Category: Health Care Costs

Moved by Plight of Young Heart Patient, Stranger Pays His Hospital Bill

A retired college professor in Las Vegas saw Matthew Fentress’ story and felt called to help. So she paid off $5,000 of his medical bill. “When you help other people, it gives you joy,” the Good Samaritan said.

Refuge in the Storm? ACA’s Role as Safety Net Is Tested by COVID Recession

Relentlessly knocked around by politics and now headed again to the Supreme Court, the ACA is covering millions who have lost their jobs during the pandemic. But not everyone.

Fighting for Patient Protections While Attacking ACA — Hard to Have It Both Ways

Montana’s Matt Rosendale and many other Republican congressional candidates face the challenge of convincing voters they support safeguards on preexisting conditions even as they oppose the Affordable Care Act, which codifies those safeguards.

‘An Arm and a Leg’: TikTok Mom Takes On Medical Bills

Shaunna Burns went viral on TikTok, partly because of a series of videos dishing out real-talk advice on fighting outrageous medical bills.

Not Pandemic-Proof: Insulin Copay Caps Fall Short, Fueling Underground Exchanges

Although sharing prescription medicines is illegal, many people with diabetes are turning to underground donation networks when they cannot afford their insulin. Caps on insulin copays enacted in Colorado and 11 other states were designed to help. But the gaps between insulin costs and many patients’ financial realities are only widening amid the economic crisis of the COVID pandemic.

Trump’s COVID Program for Uninsured People: It Exists, but Falls Short

The help is real — but access to it isn’t easy.

KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Election Preview: What’s Next for Health?

How will health issues affect voter choices? What will happen if President Donald Trump is reelected or the White House goes to Joe Biden? In this special election preview episode, Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

Sky-High Drug Prices Driven by Pharma Profits, House Dems Charge

Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a damning investigation Wednesday of drug company pricing tactics and profits, as two days of hearings with testimony from pharmaceutical industry CEOs begin.

The First Presidential Debate: A Night of Rapid-Fire Interruptions and Inaccuracies

Tuesday night’s presidential debate offered voters their first side-by-side comparison of the candidates, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden.

Trump’s Executive Order on Preexisting Conditions Lacks Teeth, Experts Say

President Donald Trump’s executive order says that people with preexisting conditions can get affordable insurance. But it doesn’t explain how.