Mark Vantrease regularly sees his Vietnam War buddies over breakfast, attends his grandchildren’s Little League games, and, when he’s up to it, tends to his lush front-yard garden, which is dotted with shells retrieved from his abalone-diving days. Time is precious for him. Last year, doctors told the 76-year-old former truck driver that a combination…
Around the end of last year, Ronmel Rangel, 63, began to feel a familiar discomfort in his lower abdomen. Twenty-five years earlier, while living in his native Venezuela, he had undergone surgery to repair a hernia on the right side of his groin. Now, the same pain had returned — on the left. This time,…
By KIM BELLARD One of the key “cost savings” in last years’ Big, Beautiful Bill were work requirements imposed on most working aged beneficiaries in SNAP and/or Medicaid, despite the fact that the few times such requirements had been tried showed they were costly to implement and operate and don’t do much to increase work…
Benjamin Pinckney has dreamed of becoming a physician assistant since he was 20 years old but says new student loan limits enacted by Congress in 2025 may prevent him from pursuing his goal. (Erica S. Lee for KFF Health News) The federal government is capping the amount graduate students can borrow. The Department of Education…
California public school teacher Mollie Blustein planned her pregnancy so that her daughter would arrive during summer break. But when the elementary school teacher went into premature labor and delivered her baby two weeks before the end of school, she faced another stressor: a huge pay cut. The majority of California’s roughly 300,000 teachers don’t…
The next foodborne illness outbreak could be much worse. That’s the concern of food safety leaders across the U.S. who are raising alarms over federal cuts they say have made it harder to detect and stop the spread of foodborne illnesses, such as the recent outbreaks of cyclospora, which has sickened thousands in dozens of…
By DAVID INTROCASO & ADAM CUNNINGHAM For over a decade, federal healthcare policy has operated on a foundational premise: if hospital prices are made visible, market discipline will inevitably follow. The push for price transparency—exemplified by federal disclosure rules and current legislative proposals such as the Lower Costs, More Transparency Act (H.R. 9393) and the…
The five-year, $50 billion Rural Health Transformation program was created as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to expand access to healthcare. States competed to win funding with first-year allocations ranging from $147 million for New Jersey to $281 million for Texas. Find links to available public documents for each state below. KFF…
A tiny federal agency tasked with protecting the public from injuries caused by lawn mowers and coffeemakers is demanding that some of the nation’s biggest health systems turn over detailed, personally identifiable medical records of all patients who seek help at their emergency rooms. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, responsible for tracking and issuing recalls…
KFF Health News senior correspondent Julie Appleby discussed the affordability of Affordable Care Act health insurance plans on Connecticut Public’s The Wheelhouse on July 22. Click here to hear Appleby on The Wheelhouse. Céline Gounder, KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed tick bites on CBS’ CBS Mornings on July 20. She also discussed…