Category: Kaiser Health News

Eureka! Two Vaccines Work — But What About the Also-Rans in the Pharma Arms Race?

How two effective vaccines on the market make it so much harder to quickly test any competing vaccines.

Hospital Prices Just Got a Lot More Transparent. What Does This Mean for You?

Under a rule that kicked in Jan. 1, hospitals are required to make public the prices they negotiate with insurers. That’s a lot more information than was previously required, which was only the posting of “chargemasters” — the hospital-generated list prices that few consumers or health plans actually pay.

Children’s Hospitals Are Partly to Blame as Superbugs Increasingly Attack Kids

A growing body of research shows that overuse and misuse of antibiotics in children’s hospitals is helping fuel superbugs, which typically strike frail seniors but are increasingly infecting kids. And the pandemic is making things worse.

Heading Off the Next Pandemic

As long as humans encroach on nature, pandemics are inevitable — making it important to concentrate resources in areas where people and wildlife are linked.

‘Last Responders’ Brace for Surge in Covid Deaths Across US

In some parts of the country, the surge in covid cases is overwhelming coroners, morgues, funeral homes and religious leaders. It has required ingenuity and even changed the rituals of honoring the dead.

Seniors Face Crushing Drug Costs as Congress Stalls on Capping Medicare Out-Of-Pockets

While many private insurers cap what members pay in health costs, Medicare does not. Democrats and Republicans in Congress have proposed annual limits ranging from $2,000 to $3,100. But there’s disagreement about how to pay for that cost cap.

Video: The Healthy Nurse Who Died at 40 on the COVID Frontline: ‘She Was the Best Mom I Ever Had’

Yolanda Coar was 40 when she died of COVID-19 in August 2020 in Augusta, Georgia. She was also a nurse manager, and one of nearly 3,000 frontline workers who have died in the U.S. fighting this virus, according to an exclusive investigation by The Guardian and KHN.

Live Free or Die if You Must, Say Colorado Urbanites — But Not in My Hospital

In a fracas between a largely rural county and neighboring cities, class and politics are just as relevant as the coronavirus. People are getting “stupid and mean,” as one mayor put it.

In Fast-Moving Pandemic, Health Officials Try to Change Minds at Warp Speed

It typically takes years of persuasion to change habits in the name of health safety. Local officials who are stuck with the responsibility of enforcing statewide pandemic-related mandates are trying to transform behavior fast.

Analysis: Some Said the Vaccine Rollout Would Be a ‘Nightmare.’ They Were Right.

There are already signs that the distribution of the COVID vaccines will be messy, confusing and chaotic.