Category: Kaiser Health News

Does the Federal Health Information Privacy Law Protect President Trump?

The president’s doctors have used HIPAA — the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act — as a shield to avoid questions about the president’s COVID-19 diagnosis.

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.

Lifetime Experiences Help Older Adults Build Resilience to Pandemic Trauma

These seniors use coping strategies to keep them socially active yet safe from the coronavirus.

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.

One School, Two Choices: A Study in Classroom vs. Distance Learning

Most students at one Marin County school attend in person, while a dozen study from home. Those on campus are constantly nagged to use hand sanitizer and submit to the thermometer. Home-schoolers yell to their parents for help, while the parents pray that Zoom doesn’t freeze.

‘No Mercy’ Chapter 2: Unimaginable, After a Century, That Their Hospital Would Close

After Mercy Hospital Fort Scott shut its doors, investigative reporter Sarah Jane Tribble traveled to Kansas and spent time with former hospital president Reta Baker and City Manager Dave Martin — to understand what their town lost.

‘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.

5 Things to Know About a COVID Vaccine: It Won’t Be a ‘Magic Wand’

Approval of a vaccine will be an important step in defeating COVID-19. But it won’t immediately end the pandemic.

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.