Health Care Costs

Marine Corps veteran Ron Winters clearly recalls his doctor’s sobering assessment of his bladder cancer diagnosis in August 2022. “This is bad,” the 66-year-old Durant, Oklahoma, resident remembered his urologist saying. Winters braced for the fight of his life. Little did he anticipate, however, that he wouldn’t be waging war only against cancer. He also […]

SAN DIEGO — Erinn Maury knew Remicade wasn’t the right drug for Patti Schulte, a rheumatoid arthritis patient the physician saw at her Millersville, Maryland, practice. Schulte’s swollen, painful joints hadn’t responded to Enbrel or Humira, two drugs in the same class. But the insurer insisted, so Schulte went on Remicade. It didn’t work either. […]

Over the past year there’s been movement to rein in the three big PBMs, which face little regulation though they help set drug prices and drug choices for 80 percent of Americans and their doctors. The House voted Dec. 11, 320-71, for legislation that would require the PBMs to change some of the ways they […]

In September 2022, Elyse Greenblatt of Queens returned home from a trip to Rwanda with a rather unwelcome-back gift: persistent congestion. She felt a pain in her sinuses and sought a quick resolution. Covid-19 couldn’t be ruled out, so rather than risk passing on an unknown infection to others in a waiting room, the New […]

Some hospitals sue patients over unpaid medical bills in bulk, sometimes by the hundreds of thousands. The defendants are often already facing financial hardship or even bankruptcy. Judgments against patients in these suits can derail someone’s life but, according to experts, they don’t bring hospitals much money. So why do hospitals do it? Host Dan […]

Across the country, Americans are losing their homes, emptying their retirement accounts, and struggling to feed and clothe their families because of medical debt. For two years, KFF Health News and NPR have been investigating this crisis through the “Diagnosis: Debt” project. The award-winning project has exposed the enormous scale of this problem, finding, among […]

Sharon Woodward used to travel the country as a medical technician. She made good money and prided herself on her skills. But in her mid-40s, Woodward retired after being diagnosed with a debilitating form of arthritis. Her condition required expensive drugs and regular medical care, which left her with more than $20,000 in medical debts. […]

The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner @julierovner.bsky.social Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A […]

Las autoridades de Colorado aseguran que su plan de importar medicamentos más baratos de Canadá se ha visto obstaculizado por la oposición de las farmacéuticas y la falta de acción por parte de la administración Biden, según un informe estatal obtenido por KFF Health News. El informe del 1 de diciembre, preparado para la legislatura […]

En una reciente tarde de noviembre, Angie Phoenix esperaba, en una farmacia de la segunda ciudad más grande de Colorado, para recoger los medicamentos con los que trata su hipertensión y las convulsiones que sufre en uno de sus brazos. Pero esta compra era diferente de las que ocurren cada día en miles de farmacias […]