Latest California Healthline Stories
Headed Away to School? Here’s What Students With Health Issues Need to Know
College and grad students with chronic health conditions as common as asthma and diabetes may need to clear hurdles to make sure their health needs are covered by insurance if they go to school far from home.
Watch: More Long-Covid Cases Seen in Kids
While covid is generally mild in children, doctors report a growing number of long-haul covid symptoms and MIS-C cases, particularly among Black and Latino children.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: Here Comes Reconciliation
Democrats in Congress reached a tentative agreement to press ahead on a partisan bill that would dramatically expand health benefits for people on Medicare, those who buy their own insurance and individuals who have been shut out of coverage in states that didn’t expand Medicaid. Meanwhile, controversy continues to rage over whether vaccinated Americans will need a booster to protect against covid-19 variants, and who will pay for a new drug to treat Alzheimer’s disease. Rachel Cohrs of Stat and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, Rovner interviews KHN’s Rae Ellen Bichell, who reported and wrote the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month” episode about a mother and daughter who fought an enormous emergency room bill.
Senate Democrats’ Plan Boosts Spending on Medicare, ACA Subsidies, Long-Term Care
The plan from high-wire negotiations would affect five key areas of health, but there will be further tense negotiations among Democratic lawmakers about specifics of the $3.5 trillion in funding. And all Senate Democrats will need to be behind the plan, because Republicans oppose it.
Children and Covid: Journalists Explore Grief and Vaccine Side Effects
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here’s a collection of their appearances.
Biden Quietly Transforms Medicaid Safety Net
In a sharp shift from Trump-era policies, President Joe Biden looks at expanding Medicaid eligibility to new mothers, inmates and undocumented immigrants and adding services such as food and housing.
Discretamente, Biden está transformando la red de seguridad de Medicaid
Los esfuerzos de Biden, que han sido eclipsados en gran medida por otras iniciativas económicas y de salud, representan un cambio abrupto en contra de todo lo que la administración Trump hizo para reducir el programa.
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The ACA Lives
In a surprisingly strong 7-2 decision, the Supreme Court turned back the latest constitutional challenge to the Affordable Care Act, likely heralding the end of GOP efforts to strike the law in its entirety through court action. Meanwhile, Democratic lawmakers are looking for ways to expand health benefits. Joanne Kenen of Politico, Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call and Rachel Cohrs of Stat join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also, Rovner interviews Andy Slavitt, who recently stepped down from the Biden administration’s covid response team, about his new book on the pandemic.
Supreme Court Declines to Overturn ACA — Again
Justices rule that Republican state officials and individuals did not have standing when they brought a suit arguing that a change in the tax penalty for not having insurance invalidated the historic health care law.
Unused Johnson & Johnson Covid Doses Are Piling Up as FDA Waits to See if Shelf Life Can Be Extended
As vaccine expiration dates loom, states with hundreds of thousands of doses on hand say demand is tanking and there’s no easy way to donate to other states or countries that might want them