Health Care Costs

A recent story about why Northern California is the most expensive place in the country to have a baby began as a tip from an obstetrician. Dr. Sarah Azad told me that insurers were paying her just a third of what they pay doctors employed by large hospital systems in her town of Mountain View, […]

Family health insurance premiums rose an average 3 percent this year for people getting coverage through the workplace, the sixth consecutive year of small increases, according to a study released Tuesday. The average total cost of family premiums was $18,764 for 2017, according to a survey of employers by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the […]

This story also ran on NPR. This story can be republished for free (details). When high levels of lead were discovered in the public water system in Flint, Mich., in 2015, Medicaid stepped in to help thousands of children get tested for poisoning and receive care. This KHN special series examines the reach and the […]

SOBRE NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL Noticias en español es una sección de KFF Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos. Cuando se descubrieron altos niveles de plomo en el sistema público de agua en Flint, […]

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price resigned Friday, amid controversy over his use of private jets for official and personal business. He promised a day earlier to pay back some of the $400,000 spent on those flights, but the offer came too late for the Trump White House. In a statement released Friday afternoon, the […]

Paul Melquist of St. Paul, Minn., has a message for the people who wrote the Affordable Care Act: “Quit wrecking my health care.” Teri Goodrich, of Raleigh, N.C., has the same complaint. “We’re getting slammed. We didn’t budget for this,” she said. Millions of people have gained health insurance because of the federal health law. […]

President Donald Trump has collided with a wave of public disagreement by moving to strip the Affordable Care Act of provisions intended to keep insurance prices stable. In a poll conducted before Trump’s Thursday announcement of unilateral changes to the law, 71 percent of the public said they preferred the administration try to make the […]

Apparently frustrated by Congress’ inability to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act, President Donald Trump this week decided to take matters into his own hands. Late Thursday evening, the White House announced it would cease key payments to insurers. Earlier on Thursday, Trump signed an executive order aimed at giving people who buy their […]

The tax bill unveiled by Republicans in the House on Thursday would not, as had been rumored, eliminate the tax penalty for failure to have health insurance. But it would eliminate a decades-old deduction for people with very high medical costs. The controversial bill is an effort by Republicans to revamp the nation’s tax code […]

As soon as news surfaced last week about the potential merger of CVS Health and Aetna, all eyes turned to the looming threat from Amazon. The online retailer’s flirtation with the pharmacy business is a factor, no doubt. But many industry experts say CVS and Aetna have another huge competitor on their minds: UnitedHealth Group. […]