Category: Kaiser Health News

Abortion Coverage Is Limited or Unavailable at a Quarter of Large Employers, KFF Survey Finds

A KFF survey of employer health benefits shows that 28% of large U.S. companies have limited or no access to abortion under company health insurance.

Covid Relief Payments Triggered Feds to Demand Money Back From Social Security Recipients

Some Social Security beneficiaries say the government is clawing back benefits after they received covid stimulus payments that were supposed to be exempt from asset limits

Pregnant and Addicted: Homeless Women See Hope in Street Medicine

As homelessness explodes across California, so does the number of expectant mothers on the streets. Street medicine doctors are getting paid more by Medicaid and offering some of those mothers-to-be a chance to overcome addiction and reverse chronic diseases so they can have healthy babies — and perhaps keep them.

Michigan Voters Backed Abortion Rights. Now Democrats Want to Go Further.

Michigan is one of the few remaining abortion havens in the Midwest. But getting an abortion in that state is still more difficult than it should be, providers say.

For People With Sickle Cell Disease, ERs Can Mean Life-Threatening Waits

When patients with sickle cell disease have a health crisis — crescent-shaped red blood cells blocking blood flow — their condition can quickly lead to a fatal stroke or infection. But, despite efforts to educate doctors, research shows that patients are waiting hours in ERs and are often denied pain medication.

Doctors Abandon a Diagnosis Used to Justify Police Custody Deaths. It Might Live On, Anyway.

The American College of Emergency Physicians agreed to withdraw its 2009 white paper on excited delirium, removing the only official medical pillar of support left for the theory that has played a key role in absolving police of culpability for in-custody deaths.

Medicare Enrollees Can Switch Coverage Now. Here’s What’s New and What to Consider.

Fall is the time when enrollees in the federal program for older people and people with certain disabilities can make changes to their health and drug plans. The decision can be complicated, but here are some key points to keep in mind.

Listen: Inroads for Women in California’s Health Care Workforce

KFF Health News senior correspondent Angela Hart leads a discussion about the role women play as California grapples with a shortage of health care providers.

A Third of Schools Don’t Have a Nurse. Here’s Why That’s a Problem.

School nurses treat children daily for a wide range of illnesses and injuries, and sometimes serve as a young patient’s only health provider. They also function as a point person for critical public health interventions. Yet many states don’t require them, and school districts struggle to hire them.

Rare ‘Flesh-Eating’ Bacterium Spreads North as Oceans Warm

A rise in cases of Vibrio vulnificus and its spread northward have heightened concern about the bacterium, which can cause human tissue to rot and skin to decay. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is trying to make more doctors aware of the dangerous pathogen.