One morning this summer, a 9-year-old girl from El Salvador picked through colorful markers at a Houston-area shelter for migrant children and crafted a letter to her mom. “I want to be with you already,” the little girl, M.R., wrote in misspelled, unpunctuated Spanish, adding hearts, a rainbow, and a large “I love you” surrounded…
In the summer of 2022, Allison Mertzman and her wife, Leanne, asked their fertility clinic to destroy their embryos. The married couple were living in California but storing their nine embryos for $3,000 per year at the clinic in Michigan, where Mertzman had resided before. After having two daughters through in vitro fertilization, the couple…
By KIM BELLARD I once again have to thank The New York Times for introducing me to a new concept. Sarah Kessler wrote about the rise of “legal engineering” – for which, it turns out, one doesn’t have to be either a lawyer or an engineer. Their role is to help integrate A.I. into the…
(Oona Zenda/KFF Health News) As Grace Griffin and her husband were welcoming their long-awaited baby — a daughter — Griffin found herself worried about looming medical bills and unsure if their family could pay for the care they needed. “This whole experience has me wondering (keeping me up at night, actually): Can we ever afford…
TAKOMA PARK, Md. — Friday night lights took on a whole new meaning at a high school here in this suburb of Washington, D.C. Instead of fans packing stadium bleachers to watch football, on this recent October weekend the gymnasium, hallways, and parking areas were jammed with people desperately seeking healthcare at a free pop-up…
When U.S. Rep. David Valadao defended voting for a bill aimed at reducing Medicare spending by billions, the Republican noted his role in securing a key provision that will require some adult beneficiaries to work — a mandate he called “not an unreasonable ask.” But the voters in his California Central Valley district, home to…
After years of searching for affordable health insurance, Trey Wright discovered Georgia Pathways to Coverage. The state’s limited Medicaid expansion program allowed the 27-year-old living in the rural city of Jesup in southeastern Georgia to finally visit a primary care doctor regularly. It also covered weekly shots to manage an array of allergies, saving him…
Millions of Medicare enrollees who buy stand-alone prescription drug plans will see their average monthly premiums rise by 50% in 2027, a new analysis finds. But enrollees can avoid the average increase — from $34 a month to $51 — by switching to lower-cost plans during the program’s open enrollment period, which runs through Dec….
What’s scarier than ghosts and goblins? How about measles, unaffordable dental care, and an insurance claim denied by artificial intelligence? Nearly 80 healthcare-themed haikus crept into our inbox this Halloween season. Meet the winners of KFF Health News’ eighth annual Halloween haiku contest below. Follow KFF Health News’ social media accounts (X, Instagram, and Facebook)…
Chris McQueen finished treatment for leukemia a year and a half ago, but the ads for fake cures never stopped. Juice cleanses to cure cancer, “natural” cancer treatments, clinics in Mexico promising full recovery with little chemotherapy — all appeared on McQueen’s mobile phone during routine oncologist visits and monthly bloodwork. McQueen and others have…