Author: Hill Castle
CNN’s Erica Hill spoke with KFF Health News correspondent Amy Maxmen about leadership changes at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Maxmen noted that turmoil at the CDC has been occurring since early in the Trump administration. She recently explored these issues in her article “Health Insurers Limit Coverage of Prosthetic Limbs, Questioning Their Medical Necessity.” Click here to watch Maxmen on “CNN News Central” KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn…
Former CDC officials Dan Jernigan Deb Houry, and Demetre Daskalakis smile as employees and supporters line up outside the CDC global headquarters to “clap out” the three leaders on Thursday in Atlanta.(Elijah Nouvelage/Getty Images) Four senior officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced their resignations in recent days, citing what they described as growing political interference in the agency’s scientific work, particularly regarding vaccines. Two of them — Debra Houry, the CDC’s chief science and medical officer, and Demetre Daskalakis, who led the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases — stepped down on Aug. 27, hours…
Henry Larweh and Rachana Pradhan and Rae Ellen Bichell The Trump administration’s cuts to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funding for state and local health departments had vastly uneven effects depending on the political leanings of a state, according to a KFF Health News analysis. Democratic-led states and select blue-leaning cities fought back in court and saw money for public health efforts restored — while GOP-led states sustained big losses. The Department of Health and Human Services in late March canceled nearly 700 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grants nationwide — together worth about $11 billion. Awarded during…
Cara Anthony For the most part, Keyanna Jones and her husband thought they knew what to expect when their daughter Chloë had eye surgery last fall. Even Chloë, who was in kindergarten, had a good understanding of how things would go that day. Before the procedure, a hospital worker gave her a coloring book that explained the steps of the surgery — a procedure to correct a condition that could have eventually interfered with her vision. “Chloë is very smart,” Jones said. “She reads at almost a third-grade level now, and she’s only 6.” Jones did her homework, too. With…
Todo comenzó con un curso de mecanografía en la escuela secundaria. Wanda Woods se matriculó porque su padre le dijo que dominar la mecanografía le ayudaría a encontrar trabajo. Y así fue, la Agencia de Protección Ambiental (EPA) federal la contrató como trabajadora extraescolar cuando estaba cursando el onceavo grado. El supervisor “me sentó delante de una máquina llamada procesador de textos”, recordó Woods, que ahora tiene 67 años. “Era grande y voluminosa y utilizaba tarjetas magnéticas para almacenar información. Pensé: ‘Esto me gusta’”. Décadas más tarde, seguía gustándole. En 2012, el primer año en que más de la mitad…
Preocupados por la inflación, los estadounidenses han estado atentos a precios de productos cotidianos como los huevos y la gasolina. Pero un gasto menos conocido debería causar más alarma: el aumento de las primas de los seguros médicos. Llevan años subiendo, y ahora lo están haciendo a un ritmo sin precedentes. Hay que considerar que, entre 2000 y 2020, el precio de los huevos fluctuó entre poco menos de $1 y aproximadamente $3 la docena; alcanzó los $6,23 en marzo, pero luego bajó a $3,78 en junio. El precio promedio de la gasolina, tras oscilar entre $2 y $4 el…
Don’t get Nathan Jones started on xylitol, the active ingredient in his chewing gum, nasal spray, and other products. He’ll talk your ear off about its wondrous powers against tooth decay, as well as its potential to fight covid, heart disease, Alzheimer’s — you name it. For now, Jones, the founder of Xlear, can’t make those claims in his company’s advertising. But if the lawsuit his company brought against the Federal Trade Commission succeeds, he’ll likely be able to say anything he wants. As the Trump administration loosens enforcement by the Federal Trade Commission, Department of Justice, and FDA of…
Amy Maxmen As measles surged in Texas early this year, the Trump administration’s actions sowed fear and confusion among CDC scientists that kept them from performing the agency’s most critical function — emergency response — when it mattered most, an investigation from KFF Health News shows. The outbreak soon became the worst the United States has endured in over three decades. In the month after Donald Trump took office, his administration interfered with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention communications, stalled the agency’s reports, censored its data, and abruptly laid off staff. In the chaos, CDC experts felt restrained from…
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has been implementing an anti-vaccine strategy that includes targeting a federal program that pays money to patients injured by immunizations, people familiar with the planning told KFF Health News. The plan involves expanding the types of injuries eligible for compensation, potentially overwhelming the fund with claims that could bankrupt the program. Other elements of the strategy include a potential mandate that vaccine makers stop using a common additive, forcing them to make expensive reformulations or exit the market altogether. The Vaccine Injury Compensation Program has paid out more than $5 billion…
Elisabeth Rosenthal Wary of inflation, Americans have been watching the prices of everyday items such as eggs and gasoline. A less-noticed expense should cause greater alarm: rising premiums for health insurance. They have been trending upward for years and are now rising faster than ever. Consider that, from 2000 to 2020, egg prices fluctuated between just under $1 and about $3 a dozen; they reached $6.23 in March but then fell to $3.78 in June. Average gas prices, after seesawing between $2 and $4 a gallon for more than a decade starting in 2005, peaked at $4.93 in 2022 and…
Jonnell Wieder earned too much money at her job to keep her Medicaid coverage when the covid-19 public health emergency ended in 2023 and states resumed checking whether people were eligible for the program. But she was reassured by the knowledge that Medicaid would provide postpartum coverage for her and her daughter, Oakleigh McDonald, who was born in July of that year. Wieder is a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana and can access some health services free of charge through her tribe’s health clinics. But funding is limited, so, like a lot of Native American…
