service of the California Health Care Foundation.
KFF President and CEO Drew Altman is KHN’s Founding Publisher and wrote this message about KHN when we launched in 2009. KFF’s Executive Director of Media and Technology David Rousseau is KHN’s Publisher.
Learn about our Editorial Policies.
KHN accepts no advertising and all original content is available to other news organizations and the public free of charge.
Neither KHN nor KFF is affiliated with the health insurance company Kaiser Permanente.
KHN Leadership
Elisabeth Rosenthal, Editor-in-Chief, joined KHN in September 2016 after 22 years as a correspondent with The New York Times, where she covered a variety of beats, from health care to environment, and worked as a reporter in the Beijing bureau. While in China, she covered SARS, bird flu and the emergence of HIV/AIDS in rural areas. Rosenthal’s 2013-14 series, “Paying Till it Hurts,” won many prizes for both health reporting and its creative use of digital tools. Her book, “An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business And How You Can Take it Back,” published in April 2017. She is a graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Medical School and briefly practiced medicine in a New York City emergency room before converting to journalism.
Damon Darlin, Executive Editor, has worked as a reporter and editor for a number of newspaper and magazines. He cut his teeth as a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, which included stints as a foreign correspondent in Japan and Korea. He was an editor of the News You Can Use section of U.S. News & World Report and a technology magazine, Business 2.0. He created and wrote the Your Money column at The New York Times and later served as the paper’s technology editor in San Francisco before helping to start The Upshot. Although he loves the West Coast, Damon grew up in Dubuque, Iowa, graduated from the University of Chicago and remains a Midwesterner at heart.
Meet the rest of the KHN Staff.
National Advisory Committee
KHN has a distinguished National Advisory Committee who include:
- Chairman: Leonard Downie, Jr., the Weil Family Professor of Journalism at the Cronkite School of Journalism, Arizona State University; former executive editor, The Washington Post;
- Jim Brady, vice president/Journalism, the Knight Foundation; former CEO Spirited Media and editor-in-chief, Digital First Media;
- Justin Ellis, projects editor for Defector Media; former senior editor, ESPN; TV production credits include “How to Fix a Drug Scandal” on Netflix and “Wyatt Cenac’s Problem Areas” on HBO;
- Mark Katches, executive editor, the Tampa Bay Times; former editor of The Oregonian and former editorial director for the Center for Investigative Reporting and California Watch;
- Anne Kornblut, VP, global curation, Facebook/Meta; former associate editor, The Washington Post;
- David Leonhardt, New York Times columnist and author of the daily “The Morning” newsletter; founding editor of The Upshot and former New York Times D.C. bureau chief;
- Diana Mason, senior policy service professor and co-director of the Center for Health Policy and Media Engagement, George Washington University School of Nursing;
- Arlene Morgan, assistant dean, School of Media and Communication, Temple University; former associate dean, Columbia Graduate School of Journalism;
- Tom Rosenstiel, novelist and visiting professor on the Future of Journalism, University of Maryland Merrill College of Journalism; former executive director, American Press Institute;
- Evan Smith, CEO and co-founder of the Texas Tribune.
Emeritus Advisors
- Karen Dunlap, former president and trustee of the Poynter Institute;
- Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation;
- Kevin Klose, professor and former dean of the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism, and former president of National Public Radio, Inc.;
- Bill Kovach, founding chairman of Committee of Concerned Journalists, former executive editor of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution;
- Charles Lewis, executive editor of the Investigative Reporting Workshop at American University;
- Kevin Merida, executive editor, The Los Angeles Times; former senior vice president, ESPN and editor-in-chief, The Undefeated; former managing editor, The Washington Post;
- Cathy Trost, vice president, Exhibits, Programs & Media Relations, Newseum; founding director of the Casey Journalism Center on Children and Families;
- Irving Washington, senior fellow for health disinformation, KFF; former executive director/CEO, Online News Association.
Republish KHN Stories and Photos
All original KHN material – articles, graphics, videos and some photos – can be used for free, if you credit us and link to us. Our stories appear in The Washington Post, USA Today and in many other publications, and KHN also has a continuing partnership with NPR and public radio stations around the country.
Additional Funders
As an editorially independent program of the KFF, KHN’s work and core operations are part of KFF’s general operating budget and are primarily supported through investment returns from KFF’s endowment, as are all of KFF’s major operating programs. KFF is a Public Charity and its tax forms are available through Guidestar for The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. KFF also receives financial support for KHN from foundations and other partners to expand our work. KFF seeks and accepts outside funding only from sources who will not in any way compromise our independence or mission. Questions about funders or funding policies can be directed to David Rousseau, KHN’s Publisher.
Active external funders for KHN for 2023 include the following:
The Blue Shield of California Foundation helps fund KHN’s coverage of California. Related stories.
The California Health Care Foundation supports KHN’s coverage of health policy news in California, which includes production of California Healthline’s site and newsletters. Related stories.
The California Wellness Foundation supports KHN’s work with California ethnic media. Related stories.
The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation supports KHN’s coverage in the South. Related stories.
The Missouri Foundation for Health helps support KHN’s coverage of Missouri and the Midwest. Related stories.
The Colorado Health Foundation helps support KHN’s coverage of Colorado and the surrounding mountain states. Related stories.
The Montana Healthcare Foundation and the Headwaters Foundation help support KHN’s coverage of Montana and the mountain states. Related stories.
KHN’s coverage of women’s reproductive health care issues is supported in part by Arnold Ventures and in the past by The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Related stories.
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation helps fund KHN’s coverage of health technology and COVID-19. Related stories.
KHN’s coverage of rural health care issues is supported in part by The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust. Related stories.
KHN’s coverage of health care issues in Texas is supported in part by the H.E. Butt Family Foundation. Related stories.
KHN’s coverage of late life and geriatric care is supported in part by The John A. Hartford Foundation. Related stories.
KHN receives general operating support from Laura and John Arnold through Fidelity Charitable and Arnold Ventures.
KHN’s coverage of aging and long-term care issues is supported in part by a grant from The SCAN Foundation. Related stories.
KHN’s coverage of longevity and related health and social issues is supported in part by the Silver Century Foundation. Related stories.
KHN’s coverage of health care issues in Florida is supported in part by The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg. Related stories.
KHN’s HealthCheck partnership with PolitiFact is supported in part by the Poynter Institute for Media Studies with funding from Google and Facebook.
KHN’s Lost on the Frontline partnership with The Guardian is supported in part by the Good Words Foundation.
Awards and Honors
KHN has been recognized repeatedly by our peers in journalism with an increasing number of awards honoring our reports on the American health care system. See the full list.
