Health Care Costs

Republicans in Congress have suggested big cuts to Medicaid. But what exactly is it? Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities, is integral to the U.S. health care system. It keeps hospitals and other providers afloat, provides a key source of federal funds to states, and helps provide health […]

HELENA, Mont. — Despite concerns about what Congress and the Trump administration might have planned for Medicaid, Montana’s Republican-led legislature and GOP governor appear ready to keep the state’s Medicaid expansion program in place beyond its scheduled end date this summer. State lawmakers don’t have the luxury of waiting until the federal picture sharpens. They […]

Congressional lawmakers are facing tricky arithmetic as they hammer out a budget plan to finance President Donald Trump’s agenda.  Republicans need to free up roughly $4 trillion to pay for renewing Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which expire at the end of the year. Trump has vowed not to touch the costliest government programs, including Medicare […]

In January, during a congressional hearing on his way to becoming secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got basic details wrong about Medicaid — a program he now oversees. He said that Medicaid is fully funded by the federal government (it’s not) and that many enrollees are unsatisfied […]

En enero, durante una audiencia en el Congreso en su camino a convertirse en secretario del Departamento de Salud y Servicios Humanos (HHS), Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dio información errónea sobre cuestiones básicas de Medicaid, un programa que ahora supervisa.  En ese momento, afirmó que a Medicaid lo financia por completo el gobierno federal (no […]

When Colleen Henderson’s 3-year-old daughter complained of pain while using the bathroom, doctors brushed it off as a urinary tract infection or constipation, common maladies in the potty-training years. After being told her health insurance wouldn’t cover an ultrasound, Henderson charged the $6,000 procedure to her credit card. Then came the news: There was a […]

McMINNVILLE, Tenn. — Each month, Michelle Shaw went to a pain clinic to get the shots that made her back feel worse — so she could get the pills that made her back feel better. Shaw, 56, who has been dependent on opioid painkillers since she injured her back in a fall a decade ago, […]

Collection agents for the state of Iowa have sent letters seeking millions of dollars from the estates of at least two people with disabilities who died after spending most of their lives in a state institution. The amounts represent what Medicaid spent covering the residents’ care when they lived at the Glenwood Resource Center, a […]

President Donald Trump’s return to the White House sent a clear signal about Medicaid to Republicans across the country: Requiring enrollees to prove they are working, volunteering, or going to school is back on the table. The day after Trump’s inauguration, South Carolina GOP Gov. Henry McMaster asked federal officials to approve a work requirement […]

Nothing sweeps us off our feet like a health policy valentine. Readers showed their love this season, writing poetic lines about surprise medical bills, bird flu, the cost of health care, and more.  Here are some of our favorites, starting with the grand prize winner, whose entry was turned into a cartoon by staff illustrator […]