Latest California Healthline Stories
Malpractice Premiums Price Small Clinics Out of Gender-Affirming Care for Minors
Even in states where laws protect minors’ access to gender-affirming care, malpractice insurance premiums are keeping small and independent clinics from treating patients.
Older Americans Say They Feel Trapped in Medicare Advantage Plans
As enrollment in private Medicare Advantage plans grows, so do concerns about how well the insurance works, including from those who say they have become trapped in the private plans as their health declines.
Adultos mayores se sienten “atrapados” en planes de Medicare Advantage
Al parecer el programa de planes privados para adultos mayores comienza a presentar obstáculos cuando surgen enfermedades.
Most People Dropped in Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Never Tried to Renew Coverage, Utah Finds
Medicaid officials in Utah conducted a survey to answer a burning question in health policy: What happened to people dropped from the program in the post-pandemic “unwinding”?
Woman Petitions Health Insurer After Company Approves — Then Rejects — Her Infusions
Even people with good insurance aren’t guaranteed affordable care, as this California Healthline follow-up to one patient’s saga shows.
An Arm and a Leg: When Hospitals Sue Patients (Part 2)
Why do hospitals sue patients who can’t afford to pay their medical bills? On this episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” host Dan Weissmann investigates such lawsuits and covers new laws and regulations that may change this practice.
In Year 6, KFF Health News-NPR’s ‘Bill of the Month’ Helps Patients in a Changing System
In the sixth year of the KFF Health News-NPR’ “Bill of the Month” series, patients shared more than 750 tales of medical billing problems, and reporters analyzed more than $730,000 in charges — including more than $215,000 owed by 12 patients and their families.
Cancer Patients Face Frightening Delays in Treatment Approvals
Delaying cancer treatment can be deadly — which makes the roadblock-riddled process that health insurers use to approve or deny care particularly daunting for oncology patients.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': 2023 Is a Wrap
2023 was another busy year in health care. As the covid-19 pandemic waned, policymakers looked anew at long-standing obstacles to obtaining and paying for care in the nation’s health care system. Meanwhile, abortion has continued to be an issue in much of the nation, as states respond to the Supreme Court’s 2022 decision overturning the constitutional right to the procedure. This week, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, Sandhya Raman of CQ Roll Call, and Joanne Kenen of Johns Hopkins University and Politico Magazine join KFF Health News chief Washington correspondent Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and wrap up the year in health. Also this week, Rovner interviews KFF Health News’ Jordan Rau about his joint KFF Health News-New York Times series “Dying Broke.”
‘I Am Just Waiting to Die’: Social Security Clawbacks Drive Some Into Homelessness
The Social Security Administration is reclaiming billions of dollars in alleged overpayments from some of the nation’s poorest and most vulnerable, leaving some people homeless or struggling to stay in housing, beneficiaries and advocates say.