Latest California Healthline Stories
Trump Team’s Reworking Delays Billions in Broadband Build-Out
A Trump administration reworking of a $42 billion broadband expansion program will trigger delays as millions of rural Americans wait for promised connections and the telehealth services they bring.
Watch: In a ‘Dead Zone,’ Doctors Don’t Practice and Telehealth Doesn’t Reach
Chief rural health correspondent Sarah Jane Tribble explains how millions of rural Americans live in counties with doctor shortages and where high-speed internet connections aren’t adequate to access advanced telehealth services.
Flawed Federal Programs Maroon Rural Americans in Telehealth Blackouts
Taxpayers — through federal infrastructure programs — have paid billions of dollars to internet companies to hook up rural Americans. Some communities have nothing to show for it, leaving medically vulnerable rural patients disconnected and without access to telehealth.
Rural Hospitals and Patients Are Disconnected From Modern Care
Technological gaps handicap rural hospitals as billions in federal funding to modernize infrastructure lags. The reliance on outdated technology and piecemeal systems challenge staffs and erode patient care.
Congressman Blames Trump for Ending Telehealth Medicare Benefit. That’s Not Quite Right.
Rep. Ro Khanna of California warned of Trump administration “cuts” to Medicare telehealth access hitting March 31. But if Medicare recipients lose telemedicine benefits that day, it will be because Congress failed to act.
Millions in US Live in Places Where Doctors Don’t Practice and Telehealth Doesn’t Reach
Nearly 3 million Americans live sicker, shorter lives in the hundreds of rural counties where doctor shortages are the worst and poor internet connections mean little or no access to telehealth services.
Telehealth Companies Boost Ad Spending While Taking on More Complex Medicine
Telehealth startups including Ro and Nurx are spending millions to promote themselves as easy dispensers of medicines. Some companies offer care for birth control, sexual dysfunction, and more complex conditions, including behavioral health disorders and obesity.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': End-of-Year Chaos on Capitol Hill
Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate successfully negotiated an enormous end-of-Congress health package, including bipartisan efforts to address prescription drug prices — only to see it blown up at the last minute after Elon Musk and President-elect Donald Trump applied pressure. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court accepted its first abortion-related case of the term, and the attorney general of Texas sued a doctor in New York for prescribing abortion pills to a Texas patient. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Victoria Knight of Axios join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF President and CEO Drew Altman about what happened in health policy in 2024 and what to expect in 2025.
Abortion Clinics — And Patients — Are on the Move, as State Laws Keep Shifting
Clinics in states where most abortions are legal, such as Kansas and Illinois, are reporting an influx of inquiries from patients hundreds of miles away — and are expanding in response. Despite the Supreme Court’s overturning of federal protections in 2022, abortions are now at their highest numbers in a decade.
Las clínicas de abortos, y sus pacientes, se movilizan a medida que cambian las leyes estatales
El fallo de la Corte dejó en manos de los estados las políticas sobre el aborto. Desde entonces, 14 estados promulgaron prohibiciones a la práctica que contemplan unas pocas excepciones, mientras que otros han restringido el acceso.