Sorting Out How Politics, Policies Figure in Flap Over New York Nursing Home Covid Death Rates
The debate begins with the covid death tallies. But the issues go beyond basic numbers.
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Black Churches Fill a Unique Role in Combating Vaccine Fears
Churches are the keystone of a major campaign to bring good information about covid vaccines to Black communities. But pastors are finding that scarce supplies and a clumsy rollout are complicating efforts to urge vaccination.
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Becerra Has Long Backed Single-Payer. That Doesn鈥檛 Mean It Will Happen if He鈥檚 HHS Secretary.
Biden鈥檚 pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services has been on record throughout his career for this type of health care system. But the president doesn鈥檛 support it, which is the position that counts.
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‘Into the Covid ICU’: A New Doctor Bears Witness to the Isolation, Inequities of Pandemic
Dr. Paloma Marin-Nevarez graduated from medical school during the pandemic. We follow the rookie doctor for her first months working at a hospital in Fresno, California, as she grapples with isolation, anti-mask rallies and an overwhelming number of deaths.
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Looking to Kentucky鈥檚 Past to Understand Montana Health Nominee鈥檚 Future
Montana鈥檚 pick for health director has garnered both praise and criticism for his past in Kentucky, where he sought to add work requirements to the state鈥檚 Medicaid program and was a top health official amid a hepatitis A outbreak.
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Connecticut Is Doling Out Vaccines Based Strictly on Age. It鈥檚 Simpler, but Is it Fair?
On Monday, Connecticut will be the first state to begin vaccinating anyone from age 55 to 64 鈥 instead of people with chronic health issues and essential workers.
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KHN鈥檚 鈥榃hat the Health?鈥: Staffing Up at HHS
More than a month into the Biden administration, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, the nominee to run the Department of Health and Human Services, finally got his confirmation hearings in the Senate, along with nominees for surgeon general and assistant secretary for health. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court announced it would hear a case challenging the Trump administration鈥檚 regulation that effectively evicted Planned Parenthood from the federal family planning program. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Tami Luhby of CNN and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN鈥檚 Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more. Also this week, Rovner interviews HuffPost鈥檚 Jonathan Cohn, whose new book, 鈥淭he Ten Year War: Obamacare and the Unfinished Crusade for Universal Coverage,鈥 is out this week.
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Journalists Weigh In on Biden’s HHS Pick
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.
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College Tuition Sparked a Mental Health Crisis. Then the Hefty Hospital Bill Arrived.
A student sought counseling help after feeling panicked when she had trouble paying a big tuition bill. A weeklong stay in a psychiatric hospital followed 鈥 along with a $3,413 bill. The hospital soft-pedaled its charity care policy.
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Why AstraZeneca and J&J鈥檚 Vaccines, In Use Elsewhere, Are Still on Hold in America
Covid has pressed the Food and Drug Administration into its fastest vaccine reviews ever 鈥 which are still painfully slow, critics say.
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As Covid Surged, Vaccines Came Too Late for at Least 400 Medical Workers
A Guardian/KHN analysis of deaths nationwide indicates that at least 1 in 8 health workers lost in the pandemic died after the vaccine became available, narrowly missing the protection that might have saved their lives.
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Learning to Live Again: A Lazarus Tale From the Covid Front Lines
The staff at L.A. County鈥檚 public rehabilitation hospital is helping mostly Latino, low-income patients recover the basic functions of daily life robbed from them during weeks or months of critical covid illness.
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Biden’s Straight-Talking CDC Director Has Long Used Data to Save Lives
Dr. Rochelle Walensky said scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were “muzzled” and “diminished” by the Trump team, especially during the pandemic. She aims to fix that.
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New California Law Makes It Easier to Get Care for Mental Health and Substance Abuse
The measure, which took effect Jan. 1, removes loopholes that made it easy for insurers to use arcane company guidelines to avoid paying for care. Patients now have an easier way to challenge those denials.
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First-Person Tales
In Search of the Shot
KHN readers detail their frustrations and successes as they hunt for a scarce covid-19 vaccine.
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Covid Vaccine Websites Violate Disability Laws, Create Inequity for the Blind
A KHN investigation found covid vaccine registration and information websites at the federal, state and local levels are flouting disability rights laws and limiting the ability of people who are blind or visually impaired to sign up for shots.
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With GOP Back at Helm, Montana Renews Push to Sniff Out Welfare Fraud
Montana is one of the latest states looking to aggressively check welfare eligibility to cut costs. Supporters of such steps say it鈥檚 about what鈥檚 fair 鈥 weeding out those who don鈥檛 qualify for assistance 鈥 while opponents say it will cut loose enrollees who actually need help.
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Have a Case of a Covid Variant? No One Is Going to Tell You
As experts race to get an approved test for covid variants, officials are severely restricted from sharing information about the cases. That makes it harder to protect others.
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‘It Doesn’t Feel Worth It’: Covid Is Pushing New York’s EMTs to the Brink
Struggling with low pay and high stress, New York paramedics and EMTs are reaching a breaking point.
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DeSantis Advances Questionable Link Between Lockdowns and Despair
Experts agreed there鈥檚 no definitive evidence to back up the Florida governor鈥檚 assertion.
