Latest California Healthline Stories
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health articles from the week so you don’t have to.
Facebook Live: What About Those Sky-High Air Ambulance Costs?
This Facebook Live discussion explores an aspect of the health care cost continuum that often flies below the radar.
Spending Against Dialysis Ballot Measure In California Nears Record
Dialysis companies have contributed more than $104 million to defeat an initiative on California’s Nov. 6 ballot that would limit their profits — and are on the cusp of breaking the $109 million record set by the pharmaceutical industry in 2016.
Podcast: KHN’s ‘What The Health?’ Republicans’ Preexisting Political Problem
In this episode of KHN’s “What the Health?” Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call, Stephanie Armour of The Wall Street Journal and Joanne Kenen of Politico discuss how protections for people with preexisting conditions have become a top issue in the elections, Trump administration efforts to make prescription drug prices more public and the start of Medicare’s annual open-enrollment period. Plus, Rovner interviews California Attorney General Xavier Becerra.
As Billions In Tax Dollars Flow To Private Medicaid Plans, Who’s Minding The Store?
Insurance companies profit from government contracts but are subject to little oversight of how they spend the money or care for patients. The expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act has only exacerbated the problem.
Health Care Tops Guns, Economy As Voters’ Top Issue
Nearly three-quarters of voters say that health care is the most important issue for them, but fewer than half are hearing much from candidates about it, according to a poll released by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Mysterious Polio-Like Illness Baffles Medical Experts While Frightening Parents
Federal health officials are investigating 127 cases of the disease, called acute flaccid myelitis, or AFM.
Family Doctors ‘Not Doing Enough’ To Curb STDs
As rates of sexually transmitted diseases surge, public health officials want primary care doctors to step up screening and treatment of patients.
Medicare For All? CMS Chief Warns Program Has Enough Problems Already
Seema Verma, who heads the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, tells private insurance officials that a push by some Democrats to expand Medicare would only increase troubles the program already faces.
FDA Allows Food Makers To Fortify Corn Masa To Halt Birth Defects, But Few Do
The decision aimed at adding folic acid — a vitamin that can prevent devastating neural tube defects — to flours, chips and tortillas hasn’t caught on with many makers of widely used corn products.
