Health Care Costs

About 25 years ago, Andy Miller learned he had hypothyroidism, a condition that afflicts millions of other Americans. Curious about how this condition was affecting others, the KFF Health News journalist interviewed endocrinologists who treat hypothyroidism and several patients who live with it. Their stories revealed how mystifying thyroid and autoimmune conditions can be. (Oona […]

Florida (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images) Gobernador Ron DeSantisEdad: 45Población de Florida: 22.2 million California (Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images) Gobernador Gavin NewsomEdad: 56Población de California: 39 million El candidato presidencial republicano Ron DeSantis y el gobernador demócrata Gavin Newsom —rivales políticos y representantes de la América roja y azul— se […]

About 30% of Utah residents who were cut from Medicaid this year say they became uninsured, according to state officials who conducted a first-of-its-kind survey of people disenrolled from the program. Utah has dropped more than 130,000 out of about 500,000 Medicaid beneficiaries since April, after the federal government lifted a pandemic-era requirement that states […]

The last time I stepped on a plane for vacation, for fun, was more than three years ago. I haven’t been able to visit California, whose coast I adore. Nor Rome, where my husband and I lived for some time. And yet, I’m told, I’ve been on a journey. Two journeys, actually: First, a “traumatic […]

The day her Medicaid coverage ended, Beverly Likens was in the hospital after a scary trip to the emergency room. The Kentucky resident was diagnosed with severe anemia and given a blood transfusion after her hemoglobin levels had plummeted. Likens, 48 at the time, was days from having surgery to treat chronic uterine bleeding that […]

Reesha Ahmed was on cloud nine. It was January and Ahmed was at an OB-GYN’s office near her home in Venus, Texas, for her first prenatal checkup. After an ultrasound, getting anti-nausea medication, and discussing her pregnancy care plan, she said, a nurse made a convenient suggestion: Head to the lab just down the hall […]

Medical advances are expensive. Take Wegovy, the wildly successful obesity drug that we learned last week may also reduce the risk of heart disease. If just 10 percent of Medicare beneficiaries start taking the drug, taxpayers could be on the hook for nearly $27 billion a year.  So how can the country afford the latest […]

LOS ANGELES — June Voros sprang from her couch as a high-pitched beep warned her that she needed a quick dose of sugar. Her blood sugar was plummeting, and the beep came from a continuous glucose monitor attached to her abdomen. The small but powerful device alerts Voros when her blood sugar is dangerously high […]

In 2019, emergency medicine physician and historian Luke Messac was working as a medical resident. He had heard about hospitals suing their own patients over unpaid medical bills, so he decided to investigate whether the hospitals where he worked were doing the same. It turns out they were. “The care I was delivering to patients […]

El año pasado, el caballo de la familia pateó varias veces en el pecho a Megan, la hija de Jennifer Reisz. La estudiante universitaria cayó al suelo, incapaz de moverse ni hablar. Aunque estaba sola, su Apple Watch detectó su angustia y llamó al 911. La llevaron a un hospital en Clovis, una ciudad del […]