Category: NPR

There’s a growing fiscal crisis hitting cities, counties and states across the U.S. It’s all about generous retiree health benefits that historically haven’t been fully funded.

Legislation introduced in Texas this week would force the state’s health care providers and health insurers to mediate payment disputes before they send bills to patients.

The Senate failed to advance a bill that would regulate doctors’ care of babies who survive abortions. NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly talks with Washington Post reporter Mike DeBonis about the vote.

The CEOs of seven U.S. drug makers testified before the Senate Finance Committee on their pricing practices.

Most patients do fine, research suggests, when the lead surgeon steps away to begin another procedure. But patients who are older or have underlying medical conditions sometimes fare worse.

A Texas woman has pancreatic cancer. She’s spending most of her remaining days not trying to enjoy life, but on the phone, doing battle with insurers and billing departments.

Senators called pharmaceutical industry leaders to account for the high costs of medicine during Senate testimony. The executives deflected blame to insurance companies and middlemen.

Presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar are giving details of their health care proposals, the first big issue where 2020 hopefuls are differentiating themselves.

NPR’s Lulu Garcia-Navarro talks with Leana Wen, a physician and the president of Planned Parenthood, about how a rule change from the Trump administration on Title X will affect her organization.