Health Care Costs

KFF Health News Michigan correspondent Kate Wells discussed urgent care clinics offering abortions on Apple News Today on April 15. Click here to hear Wells on Apple News Today. Read Wells’ “Urgent Care Clinics Move To Fill Abortion Care Gaps in Rural Areas.” KFF Health News Montana correspondent Katheryn Houghton discussed doula Medicaid reimbursements on […]

If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” Vince Lahey of Carefree, Arizona, embraces chatbots. From Big Tech products to “shady” ones, they offer “someone that I could share more secrets with than my therapist.” He especially likes […]

In many ways, the health care industry has been a great friend to the U.S. economy. Its plentiful jobs helped lift the country out of the Great Recession and, partly due to the Affordable Care Act, it now employs 1 in 9 Americans — up from 1 in 12 in 2000. As President Donald Trump seeks to fulfill his […]

Kids with chronic conditions are especially vulnerable to health insurance changes, relying as they often do on specialists and medications that may not be covered if they switch plans. A new study finds that these transitions can leave kids and their families financially vulnerable as well. The research, which examines the spending impact of shifting chronically-ill […]

Congress must pass a bill this week to keep most of the government running beyond Friday, when a government spending bill runs out. It won’t be easy. The debate over a new spending bill focuses on an esoteric issue affecting the Affordable Care Act. The question is whether Congress will pass — and President Donald […]

Under the Republican health bill, it’s up to states whether to dismantle key parts of the Affordable Care Act. Red, or GOP-leaning, states are sure to be interested in rolling back the law’s coverage requirements and freeing insurers to charge people more when they have preexisting conditions. As strange as it sounds, deep-blue, heavily Democratic […]

This week, I answer questions about how the Republican proposal to overhaul the health law could affect job-based insurance and what the penalties for not having continuous coverage mean. Perhaps anticipating a spell of uninsurance, another reader wondered if people can rely on the emergency department for routine care. Q: Will employer-based health care be affected by the […]

DOVER, Del. — Andy and Serena Ryan get their health coverage through the state’s Affordable Care Act insurance exchange and are increasingly anxious about it. Serena Ryan, 31, who left her part-time job as a nurse in 2016 to care for and home-school the couple’s two children, ages 5 and 3, calls the coverage a […]

Dawn Poole often worries about whether her children qualify for Medicaid and have access to the care they need. Much of her anxiety is a direct result of living in Texas. Here, children’s eligibility for Medicaid varies by age, but to qualify most children must come from families with incomes at or below 138 percent […]

The pharmaceutical industry could see windfall profits from a little-noticed tweak to the insurance market tucked into the Trump administration’s draft executive order on drug prices, experts say. The short, technical paragraph calls for the Internal Revenue Service to allow patients with high-deductible health plans to receive care for chronic diseases, including drugs, before meeting […]