Many Medicare Patients Could Lose Access to Remote Monitoring Devices
Dianne Williams said she lost weight and lowered her blood pressure thanks to quarterly doctor appointments, monthly phone calls with a nurse, and a blood pressure cuff she uses at home that transmits data to her care team. “It’s good to have somebody talk to you and tell you what your progress is like. And […]
Digging Into the Money Behind the US Healthcare System
The United States spends a lot of money on healthcare. To better understand how much, who spends it, and what it’s spent on, we dug into the federal government’s data. In 2024, the most recent year for which data was available, the U.S. spent $5.3 trillion on healthcare. That means an average of more than […]
Aging Life Care Managers Can Be a ‘Godsend’ for Families
Kristin Martinelli began her workday at 7:30 a.m. on a recent Monday, completing an online Medicaid recertification form for a client in a nursing home in Austin, Texas. Next, she drove to meet an 85-year-old and her daughter, who had come in from out of town. The older woman had “pretty advanced dementia” and was […]
AI, Tech Leaders Are Lobbying Trump Health Officials in a Government-Run Chat Room
A cadre of elite techies, financiers, and high-level Trump administration officials have spent a year quietly charting an extraordinary and rapid campaign to persuade Americans to use apps and other artificial intelligence-powered tools to manage their healthcare and medical records. As that campaign has unfolded, administration officials have granted tech companies an unusual opportunity to […]
Midterm Madness
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 […]
‘Medicare for All’ Is Back. Now Comes the Hard Part.
As Americans grow increasingly frustrated with their healthcare system, a proposal that has long been kicked around on the Democratic periphery is showing up in debates and on political platforms: “Medicare for All.” According to a 2025 Economist-YouGov poll, nearly 60% of Americans favor a system of Medicare for All, while 85% of Democrats support […]
‘Medicare for All’ Message Attracts Voters Buckling Under Medical Bills
LANSING, Mich. — Christina Starks-Clay doesn’t know how “Medicare for All” would work exactly, but she’s willing to bet it’d be better than what she has now. Standing in line for U.S. Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed’s town hall in the state’s capital in September, she whipped out her phone to pull up a screenshot. It […]
Medicare Is More Broken Than We Thought
By Oct. 1, at least 2 million seniors will have received alarming notices: Their health plans — which they get through Medicare Advantage, the version of Medicare run by private health insurance companies — will disappear at the end of the year. Many will be stuck without a lot of options. In some cases, no […]
Patient Dies by Suicide After ‘Insurance Issue’ Delayed Medicine for Lung Disease Flare-Ups
If you or someone you know may be experiencing a mental health crisis, contact the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline by dialing or texting “988.” KYLE, Texas — Kenney Blewett was diagnosed with lung disease more than a decade ago but started experiencing flare-ups this year that made him feel like he couldn’t breathe. Blewett […]
Midterms Have Revived Universal Healthcare Debate. These States Are Ahead of Everyone.
Democratic congressional members and candidates are already planning to use any midterm election gains to expand health coverage, including boosting Affordable Care Act subsidies, reversing Medicaid cuts, and lowering the Medicare eligibility age. But Democratic strongholds across the country — including Oregon, California, New York, and Washington — have more ambitious goals: single-payer, universal healthcare […]