Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has made combating fraud a centerpiece of his administration. Trump has said he will target fraud in Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security programs, and his Republican allies in Congress have made combating fraud a key argument in their plans to slash Medicaid. Trump also has empowered…
Alanys Ortiz entiende las señales de Josephine Senek antes de que ella pueda decir nada. Josephine, quien vive con una rara y debilitante condición genética, mueve los dedos cuando está cansada y muerde el aire cuando algo le duele. Josephine tiene 16 años y ha sido diagnosticada con mosaicismo de tetrasomía 8p, autismo severo, trastorno…
LISTEN: KFF Health News correspondent Rachana Pradhan spoke with federal employees who say mass government layoffs are affecting their mental health. She appeared on WAMU’s “Health Hub” segment on April 2. Federal workers are feeling demoralized and anxious as the Department of Government Efficiency slashes tens of thousands of jobs. Federal employment used to carry…
Alanys Ortiz reads Josephine Senek’s cues before she speaks. Josephine, who lives with a rare and debilitating genetic condition, fidgets her fingers when she’s tired and bites the air when something hurts. Josephine, 16, has been diagnosed with tetrasomy 8p mosaicism, severe autism, severe obsessive-compulsive disorder, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, among other conditions, which will require…
By MIKE MAGEE Question: What is the world’s most widely used psychoactive drug? Answer: Caffeine In the U.S., caffeine is consumed mainly in the form of coffee, tea, and cola. But coffee dominates. Worldwide, humans consume over 10 million tons of coffee beans a year. Roughly 16% (1.62 million tons) is devoured by Americans. The…
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…
Sue Sheridan’s baby boy, Cal, suffered brain damage from undetected jaundice in 1995. Helen Haskell’s 15-year-old son, Lewis, died after surgery in 2000 because weekend hospital staffers didn’t realize he was in shock. The episodes turned both women into advocates for patients and spurred research that made American health care safer. On April 1, the…
Tina Ewing-Wilson remembers the last time major Medicaid cuts slashed her budget. In the late 2000s, during the Great Recession, the pot of money she and other Medi-Cal recipients depend on to keep them out of costly residential care homes shrank. The only way she could afford help was to offer room and board to…
For years, White House press conferences included sign language interpreters for the deaf. No longer. Interpreters have been noticeably absent from Trump administration press briefings, advocacy groups say. Gone, too, are the American Sign Language interpretations that used to appear on the White House’s YouTube channel. A White House webpage on accessibility, whitehouse.gov/accessibility, has also…