The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Visit for an archive of reporting prior to October 2025.
1,461 - 1,480 of 1,912 Results
A new study shows that educational sessions about high blood pressure at African American barbershops, coupled with prescribing and helping to manage medication, reduced hypertension rates significantly.
Begun as a health care safety net for children and low-income families, Medicaid increasingly underwrites a range of services in America’s public schools.
California lawmakers are considering a bill that would require student health centers at all of the state’s four-year public universities to carry the abortion pill. Students at campuses across the state sounded off on the proposal.
The effort, overseen by the county’s health services department, aims to improve care for a population with high rates of chronic disease, mental illness and drug addiction.
Saving the lives of people with the bleeding disorder can require high doses of expensive blood-clotting factor. Taxpayers foot much of the bill as manufacturers profit enormously.
State says its new site is easier to navigate, though it remains a work in progress. Advocates for nursing home patients call it “a huge step in the wrong direction” that could endanger people’s lives.
California officials should have obtained federal approval before they cut reimbursement rates for dental hygienists who serve frail Californians living in nursing homes and board-and-care facilities, a judge has ruled.
California’s health insurers trotted out a heart-healthy character with an ulterior motive — taking a dig at drugmakers.
When President Donald Trump signed the nation’s new tax law, he also killed the Affordable Care Act’s tax penalty — but not until 2019. Despite widespread confusion, experts caution that consumers still need to pay the tax penalty if they were uninsured last year or will be this year.
Vaccinations rates have climbed significantly among hospital workers in recent years, to 83 percent. But that rate masks wide variation among facilities and types of workers. Nationally, the rules are far from uniform or ironclad.
How a California health plan’s CEO and her husband, an executive consultant, got rich off the taxpayer-funded program for the poor. Critics see a conflict of interest, the plan doesn’t, and the state has no rules either way.
A multistate nursing agreement allows nurses to work in numerous states without the hassle and expense of obtaining licenses in each one. More than half of states have signed onto an upgraded version of the agreement — but not California.
Citing fears of losing federal funds, California is the latest state to require discharge of terminally ill residents from state veterans homes if they plan to end their lives with lethal drugs.
A package of mental health bills in California aims to ensure that all new moms are screened for postpartum depression and that more support is available for those who struggle with the malady.
Some mothers who smoke pot see it as a harmless remedy for everything from pain to postpartum depression. But doctors say the active ingredients in marijuana can be passed onto the baby and may affect developing nervous systems.
California’s family leave program allows people to get time off to care for a new child or sick relative. The wage replacement rate rises this year.
An onslaught of fires, shootings and storms across the country last year tested hospital readiness. Now, leaders are using their experiences to address shortcomings that surfaced amid the chaos.
At a panel discussion this week in Sacramento, patients, caregivers and others shared their perspectives on how Alzheimer’s disease affects women, who account for two-thirds of those living with the condition.
The Haight Ashbury Free Clinic still serves people living on the fringes in San Francisco. This radio story recounts its 51-year history.
More than 7 million California adults enrolled in Medi-Cal regained coverage for critical dental care, including crowns and partial dentures, this month.
© 2026 KFF