鈥楢n Arm and a Leg鈥: Need an Expensive Drug? Here’s What You Need to Know
Even a personal finance expert can get stuck with a huge unexpected bill for a drug. Listen up for what you need to know about “copay accumulators.”
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Despite Seniors鈥 Strong Desire to Age in Place, the Village Model Remains a Boutique Option
Membership-based villages help arrange services for seniors 鈥 such as handyman help or transportation to appointments 鈥 and provide social connections through classes, leisure opportunities, or community events. Despite great promise, they have been slow to expand because of difficulties raising funding and keeping people interested.
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Listen: An Unsettling Investigation Into the Closure of a Chain of Pain Clinics
KHN senior correspondents Jenny Gold and Anna Maria Barry-Jester joined KVPR鈥檚 Kathleen Schock on 鈥淰alley Edition鈥 to discuss their investigation into the abrupt closure of one of California鈥檚 largest chain of pain clinics 鈥 and the patients left behind.
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Listen: What We鈥檝e Learned After Two Years of the Pandemic
KHN Editor-in-Chief Dr. Elisabeth Rosenthal joins the CNN podcast “Reliable Sources” and reflects on the societal trauma that covid-19 has wrought.
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Pandemic Medical Innovations Leave Behind People With Disabilities
As the country enters Year 3 of the pandemic emergency, people with disabilities across the U.S. are still finding it difficult to use innovations in telemedicine, teleworking, and testing.
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More Black Americans Are Buying Guns. Is It Driving Up Black Suicide Rates?
Gun buying among African Americans has soared in recent years. So have suicide rates among young Black men. Suicide prevention and gun safety efforts need to address race and cultural differences, Black gun owners say.
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KHN鈥檚 鈥榃hat the Health?鈥: Congress Shelves Covid Funding for Now
The Biden administration鈥檚 request for billions more in funding to fight covid-19 hit a snag on Capitol Hill this week, as Democrats objected to Republican demands that money allocated to states but not yet spent be reclaimed. Meanwhile, the big annual spending bill about to cross the finish line addresses other health policy changes, such as giving the FDA authority to regulate 鈥渟ynthetic鈥 nicotine. Joanne Kenen of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Politico, Rachel Cohrs of Stat, and Jessie Hellmann of Modern Healthcare join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
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Two Years In, Covid Leaves Montana Public Health Officials Feeling 鈥榃atched鈥
Montanans engage in plenty of spirited political disagreements. But debates about covid-19, public health, and personal liberties have reached a fever pitch, tugging at tightknit towns and making some residents wonder how their communities will survive.
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Which Companies Aren鈥檛 Exiting Russia? Big Pharma
U.S. and global drug manufacturers invested in Russia鈥檚 sizable pharmaceutical industry contend international humanitarian law requires they continue manufacturing and selling their products there, even while condemning the Ukraine invasion. Not everyone agrees.
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One California University Has Unified Town and Gown to Fight Covid. Why Haven鈥檛 Others?
The University of California-Davis has spent close to $50 million preventing the spread of covid on campus 鈥 and among residents and workers in the adjacent city of Davis. By most accounts, this town-gown experiment has paid off nicely.
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The CDC鈥檚 New Guidelines on Covid Risk and Masking Send Confounding Signals
The agency鈥檚 updated recommendations lower the level of covid risk for most of the country and therefore the need to mask. But some experts question the strategy.
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The NFL Has Been Using an Unproven Measure to Get Players With Covid Back on the Field Fast
Doctors and scientists are debating whether a little-known measure in covid testing should be used to distinguish who is infectious from who isn鈥檛. The NFL adopted the practice, but laboratory professionals caution against its use.
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Charts Paint a Grim Picture 2 Years Into the Coronavirus Pandemic
The on-off nature of the pandemic “has led to a lot of the confusion and grumpiness,” says one expert. Another compares it to the exhaustion of the American public when hearing body counts during the Vietnam War.
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Patients Divided Over Alzheimer鈥檚 Drug: Is It a 鈥楻isk I鈥檓 Willing to Take鈥 or Just a 鈥楳agic Pill鈥?
Medicare has proposed limiting coverage of Aduhelm, the costly new drug to treat Alzheimer鈥檚 disease, and several prominent groups representing patients and their families are pressing the program to make it more widely available. But among individuals facing the disease, the outlook is more nuanced.
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Watch: California鈥檚 Top Health Adviser on Learning to Live With Covid
KHN Senior Correspondent Samantha Young joined California Health and Human Services Secretary Mark Ghaly for an engaging conversation about how California moves forward in an environment in which covid persists, but at more manageable levels.
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$35 Insulin Cap Is Welcome, Popular, and Bipartisan. But Congress May Not Pass It Anyway.
Spun off from the ailing but not-quite-dead Build Back Better legislation, a popular proposal to cap out-of-pocket insulin costs at $35 a month faces tough political realities that could kill it.
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When Teens Blow Off Parents鈥 Pleas to Get Vaccinated, the Consequences Can Be Deadly
Kennedy Stonum, a 17-year-old high school junior, resisted getting vaccinated against covid-19, as did 20-year-old Tyler Gilreath, whose mother had nagged him for months to get the shots. Both died.
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California Governor’s Big Promises on Drug Prices Are Slow to Materialize
Gov. Gavin Newsom has launched several initiatives to cut rising drug prices, but the savings haven鈥檛 been as monumental as he promised. And his plan to have California make its own generic drugs hasn鈥檛 gotten off the ground.
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KHN鈥檚 鈥榃hat the Health?鈥: A Health-Heavy State of the Union
President Joe Biden spent a large portion of his first State of the Union address talking about foreign affairs, but he also spent time on an array of health topics, including mental health, nursing home regulation, and toxic burn pits. Also this week, the administration unveiled a strategy to address the covid pandemic going forward. Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico, Amy Goldstein of The Washington Post, and Sarah Karlin-Smith of the Pink Sheet join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Plus, for extra credit, the panelists recommend their favorite health policy stories of the week they think you should read, too.
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Seeking to Shift Costs to Medicare, More Employers Move Retirees to Advantage Plans
Private and public employers are increasingly using the government鈥檚 Medicare Advantage program as an alternative to their existing retiree health plan and traditional Medicare coverage. As a result, the federal government is paying the 鈥渙verwhelming majority鈥 of medical costs, according to an industry analyst.
