In the U.S., health insurance premiums are tax deductible–if paid through out of pocket expenses–but out-of-pocket expenses are not. However, there are exceptions to this rule. These include two often-used tax-favored accounts: Flexible savings accounts (FSA). These accounts allow employees to set aside a portion of their pretax income to cover qualified medical expenses; however,…
En lo que se ha convertido en un patrón de diseminación de desinformación sobre las vacunas, el Departamento de Salud de Florida está aconsejando a sus residentes mayores y a otros en mayor riesgo de covid-19 que eviten la mayoría de los refuerzos, asegurando que son potencialmente peligrosos. Clínicos y científicos denuncian este mensaje como…
Every year more than 10,000 taxpayer-supported public housing units are lost to disrepair. But federal lawmakers routinely ignore the full amount, around $115 billion, needed to keep the units in “decent, safe and sanitary” condition. One-time funds for public housing repairs were cut from the final version of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act to appeal…
On March 30, 2019, a swerving car upended Tom Burke’s life. Severely injured after the crash, Burke was airlifted from the Fort Liberty U.S. Army base in North Carolina to UNC Medical Center, in Chapel Hill, where doctors performed surgeries to rebuild his leg. Medicaid covered most of the cost, but Burke was still left…
North Carolina officials had been quietly laboring for months on an ambitious plan to tackle the state’s mammoth medical debt problem when Gov. Roy Cooper stepped before cameras in July to announce the initiative. But as Cooper stood by the stairs of the executive mansion and called for “freeing people from medical debt,” the future…
ORANGEBURG, S.C. — Amari Marsh had just finished her junior year at South Carolina State University in May 2023 when she received a text message from a law enforcement officer. “Sorry it has taken this long for paperwork to come back,” the officer wrote. “But I finally have the final report, and wanted to see…
In what has become a pattern of spreading vaccine misinformation, the Florida health department is telling older Floridians and others at highest risk from covid-19 to avoid most booster shots, saying they are potentially dangerous. Clinicians and scientists denounced the message as politically fueled scaremongering that also weakens efforts to protect against diseases like measles…
By ALISTER MARTIN and TARA MENON If a friend were to ask you which state, Massachusetts or Texas, has a more streamlined federal benefits enrollment program, what would your guess be? Having screened over 17,000 families and helped them obtain more than $1.8M in federal and state aid through our work in both Massachusetts and…
KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed opioid settlements and the Supreme Court’s overturning of a bankruptcy deal involving Purdue Pharma on the “Front Porch Book Club” podcast on Sept. 17. Pattani, joined by journalist Ed Mahon, also discussed how much opioid settlement money Pennsylvania is receiving, who makes the spending decisions, and how…
From the FTC’s press release out today: Today, the Federal Trade Commission brought action against the three largest prescription drug benefit managers (PBMs)—Caremark Rx, Express Scripts (ESI), and OptumRx—and their affiliated group purchasing organizations (GPOs) for engaging in anticompetitive and unfair rebating practices that have artificially inflated the list price of insulin drugs, impaired patients’…