The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner @julierovner.bsky.social 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 Z,” now in its third edition. On July 30, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed landmark legislation creating Medicare and Medicaid. Sixty years later, the programs represent a fifth of the federal budget and provide coverage to nearly 1 in 4 Americans. In addition,…
It started with a high school typing course. Wanda Woods enrolled because her father advised that typing proficiency would lead to jobs. Sure enough, the federal Environmental Protection Agency hired her as an after-school worker while she was still a junior. Her supervisor “sat me down and put me on a machine called a word processor,” Woods, now 67, recalled. “It was big and bulky and used magnetic cards to store information. I thought, ‘I kinda like this.’” Decades later, she was still liking it. In 2012 — the first year that more than half of Americans 65 and older…
Jackie Fortiér and Oona Zenda Illustrations by Oona Zenda “My son was diagnosed with congenital CMV, a virus that can cause hearing loss. As part of this diagnosis, he will be required to have routine hearing tests every few months until he is 10 years old. I reached out to you because I wanted to know why my son’s hearing tests weren’t covered by our insurance and why we needed to pay for it.” — Anna Deutscher, 29, from Minnesota, writing about her infant son, Beckham Trying to figure out why her claim was denied took Anna Deutscher a lot…
In the bustling streets of London, the vibrant communities of Manchester, and the historic charm of Edinburgh, one question echoes in every household, every evening: “What’s for dinner?” The days of scouring restaurant menus and enduring long phone calls for a simple takeaway are gone. Today, the answer is simple, fast, and incredibly delicious. It’s Uber Eats. For years, Uber has been a trusted name in getting people from A to B. Now, that same seamless technology and reliability have been brought to your doorstep, delivering the food you love from your favourite local spots and international chains. Whether…
Stephanie Armour Dining under palm trees on a patio at Mar-a-Lago in December, President-elect Donald Trump reassured chief executives at pharmaceutical giants Eli Lilly and Pfizer that anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. wouldn’t be a radical choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services. “I think he’s going to be much less radical than you would think,” Trump said later that month during a news conference at his Palm Beach, Florida, resort. Eight months have passed, and Kennedy is intensifying his attacks on the vaccine system. High on his list of targets: a federal vaccine compensation program…
UnitedHealth Group’s multibillion-dollar pharmacy benefit manager, Optum Rx, is suing five Kentucky counties in an attempt to force them out of national opioid litigation against the company. Pharmacy benefit managers, often called PBMs, act as middlemen that negotiate prescription drug prices between drug companies, insurance plans, and pharmacies. Some lawyers and advocates say PBMs helped fuel the overdose crisis by failing to restrict the flow of opioid prescriptions. As governments begin exploring potential lawsuits against PBMs — a step that could represent the next wave in opioid-related litigation — Optum Rx is attempting to shut down those efforts, in some…
Abortion rights groups are backing California Democrats in the escalating battle to redraw congressional maps, warning that Republicans are rigging seats on the heels of deeply unpopular cuts to safety net health programs and restrictions on reproductive care. And they worry there’s more to come, including a national abortion ban. “You take away our freedoms, we’ll take away your seats,” said Jodi Hicks, CEO of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, during Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pitch to adopt Democratic-leaning maps to offset President Donald Trump’s attempt to bolster GOP seats in Texas. “We can’t sit idly by while the Trump administration,…
En el Valle de San Luis, al sur de Colorado, las nubes se elevan sobre las imponentes montañas de la cordillera Sangre de Cristo. Un coro de mirlos gorjea mientras revolotea entre los juncos de un refugio de vida silvestre. Grandes campos cultivados en forma de círculo, intercalados con arbustos autóctonos, dan una sensación de tranquilidad bucólica. Pero en medio de la austera belleza de una de las regiones agrícolas más productivas del estado, había una sensación de inquietud entre los líderes de la comunidad mientras el Congreso debatía un proyecto de ley de presupuesto que podría reformar radicalmente Medicaid,…
Para padres de niños en edad escolar, la lista de cosas para hacer en el otoño puede parecer interminable. Comprar útiles. Completar largos formularios. Agendar la charla con los maestros. ¿Ya les quedan chicas las zapatillas? En algún momento, puede que recuerden las vacunas contra la gripe. Vacunarte. Vacunarlos. ¿Debería hacerlo? ¿Puedo hacerlo? ¿Sigue vigente? En medio de las polémicas políticas sobre las vacunas y las entidades del gobierno que las supervisan, es comprensible preguntarse qué ocurre con la vacuna contra la gripe de la temporada 2025-26. En resumen: Sí, la vacuna contra la gripe sigue vigente. Y cuatro médicos…
BOGALUSA, La. — Less than a mile from a century-old mill that sustained generations in this small town north of New Orleans, 19-year-old Tajdryn Forbes was shot to death near his mother’s house. She found Forbes face down in the street in August 2023, two weeks before he had planned to move away from the empty storefronts, boarded-up houses, and poverty that make this one of the most troubled places in the nation. Naketra Guy thought about how her son overcame losing his father at age 4 and was the glue of the family. She called him “humble” and “respectful,”…
On July 17, the option went dead for LGBTQ+ youth to access specialized mental health support from the national 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration said a month earlier that it would no longer “silo” services and would instead “focus on serving all help seekers.” That meant the elimination of the “Press 3” option, the dedicated line answered by staff specifically trained to handle LGBTQ+ youth facing mental health issues ranging from anxiety to thoughts of suicide. Now, states such as California, Colorado, Illinois, and Nevada are scrambling to backfill LGBTQ+ crisis support…