Health Care Costs

“You had to pay the fee, or the doctor wasn’t going to see you anymore.” That was the takeaway for Terri Marroquin of Midland, Texas, when her longtime physician began charging a membership fee in 2019. She found out about the change when someone at the physician’s front desk pointed to a posted notice. At […]

Dancing at Birnamwood Polka Days, a festival in Birnamwood, Wisconsin.(Angela Hart/KFF Health News) Polka festivals are common across Wisconsin, especially in the summertime.(Angela Hart/KFF Health News) At Birnamwood Polka Days, candidates for local and state office often mingle with voters.(Angela Hart/KFF Health News) BIRNAMWOOD, Wis. — The land of fried cheese curds and the Green […]

LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles County supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to buy up and forgive millions of dollars in medical debt as part of a comprehensive plan to tackle a $2.9 billion burden that weighs on almost 800,000 residents. The measure, authored by supervisors Janice Hahn and Holly Mitchell, allows the county to enter into […]

Some people who expected their health insurance to cover some out-of-network care have been getting stuck with enormous bills. One Kansas City, Kansas, couple paid thousands of dollars out-of-pocket and up-front for care. They expected to get a partial reimbursement from their insurer. So, they were shocked when instead they got a bill saying they […]

One evening last December, Tieqiao Zhang felt severe stomach pain. After it subsided later that night, he thought it might be food poisoning. When the pain returned the next morning, Zhang realized the source of his pain might not be as “simple as bad food.” He didn’t want to wait for an appointment with his […]

Arizona and Florida lawmakers saw trouble ahead for children in 2023, with states slated — as the covid-19 pandemic waned — to resume disenrolling ineligible people from Medicaid. So, legislators in both states voted to expand a safety net known as the Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, which covers those 18 and younger in […]

Wisconsin, the land of fried cheese curds and the Green Bay Packers, is one of a half-dozen key battleground states where President Biden is trying to make health care a key issue in his expected November matchup with former president Donald Trump. Biden narrowly won Wisconsin in 2020, after it went for Trump in 2016. […]

Pronto a los consumidores podría no preocuparles que las deudas médicas afecten sus puntajes de crédito, bajo las regulaciones federales propuestas recientemente por la Oficina de Protección Financiera del Consumidor (CFPB). Si se promulgan, estas reglas ampliarían drásticamente las protecciones para decenas de millones de estadounidenses agobiados por facturas médicas que no pueden pagar. Las […]

If the Affordable Care Act were terminated, “that would mean over a hundred million Americans will lose protections for preexisting conditions.” President Joe Biden in a campaign advertisement, May 8 President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign wants voters to contrast his record on health care policy with his predecessor’s. In May, Biden’s campaign began airing a […]

Americans would no longer have to worry about medical debts dragging down their credit scores under federal regulations proposed Tuesday by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. If enacted, the rules would dramatically expand protections for tens of millions of Americans burdened by medical bills they can’t afford. The regulations would also fulfill a pledge by […]