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When medical bills started rolling in, a teacherās aide in Florida wondered why her insurance suddenly wasnāt covering them. The answer? She owed a balance of 5 cents, so her insurer canceled her policy.
The administration has largely converted the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement into an arm of immigration enforcement, detaining children longer while helping immigration officers arrest their parents or other family members. One father was chained when he went to an ICE office to discuss being reunited with his son and daughter.
As health systems, doctor groups, and insurers merge into ever-bigger giants, patient care gets more expensive. Yet the Trump administration has sent mixed signals about its willingness to intervene ā and shown some disdain for Biden officialsā more aggressive approach.
Firearm violence is killing Americans at the scale of a public health epidemic. The suffering is concentrated in Black neighborhoods damaged by segregation, disinvestment, hate crimes, and other forms of racial discrimination.
President Donald Trumpās Justice Department seeks to terminate the Flores Settlement Agreement, which since 1997 has required U.S. immigration officials to hold migrant children in facilities that are safe and sanitary, among other protections. Even with the consent decree in place, court records show unsafe conditions for immigrant kids.
Moves by the Trump administration to pare back Medicaid, rescind medical debt rules, and loosen vaccine requirements threaten to increase medical bills for millions of Americans.
The Houseās gigantic tax-and-spending budget reconciliation bill has landed with a thud in the Senate, where lawmakers are divided in their criticism over whether it increases the deficit too much or cuts Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act too deeply. Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Officeās estimate that the bill, if enacted, could increase the ranks of the uninsured by nearly 11 million people over a decade wonāt make it an easy sell. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Jessie Hellmann of CQ Roll Call, and Lauren Weber of The Washington Post join Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā Arielle Zionts, who reported and wrote the latest āBill of the Monthā feature, about a Medicaid patient who had an out-of-state emergency.
In the waning days of the Biden administration, the Labor Department added ovarian, uterine, cervical, and breast cancer coverage for wildland firefighters. Itās unclear whether the new protections will stick under Trump.
A new rule requires insurers to improve coverage of PrEP, which can prevent HIV, but Georgians face challenges getting the drug.
President Donald Trump was sworn in Monday and by Wednesday had virtually stopped scientific policymaking at the Department of Health and Human Services. While incoming administrations often pause public communications, the acting HHS head ordered an unprecedented shutdown of all outside meetings, travel, and publications. Meanwhile, Trump issued a broad array of mostly nonbinding executive orders, but notably none directly concerning abortion. Rachel Cohrs Zhang of Stat, Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, and Rachel Roubein of The Washington Post join Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health Newsā Julie Rovner to discuss these stories and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews Rodney Whitlock, a former congressional staffer, who explains the convoluted ābudget reconciliationā process Republicans hope to use to enact Trumpās agenda.
The move, which comes less than two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump is set to take office, represents a challenge to the new administration.
Donald Trumpās first administration advanced rules forcing hospitals and insurers to reveal prices for medical services. Employers donāt want to risk backtracking during Trumpās second administration.
Since 2018, readers and listeners sent Ńī¹óåś“«Ć½Ņīl Health News-NPRās āBill of the Monthā thousands of questionable bills. Our crowdsourced investigation paved the way for landmark legislation and highlighted cost-saving strategies for all patients.
The number of new and returning enrollees using healthcare.gov ā the federal marketplace that serves 31 states ā is well below last yearās as of early December. Also, a Biden administration push to give āDreamersā access to Obamacare coverage and subsidies is facing court challenges.
A federal judge sided with 19 states seeking an injunction against a Biden administration rule allowing recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals to enroll in Affordable Care Act coverage and qualify for subsidies amid the annual open enrollment period.
Patient and consumer advocates fear a new Trump administration will scale back federal efforts to expand financial protections for patients and shield them from debt.
Florida sued the FDA over what it said was a āreckless delayā in approving its drug importation plan. Now, nearly a year after the FDA gave the state the green light, the program has yet to begin.
The state Office of Health Care Affordability has set a goal for insurers to direct 15% of their spending to primary care by 2034, part of a push to expand preventive care services. Health plans say itās unclear how the policy will mesh with the stateās overarching goal to slow spending growth.
Democrats and conservatives are divided over whether the federal health program for people over 65 should be run almost entirely by the private sector. If Trump retakes the White House, the shift to Medicare Advantage may accelerate.
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