Latest California Healthline Stories
It’s Not Just You: Picking Health Insurance Is Hard. Here’s How To Be Smart About It.
It’s open enrollment season for health insurance. And choosing the best plan is tricky whether you have to buy insurance on your own or just figure out which plan to sign up for at work. Here’s what you need to know.
Must-Reads Of The Week From Brianna Labuskes
Newsletter editor Brianna Labuskes wades through hundreds of health care policy stories each week, so you don’t have to.
Analysis: Choosing A Plan From The Impossible Health Care Maze
In 21st-century US health care, everything is revenue, and so everything is billed.
Black Mothers Get Less Treatment For Postpartum Depression Than Other Moms
Cultural barriers may keep some African American women from seeking treatment for postpartum depression as early as they need it, and the standard screening tools aren’t always relevant for some black women.
Website Errors Raise Calls For Medicare To Be Flexible With Seniors’ Enrollment
Members of Congress and others complain Medicare’s revamped Plan Finder had problems. Federal officials say they can help consumers who got bad information change their plans next year. But details about how switching will work are yet to come.
‘Warm’ Hotlines Deliver Help Before Mental Health Crisis Heats Up
“Warmlines” are phone lines or electronic chat options for people who are not having a full-blown mental health crisis but who could use support to stave off one. They are a growing trend in mental health outreach to supplement existing hotlines, with one successful warmline in the Bay Area recently expanding to cover all of California.
KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: We Spend HOW MUCH On Health Care?
The annual accounting of national health spending is out. And the 2018 health bill for the U.S. was $3.6 trillion, consuming nearly a fifth of the nation’s economy. Meanwhile, Congress is nearing the end of the year without having finished either its annual spending bills or several other high-priority health items. Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews KHN’s Markian Hawryluk about the latest KHN-NPR “Bill of the Month.”
‘An Arm And A Leg’: How Much For Stitches In The ER? Hard To Gauge Upfront
Consumers are admonished to be “smart shoppers,” but that’s difficult if health care prices are clear as mud. When Sarah Macsalka’s son needed stitches, she did her best to avoid the ER and still ended up with a $3,000 bill.
As His Wife’s Caregiver, A Doctor Discovers What’s Missing At Health Care’s Core
Harvard psychiatrist Arthur Kleinman shed his “veil of ignorance” during 11 years serving as the primary family caregiver for his wife, who had a rare form of early Alzheimer’s disease. In a new book, “The Soul of Care,” he offers suggestions for transforming health care ― just as caregiving transformed him.
Pharma’s Take On The Pelosi Drug-Pricing Bill: Fair Warning Or Fearmongering?
The pharmaceutical industry’s argument that capping drug prices would compromise drug innovation stands “on very shaky ground.”