Some people’s lives are so complicated by trauma, poverty and other social problems that conditions like diabetes and asthma regularly flare into $10,000 hospital visits. Health care experts have spent years trying to help this small but costly group of patients. What have they learned?
Podcast
Posted inInsurance
What Cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare Could Mean for Hospitals, Insurers and You
As Republicans consider major changes to Medicaid and Obamacare, we asked a leading economist about the shockwaves these sharp policy shifts could send throughout the entire health care system.
Posted inMental Health
What Happens When Cops Refuse to Respond to Mental Health Calls?
Why are a handful of sheriff’s departments in California refusing to respond to some 911 calls that involve a person with mental illness?
Posted inPublic Health
Fighting Measles and Anti-Vax Views in West Texas
Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas, describes her fight to stop the largest measles outbreak since 2000 despite a chaotic reorganization of federal health agencies.
Posted inHealth Equity
What Republican Health Cuts Could Mean for People with Disabilities
We talk with Harvard researcher Ari Ne’eman about why the sharp policy shifts underway in Washington pose a unique threat to people with disabilities.
Posted inInsurance
Medicaid Work Requirements Are Back. What You Need To Know
Work requirements led to thousands in Arkansas losing their Medicaid during the first Trump administration. Policymakers say they’ve learned lessons to avoid mistakes this time.
Posted inHealth Law
Obamacare Heads to the Supreme Court … Again
The latest threat to the Affordable Care Act could strike down a popular provision that gives 180 million Americans access to free preventive care for conditions including HIV and cancer.
Posted inPublic Health
How RFK Jr. is Upending Public Health
Two months on the job, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has plowed forward with mass firings, funding cuts and policy shifts. The most immediate effect is across state and local health agencies, where officials say they see new cracks in safeguards against diseases.
Posted inPublic Health
Making Sense of Sweeping Cuts at HHS
Veteran health care reporter Julie Rovner breaks down the massive cuts and reorganization at HHS and answers listeners’ questions about what to expect next.
Posted inCost of Care
This Budget Cut Would Save Medicare Patients Money. But Can Rural Hospitals Afford It?
Medicare often pays clinics owned by hospitals at least double the amount it pays independent clinics for the exact same medical care. Ending that practice would save money for taxpayers and patients, but critics say it could also push rural hospitals to cut services or close.