Companies accused of recklessly marketing and distributing prescription opioid painkillers are paying roughly $58 billion to settle lawsuits over their role in fueling the addiction crisis. It’s a pot of gold eyed by addiction treatment providers, companies creating the latest opioid-related products, and government officials struggling to balance budgets. Nearly half of that money is…
ʻAIEA, Hawai‘i — Christian Alameda used a cane to push himself up out of bed in his cell at the Halawa Correctional Facility in Honolulu. He has been recovering in the prison’s medical infirmary since a January stroke left the right side of his body mostly paralyzed. In February, Hawai‘i’s parole board granted the now-52-year-old…
By EMANUEL SARKEES The United States is in the middle of what researchers are calling one of the most significant pharmacological developments in modern medicine. GLP-1 receptor agonists, the drug class behind Ozempic and Wegovy, have become able to reduce obesity, lower cardiovascular risk, control blood sugar, and show signals improving areas like addiction and…
Sam Ato Timaloa, a paroled sex offender who also served time for attempted murder, had dementia and an acute intolerance of noise — especially from roommates at Sunrise Post Acute, a nursing home in Banning, California. Over four months in 2025, a state investigative report found, Sunrise switched Timaloa’s room eight times, the last into…
Alice Thornton has spent more than two decades treating people living with HIV in Lexington, Kentucky. Her team tends to “cringe” anytime they hear about patients having to fill out lots of paperwork, like when applying for Social Security Disability payments, because it can be a difficult, burdensome process. Thornton tries to support her patients,…
BELZONI, Miss. — Harmony Ball-Stribling’s path to pregnancy had been turbulent, from an endometriosis diagnosis to an arduous in vitro fertilization process and sky-high blood pressure. But as her due date approached in the summer of 2021, her health improved and those storm clouds seemed to scatter. “It was just too perfect,” said her mother,…
Céline Gounder, KFF Health News’ editor-at-large for public health, discussed the Department of Health and Human Services’ plan to offer compensation for automatic covid vaccine injuries and the drop in enrollment in Affordable Care Act health plans on CBS’ The Takeout With Major Garrett on July 10 and 9, respectively. Click here to watch Gounder…
One year after the Trump administration announced that dozens of health insurers had signed a six-part pledge promising to reduce barriers to doctor-recommended care, some insurers now say they won’t implement all the promised initiatives. Meanwhile, patients, their advocates, and clinicians say little has improved. “It has never been this bad for patients,” said U.S….
In this “How Would You Fix It?” interview, Julie Rovner, KFF Health News’ chief Washington correspondent and host of the What the Health? podcast, sat down with Elizabeth Mitchell, the president and CEO of the Purchaser Business Group on Health, which represents many large employers and other institutional buyers of healthcare coverage. Mitchell noted that…
Erica Schwartz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, expressed support for vaccines — including mRNA-based covid shots — in a Senate hearing on Wednesday, though she didn’t dispel concerns the agency has lost any independence from the White House. “I have been vaccinating people throughout my entire career…