The U.S. public health system has long been under strain, stymied by declines in funding as well as employees. And so state and local public health departments around the nation — tasked with monitoring and responding to disease outbreaks that threaten to sicken the masses — have relied on workers from the Centers for Disease…
In Washington’s debate over enacting steep funding cuts to Medicaid, words are a central battleground. Many Republican lawmakers and conservative policy officials who want to scale back the joint state-federal health program are using charged language to describe it. Language experts and advocates for Medicaid enrollees say their word choice is misleading and aims to…
Panelists at a covid conference last fall were asked to voice their regrets — policies they had supported during the pandemic but had come to see as misguided. Covid contact tracing, one said. Closing schools, another said. Vaccine mandates, a third said. When Marty Makary’s turn came, the Johns Hopkins University surgeon said, “I can’t…
A paper by Ng, Zhang and Kowal (2025) use the American Community Survey (ACS) data from 2016–2022 were used to construct Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). SVI is calculated from 16 social determinants of health (SDoH) variables that are grouped into 4 themes: socioeconomic status, household characteristics, racial and ethnic minority status, and housing type &…
The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner Read Julie’s stories. Julie Rovner is chief Washington correspondent and host of KFF Health News’ weekly health policy news podcast, “What the Health?” A noted expert on health policy issues, Julie is the author of the critically praised reference book “Health Care Politics and Policy A to…
TUSTIN, Calif. — Cynthia Williams is furious with U.S. House Republicans willing to slash Medicaid, the government-run insurance program for people with low incomes or disabilities. The 61-year-old Anaheim resident cares for her adult daughter, who is blind, and for her sister, a military veteran with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental health conditions….
A dozen people seated around folding tables clap heartily for a beaming woman: She’s donated two 13-gallon garbage bags full of clothes, including several Christmas sweaters and a couple of pantsuits, to a Presbyterian church. A closet cleanout might not seem a significant accomplishment. But as the people in this Sunday-night class can attest, getting…
By ARIEL FRISTOE As the artistic director of Out of Hand Theater, an arts organization that promotes anti-racism, social activism and health equity, I believe the recent appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. (RFK) as Secretary to the Department of Health and Human Services is beyond concerning. RFK is not a doctor, nor is he…
This is the title of a recent paper by Jiao et al. (2025). Previous studies (e.g., Goldman et al. 2013, Goldman et al. 2023) have argued for a 3-part pricing model. Under a 3-part pricing model, drugs would come to market quickly under accelerated approval with a relatively lower price. As clinical trials and other…