Fight Over Health Care Minimum Wage Yields a Split Decision in Southern California
Voters in Inglewood were poised to approve a union-backed $25 minimum wage for workers at private hospitals and facilities, while Duarte voters rejected it.
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How Banks and Private Equity Cash In When Patients Can’t Pay Their Medical Bills
Hospitals strike deals with financing companies, generating profits for lenders, and more debt for patients.
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Blackfeet Nation Challenges Montana Ban on Vaccine Mandates as Infringement on Sovereignty
The Montana tribe has entered a legal fight over whether the state has the right to enforce a prohibition of vaccine mandates on its reservation.
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The Player-Coaches of Addiction Recovery Work Without Boundaries
States, tribes, and local governments are figuring out how best to spend billions of dollars from an opioid lawsuit settlement. One option they’re considering is funding peer support specialists, who guide people recovering from addiction as they do it themselves.
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How Optimism Can Close the Medicaid Coverage Gap
Low-income residents in states that haven’t expanded Medicaid are in a tough spot: They don’t qualify for the subsidies that people with slightly higher incomes get to buy marketplace plans because of a glitch in the federal health law. But a court decision last year makes it easier for them to make good-faith estimates of a pay increase, and there is no financial penalty if they don’t hit that figure.
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Watch: As Health Costs Spike, the Role of Hospitals Often Gets Overlooked
A new documentary, “InHospitable,” explores how disputes between big hospitals can leave patients with few options for care and imperil their health.
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Patients Complain Some Obesity Care Startups Offer Pills, and Not Much Else
A new wave of obesity care startups offer access to new weight loss medications. But do they offer good health care?
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Medicare Plan Finder Likely Won’t Note New $35 Cap on Out-of-Pocket Insulin Costs
In August, Congress approved a $35 cap on what seniors will pay for insulin, but that change came too late to add to the online tool that helps Medicare beneficiaries compare dozens of drug and medical plans. Federal officials say beneficiaries who use insulin will have the opportunity to switch plans after open enrollment ends Dec. 7.
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Sick Profit: Investigating Private Equity’s Stealthy Takeover of Health Care Across Cities and Specialties
Private equity firms have shelled out almost $1 trillion to acquire nearly 8,000 health care businesses, in deals almost always hidden from federal regulators. The result: higher prices, lawsuits, and complaints about care.
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Thousands of Experts Hired to Aid Public Health Departments Are Losing Their Jobs
As the covid-19 pandemic raged, an independent nonprofit tied to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention hired an army of seasoned professionals to fill the gaps in the country’s public health system. Now, the money has largely run out, and state and local health departments are again without their expertise.
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California Stockpiles Penalties From Uninsured Residents Instead of Lowering Care Costs
California is collecting hundreds of millions of dollars a year in tax penalties from uninsured residents. The state was supposed to use the money to help lower costs for Californians who couldn’t afford insurance but hasn’t distributed any of the revenue it has collected — citing uncertain economic times.
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‘Impending Intergenerational Crisis’: Americans With Disabilities Lack Long-Term Care Plans
Many Americans with intellectual and developmental disabilities do not have long-term plans for when family members can no longer care for them. Families, researchers, and advocates worry that has set the stage for a crisis in which people with disabilities could end up living in institutional settings.
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‘An Arm and a Leg’: No Money, No Job, No Health Care? Not Always.
For many Americans, it’s open enrollment season for 2023 health insurance. One listener asked: If you don’t have a job and are too old to be on your parents’ plan, does it make sense to rely on charity care? This episode breaks it all down.
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Journalists Tackle the Midterms and Open Enrollment
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
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KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Midterm Shake-Up
Election night went better than expected for Democrats. Although they could still lose control of one or both houses of Congress, the predicted “red wave” for Republicans failed to materialize. Meanwhile, voters in both red and blue states approved ballot measures to protect abortion rights. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these topics and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Carolee Lee, the former jewelry magnate, about her efforts to boost gender equity in medical research.
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Fentanyl in High School: A Texas Community Grapples With the Reach of the Deadly Opioid
The first fentanyl-related deaths of students in an area south of Austin, Texas, were reported over the summer. The school district, parents, and students are trying to deal with the aftermath.
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Homelessness Among Older People Is on the Rise, Driven by Inflation and the Housing Crunch
In Montana and across the nation, homeless shelters are reporting that people older than 60 are a growing proportion of their populations.
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Stopping the Churn: Why Some States Want to Guarantee Medicaid Coverage From Birth to Age 6
Oregon has become the first state to allow kids to stay in the government health care program from birth to age 6, no matter if their household income changes. California, Washington, and New Mexico are pursuing similar policies.
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South Dakota Voters Approved Medicaid Expansion, but Implementation May Not Be Easy
South Dakotans voted to expand the state’s Medicaid program to cover thousands of additional low-income residents. But as other conservative states have shown, voter approval doesn’t always mean politicians and administrators will rush to implement the change.
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Abortion Issue Helps Limit Democrats’ Losses in Midterms
Although control of Congress was still undecided Wednesday, Republicans seemed poised to take power in the House, while the fate of the Senate remained too close to call. Economic issues were at the top of voters’ minds, but abortion access also played a large role in their decisions.
