As More Americans Embrace Anxiety Treatment, MAHA Derides Medications
After a grueling year of chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation to treat breast cancer, Sadia Zapp was anxious — not the manageable hum that had long been part of her life, but something deeper, more distracting. “Every little ache, like my knee hurts,” she said, made her worry that “this is the end of the road…
Trabajadores de salud pública renuncian antes de ir a Guantánamo
Rebekah Stewart, enfermera del Servicio de Salud Pública de Estados Unidos (USPHS, por sus siglas en inglés), recibió en abril del año pasado una llamada que la hizo llorar. Había sido seleccionada para participar en la nueva operación de detención de inmigrantes del gobierno de Donald Trump en la base de Guantánamo, en Cuba. Ese…
It’s the ‘Gold Standard’ in Autism Care. Why Are States Reining It In?
ALEXANDER, N.C. — Aubreigh Osborne has a new best friend. Dressed in blue with a big ribbon in her blond curls, the 3-year-old sat in her mother’s lap carefully enunciating a classmate’s first name after hearing the words “best friend.” Just months ago, Gaile Osborne didn’t expect her adoptive daughter would make friends at school.…
Advertisements Promising Patients a ‘Dream Body’ With Minimal Risk Get Little Scrutiny
Lenia Watson-Burton, a 37-year-old U.S. Navy administrator, expected that cosmetic surgery would get rid of stubborn fat quickly and easily — just as the web advertising promised. Instead, she died three days after a liposuction-like procedure called AirSculpt at the San Diego office of Elite Body Sculpture, a cosmetic surgery chain with more than 30…
Health Care Groups Aim To Counter Growing ‘National Scandal’ of Elder Homelessness
BRISTOL, R.I. — At age 82, Roberta Rabinovitz realized she had no place to go. A widow, she had lost both her daughters to cancer, after living with one and then the other, nursing them until their deaths. Then she moved in with her brother in Florida, until he also died. And so last fall,…
Native American Patients Are Sent to Collections for Debts the Government Owes
Tescha Hawley learned that hospital bills from her son’s birth had been sent to debt collectors only when she checked her credit score while attending a home-buying class. The new mom’s plans to buy a house stalled. Hawley said she didn’t owe those thousands of dollars in debts. The federal government did.Hawley, a citizen of…
Removing a Splinter? Treating a Wart? If a Doctor Does It, It Can Be Billed as Surgery
When George Lai of Portland, Oregon, took his toddler son to a pediatrician last summer for a checkup, the doctor noticed a little splinter in the child’s palm. “He must have gotten it between the front door and the car,” Lai later recalled, and the child wasn’t complaining. The doctor grabbed a pair of forceps…
California’s ‘Care Courts’ Are Falling Short
California’s controversial experiment to order mental illness and drug treatment for some of its sickest residents is rolling out statewide, but the latest data shows the new initiative is falling far short of early objectives. The Community Assistance, Recovery and Empowerment Act — known as Care — recently expanded from 11 pilot counties to all…
Más californianos están muriendo por el frío. Gran parte son personas mayores sin techo
SACRAMENTO, California — Un número creciente de personas —muchas de ellas mayores y sin hogar— están muriendo de frío durante el invierno. La hipotermia causada por la exposición a bajas temperaturas fue la causa principal, o que contribuyó, a la muerte de 166 californianos el año pasado, más del doble que hace una década, según…
KFF Health News’ ‘What the Health?’: A Killing Touches Off Backlash Against Health Insurers
The Host Julie Rovner KFF Health News @jrovner 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…