Latest California Healthline Stories
Republican Debate Highlights Candidates’ Views on Abortion
Though health policies in general got little airtime, the discussion of whether candidates support a federal abortion ban underscored how Republicans, in a post-Roe environment, face political challenges on the issue.
A Peek at Big Pharma’s Playbook That Leaves Many Americans Unable to Afford Their Drugs
Brand-name drug prices in the U.S. — more than three times the price in other developed countries — are related neither to the amount of research and development required to bring them to market nor their therapeutic value, recent research shows. Have drugmakers overplayed their hand?
Sin barreras, los precios de algunos medicamentos existentes se han disparado, incluso cuando han caído drásticamente en otros países. Los nuevos medicamentos tienen precios enormes, respaldados por el lobby y el marketing.
Proposed Rule Would Make Hospital Prices Even More Transparent
A Biden administration proposal would help standardize the data on prices that hospitals provide to patients, increase its usefulness to consumers, and boost enforcement. Previous rules gave hospitals too many loopholes.
Your Exorbitant Medical Bill, Brought to You by the Latest Hospital Merger
After decades of unchecked mergers, health care is the land of giants, with huge medical systems monopolizing care in many cities, states, and even whole regions of the country. This decreases patient choice, impedes innovation, erodes quality of care, and raises prices. And federal regulators have been slow to act.
‘Conscience’ Bills Let Medical Providers Opt Out of Providing a Wide Range of Care
Opponents of the wave of state legislation say the measures place health providers’ preferences over patients’ rights.
Sen. Sanders Says Millions of People Can’t Find a Doctor. He’s Mostly Right.
The Vermont senator sees beefing up the primary care workforce as a critical step in expanding Americans’ access to health care.
In Wisconsin, Women’s Health Care Is Constricted by an 1849 Law. These Doctors Are Aghast.
From the front lines of Wisconsin’s abortion battle, obstetricians describe patients who cannot comprehend having to carry nonviable pregnancies. And only one pharmacist in town can be found who will fill prescriptions for abortion pills.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Another Try for Mental Health ‘Parity’
President Joe Biden is kicking off his reelection campaign in part by trying to finish a decades-long effort to establish parity in insurance benefits between mental and physical health. Meanwhile, House Republicans are working to add abortion and other contentious amendments to must-pass spending bills. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Anna Edney of Bloomberg, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent, Julie Rovner, to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Céline Gounder about her podcast “Epidemic.” The new season focuses on the successful public health effort to eradicate smallpox.
Congress Considers Easing Regulations on Air Transport of Donated Organs
A little-noticed provision of sweeping legislation to reauthorize the Federal Aviation Administration would make it easier to fly human organs from donor to recipient.