The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Many undocumented immigrants are essential workers at high risk of exposure to the virus 鈥 and the pandemic鈥檚 economic crash 鈥 with no direct access to federal financial lifelines available to U.S. citizens.
The pictures are on the nightly news, on billboards, bus stop posters and all over social media. How can people who fear needles manage to get their covid shots?
Check out KHN鈥檚 video series 鈥 Behind The Byline: How the Story Got Made. Come along as journalists and producers offer an insider鈥檚 view of health care coverage that does not quit.
Experts say the two-year expansion of subsidies for most people who buy insurance through the government exchanges would be among the most significant changes to the affordability of private insurance since the passage of the Affordable Care Act.
Dozens of open appointment slots in the three Southern states last week stood in sharp contrast to states such as Delaware, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, where spots generally were claimed by midmorning or earlier.
States are passing laws that would prevent people with Down syndrome, autism and other disabilities from being denied transplants solely because of their conditions.
When considering whether to meet up with someone who is vaccinated versus unvaccinated, vaccinated sounds somewhat safer. But before you give pandemic dating a shot, heed these warnings from experts.
Under the Trump administration, the U.S. had agreed to buy at least 1 billion doses of covid vaccine, enough to vaccinate 550 million people. Those agreements, though, applied to vaccines that were authorized as well as those still in development. And the Biden team had the advantage of 20/20, experts say.
KHN and California Healthline staff made the rounds on national and local media this week to discuss their stories. Here鈥檚 a collection of their appearances.
Experts give poor usability ratings to My Turn, the new statewide sign-up app for covid vaccination. But with so many problems plaguing the vaccination effort, it seems unreasonable to have expected this one to work perfectly.
Grappling with stagnant pay and a lack of personal protective equipment, firefighters are even more frustrated to find they are lower down the vaccine priority list than health care workers despite serving on the front lines of the medical system.
California officials have been leery of reopening schools without tight protocols, a position favored by teachers unions that has met growing flak from local officials and parents. In Roseville, a suburb of Sacramento, the struggle has come to a head.
The FDA authorized the emergency use of a one-shot vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, which could help accelerate the pace of vaccinations to prevent covid-19. But after a dramatic decline, case numbers are again rising, and several states are rolling back public health mitigation efforts. Mary Ellen McIntire of CQ Roll Call, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews KHN鈥檚 Jordan Rau about the latest KHN-NPR 鈥淏ill of the Month鈥 episode.
Older patients in several states where the California-based managed care giant operates complain they鈥檝e had difficulty scheduling appointments and spotty communication from the health system. Some report it鈥檚 getting better, though.
Researchers are testing treatments to overcome autoimmune reactions that begin when the body鈥檚 defenses respond to the coronavirus.
Relatives and advocates are calling for federal authorities to relax restrictions in long-term care institutions and grant special status to 鈥渆ssential caregivers鈥 鈥 family members or friends who provide critically important hands-on care 鈥 so they have the opportunity to tend to relatives in need.
Testing and vaccinating essential workers on commercial farms and in meatpacking plants requires more than a pop-up clinic miles away. Missing work to get a test, or to quarantine after a positive result, can be financially devastating.
As the speed of covid vaccinations picks up, so do the reports of doses going to waste. Health officials are trying to rein in waste without slowing down vaccinations.
Pharmacies are poised to start filling the gaps to vaccinate all of America against covid. Where does that leave people in rural counties that lack pharmacies?
Pediatric hospitals are creating clinics for the increasing number of children reporting lingering covid symptoms similar to those that plague some adults long after they have recovered.
