Latest California Healthline Stories
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': On Capitol Hill, RFK Defends Firings at CDC
Just days after his firing of the brand-new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a defiant Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the U.S. secretary of health and human services, defended that action and others before a sometimes skeptical Senate Finance Committee. Criticism of Kennedy’s increasingly anti-vaccine actions came not just from Democrats on […]
RFK Jr. Faces Senate Finance Committee: A Live Discussion
KFF Health News’ Stephanie Armour, Julie Rovner, and Arthur Allen and KFF’s Josh Michaud discuss the biggest takeaways from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s hearing before the Senate Finance Committee.
Listen: Limiting Benefits and Adding Restrictions, ‘MAHA’ Reshapes Food Aid
The White House and congressional Republicans have made historic changes to the federal anti-hunger program SNAP. They say the changes will boost healthy eating for low-income Americans. Some nutrition experts aren’t so sure.
Listen: As Kids Head Back to School, Parents Sort Out Confusion Over Vaccine Access
Confusion over federal immunization policy could have major implications for how families with private insurance and Medicaid pay for routine vaccinations. Some doctors are encouraging parents not to wait and get their children shots as soon as they are eligible.
An Insurer Agreed To Cover Her Surgery. A Politician’s Nudge Got the Bills Paid.
A kindergartner in Missouri needed eye surgery. Her insurer granted approval for her to see a specialist nearby, yet her parents were confused when they still owed more than $13,000. Then her uncle, a former state senator, reached out to a colleague who contacted the hospital and the insurer.
Blue States That Sued Kept Most CDC Grants, While Red States Feel Brunt of Trump Clawbacks
The Trump administration’s cuts of public health funds to state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of where someone lives, a new KFF Health News analysis shows.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Happy 60th, Medicare and Medicaid!
This summer marks the 60th anniversary of Medicare and Medicaid, the twin government programs that have shaped the health care system into what it is today. In this special episode, KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner interviews two experts on the history, significance, and future of these programs: Medicare historian and University of North Carolina professor Jonathan Oberlander and George Washington University professor emerita Sara Rosenbaum, who has studied Medicaid since nearly its beginning and has helped shape Medicaid policy over the past four decades.
KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Trump Further Politicizes Science
President Donald Trump’s latest executive order about science and medicine seeks to take funding decisions out of the hands of career scientists and give them to political appointees instead. And a gunman, reportedly disgruntled over covid vaccines, shoots at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, killing a law enforcement officer. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Shefali Luthra of The 19th, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KFF Health News’ Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Aaron Carroll, president and CEO of the health services research group AcademyHealth, about how to restore the public’s trust in public health.
An Arm and a Leg: A Wild Health Insurance Hustle
A couple in New York thought they bought insurance. Instead, they got fake “jobs.”
Listen: Regulatory Rollbacks and Federal Layoffs Threaten America’s Food Supply
The Trump administration’s anti-regulatory approach and cost-cutting moves risk unraveling the system of checks and balances that helps ensure the safety of the U.S. food supply, say consumer advocates and former employees of the FDA and Department of Agriculture.