Health Care Costs

California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators in Sacramento seem to agree: Prescription drug prices are too high. But lawmakers and the second-term governor are at odds over what to do about it, and a recent proposal could trigger one of the biggest health care battles in Sacramento this year. A California bill awaiting its […]

Prices for brand-name drugs in the U.S. are three times what the same drugs cost in other countries. And in a recent KFF survey, 3 in 10 adults reported not taking their medicine as prescribed at some point in the past year because of costs. “An Arm and a Leg” is collecting stories from listeners […]

HAVANA, Florida. — Para ser una comunidad rural, este pueblo de 1,750 habitantes ha sido más afortunado que la mayoría. Aquí ha ejercido un médico de familia durante los últimos 30 años. Pero eso se acabó en diciembre cuando Mark Newberry se jubiló. Para atraer a un nuevo médico, los líderes de Havana publicaron anuncios […]

One August afternoon in 2023, Angela Martin’s cousin called with alarming news. Martin’s 74-year-old aunt had been mauled by four dogs while out for a walk near her home in rural Purlear, North Carolina. She was bleeding heavily from bites on both legs and her right arm, where she’d tried to protect her face and […]

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte’s administration is reviving efforts to do away with a panel that hears appeals from people who were denied public assistance to afford basics such as food and health care. The effort, billed as a way to reduce red tape in government, would leave district court as the only option outside of […]

KFF Health News’ Phil Galewitz explained why some states turn to laundromats to reach residents who qualify for programs such as Medicaid on WAMU’s “Health Hub” on Feb. 5, 2025. SUITLAND, Md. — At a SuperSuds Laundromat just south of Washington, D.C., a steady stream of customers loaded clothes into washers and dryers on a […]

Gloria Sachdev has spent years challenging the health care industry, trying to bring down the high cost of care. It’s working, even in an unlikely place: Indiana, which has had some of the nation’s highest hospital prices. Over the past few years, Indiana lawmakers have passed bills pushed by Sachdev that target complex and sometimes […]

WALHALLA, S.C. — Nestled in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a small primary care clinic run by Clemson University draws patients from across the region. Many are Hispanic and uninsured, and some are willing to travel from other counties, bypassing closer health care providers, just to be seen by Michelle Deem, the clinic’s […]

Shannon Sharpe was having one of those 15-minutes-of-internet-infamy moments. Social media blew up in September after the retired Denver Broncos tight end — accidentally, he later said — broadcast some of his intimate activities online. One of his sponsors took advantage of the moment: the telehealth company Ro, which sells a variety of prescription medicines […]

Every year, a health care think tank called the Lown Institute ranks the 10 worst examples of “profiteering and dysfunction” in health care and “honors” the winners. The “Shkreli Awards” are a kind of Oscars for the most outrageous examples of greed, fraud, and general brokenness in American health care. The awards are named after […]