Latest Kaiser Health News Stories
A Young Woman, A Wheelchair And The Fight To Take Her Place At Stanford
Throughout her young life, Sylvia Colt-Lacayo has been told her disability didn’t need to hold her back. She graduated near the top of her high school class. She was co-captain of the mock trial team. In April, she learned she had been admitted to Stanford University with a full scholarship. Now, the struggle to fund the caregivers she needs to leave home is proving her toughest battle yet.
Starving Seniors: How America Fails To Feed Its Aging
One out of every 13 older Americans struggles to find enough food to eat while the federal program intended to help hasn’t kept pace with the graying population.
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
They Got Estimates Before Surgery — And A Bill After That Was 50% More
Patients are often told to be smart consumers and shop around for health care before they use it. What happens when people actually take that advice?
Shopping At The Apotheke: Compare German Pharmacies With Your Corner Drugstore
Germany’s pharmacies provide insights into the country’s low drug prices and strict regulations. But they’re still businesses.
In India’s Slums, ‘Painkillers Are Part Of The Daily Routine’
As the Indian government reluctantly loosens its prescription opioid laws after decades of lobbying by palliative care advocates desperate to ease their patients’ pain, the nation’s sprawling, cash-fed health care system is ripe for misuse.
Beset By Lawsuits And Criticism In U.S., Opioid Makers Eye New Market In India
What began in India as a populist movement to bring inexpensive morphine to the diseased and dying poor has paved the way for a booming pain management industry. Now, new customers are being funneled to U.S. drugmakers bedeviled by a government crackdown back home.
Why Red Wyoming Seeks The Regulatory Approach To Air Ambulance Costs
Wyoming is taking on expensive air ambulance bills by trying to expand Medicaid to cover transport for all patients. This is a big change: a red state seeking to control what’s been a growing free-market bonanza.
Addiction Clinics Market Pricey, Unproven Treatments To Desperate Patients
An amino acid infusion called NAD is not approved by the FDA to treat addiction. Yet patients with addiction can be desperate enough to try it, at prices as high as $15,000.
Readers And Tweeters Take Dialysis Providers To Task: Nowhere But In The USA
Kaiser Health News gives readers a chance to comment on a recent batch of stories.
Dialysis Industry Spends Big To Protect Profits
Dialysis companies are fighting a bill in the California legislature that could disrupt their business model. Their weapons: campaign cash and a sophisticated public relations campaign.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: All About Medicare
Before “Medicare for All,” there was just Medicare, the federal program that provides insurance to 60 million Americans. This week, KHN’s Julie Rovner talks to Tricia Neuman of the Kaiser Family Foundation about how Medicare works and whom it serves. Then, Joanne Kenen of Politico, Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post and Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner join Rovner to talk about some current Medicare issues being debated in Washington, D.C.
Feds Pave The Way To Expand Home Dialysis — But Patients Hit Roadblocks
What changes are needed to bring home dialysis to more patients — especially older adults, the fastest-growing group of patients with serious, irreversible kidney disease? We asked nephrologists, patient advocates and dialysis company officials for their thoughts.
Shopping Abroad For Cheaper Medication? Here’s What You Need To Know
Americans routinely skirt federal law by crossing into Canada and Mexico or tapping online pharmacies abroad to purchase prescription medications at a fraction of the price they would pay at home. Is it safe? Not necessarily. Here’s some advice.
Watch: Trump-Pence Policy Shift Makes Birth Control Harder To Get
The Trump administration’s policy shift on Title X family planning funds is likely to make birth control harder to get and more expensive for low-income women. It will also shift funds from organizations like Planned Parenthood to the Obria Group, which does not give women hormonal contraceptives or condoms in its clinics.
The Collapse Of A Hospital Empire — And Towns Left In The Wreckage
Jorge A. Perez and his management company, EmpowerHMS, helped run an empire of rural hospitals. Now, in a staggering implosion, 12 of them have entered bankruptcy and eight have closed their doors, leaving hundreds of residents without jobs and their communities without lifesaving emergency medical care. So, what happened?
A Brush With A Notorious Cat, My Rabies Education And The Big Bill That Followed
An encounter with a cat led to rabies shots and provided yet another illustration of how confusing, contrary and expensive the American health care system is.
Despite Failed Promises, Stem Cell Advocates Again Want Taxpayers To Pony Up Billions
California’s stem cell agency, created by a $3 billion bond measure 15 years ago, is almost out of money. Its supporters plan to ask voters for even more funding next year, even though no agency-funded treatments have been approved for widespread use.
Health Plan’s ‘Cadillac Tax’ May Finally Be Running Out Of Gas
The tax on generous health plans — originally envisioned as a way to help pay for the ACA and change consumers’ behavior — has never been implemented, and Congress is considering repeal.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: We Answer Your Questions
You asked about drug prices, the “Cadillac tax” on generous insurance plans and why Americans don’t know that most other countries also have combination public-private insurance systems. This week, Anna Edney of Bloomberg News, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico and Caitlin Owens of Axios join KHN’s Julie Rovner to answer those questions.
