KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Return of the Public Option
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on PRX. You can also listen on on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts or wherever you listen to podcasts. The “public option” is back — both in Washington, D.C., and the states. President Joe Biden as a candidate supported the idea of a government-run or heavily regulated insurance […]
Minneapolis Police Injured Protesters With Rubber Bullets. The City Has Taken Little Action.
(Editor’s note: This is a follow-up to last year’s joint investigation by KHN and USA Today finding that police in several cities violated their own crowd-control policies during protests over racial injustice and police brutality.) As police in riot gear approached the demonstrators, Soren Stevenson raised his hands like scores of others and called out, […]
Lady Gaga and J.Lo Sell ‘Well’ Building Seal, But It’s a Payday, Not a PSA
Viewers could be excused for thinking Robert De Niro was just being a good fella in an ad promoting safe buildings amid the covid pandemic, along with the likes of Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga and Michael B. Jordan. They would be wrong. De Niro and the other A-list celebs are backing something called the Well […]
‘Better Than the Hospital’: Pandemic Boosts Care for Serious Illnesses at Home
Late last year, Janet Yetenekian was one of the thousands of people in Southern California whose case of covid-19 was serious enough to send her to the hospital. But Yetenekian’s recovery was not typical: She received hospital-level care in her own home in Glendale. “It was even better than the hospital,” Yetenekian said, laughing. “They […]
Pandemic Leads Doctors to Rethink Unnecessary Treatment
Covid-19 is opening the door for researchers to address a problem that has vexed the medical community for decades: the overtreatment and unnecessary treatment of patients. On one hand, the pandemic caused major health setbacks for non-covid patients who were forced to, or chose to, avoid tests and treatments for various illnesses. On the other […]
Corporations Encourage Employee Vaccination but Stop Short of Mandates
Many of the companies with the largest number of employees say they’ll do almost anything to encourage their employees to get vaccinated. But a survey of some of them found that none would be inclined to mandate shots as a condition for holding a job. Almost all 15 companies surveyed — among the largest and […]
Tips for Older Adults to Regain Their Game After Being Cooped Up for More Than a Year
Alice Herb, 88, an intrepid New Yorker, is used to walking miles around Manhattan. But after this year of being shut inside, trying to avoid covid-19, she’s noticed a big difference in how she feels. “Physically, I’m out of shape,” she told me. “The other day I took the subway for the first time, and […]
Is Your Living Room the Future of Hospital Care?
Major hospital systems are betting big money that the future of hospital care looks a lot like the inside of patients’ homes. Hospital-level care at home — some of it provided over the internet — is poised to grow after more than a decade as a niche offering, boosted both by hospitals eager to ease […]
No-Cancel Culture: How Telehealth Is Making It Easier to Keep That Therapy Session
When the covid-19 pandemic forced behavioral health providers to stop seeing patients in person and instead hold therapy sessions remotely, the switch produced an unintended, positive consequence: Fewer patients skipped appointments. That had long been a problem in mental health care. Some outpatient programs previously had no-show rates as high as 60%, according to several […]
As Pandemic Eases, Many Seniors Have Lost Strength, May Need Rehabilitative Services
Ronald Lundquist, 87, has been active all his life. So, he wasn’t prepared for what happened when he stopped going out during the coronavirus pandemic and spent most of his time, inactive, at home. “I found it hard to get up and get out of bed,” said Lundquist, who lives with his wife of 67 […]