KHN

The Medicaid-funded program operates on the notion that fixing patients’ legal ills is a vital part of their medical care.

The covid pandemic has spotlighted the often-unseen role of public health in Americans’ daily lives. And the picture has not all been pretty. What is public health and why is it so important — and controversial? Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, explains the basics. Then, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Lauren Weber of KHN join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss what could happen next.

In this episode, we hear how the political tango over guaranteeing that nonprofit hospitals provide charity care nearly tanked the Affordable Care Act — and how the battle over the ACA “broke America.”

As students return to campus, schools across the country are taking steps to enforce public health advice to keep people safe from covid. In deeply conservative South Carolina when elected officials tried to stop that, a professor took on the establishment and won.

V-safe is a new safety monitoring system that lets anyone who has been vaccinated against covid-19 report possible side effects directly to federal health officials. Experts believe the smartphone tool has so far helped demonstrate the vaccines are safe.

California is embarking on a five-year experiment to infuse its health insurance program for low-income people with billions of dollars in nonmedical services spanning housing, food delivery and addiction care. Gov. Gavin Newsom said the goal is to improve care for the program’s sickest and costliest members and save money, but will it work?

Dr. Kingsley R. Chin and SpineFrontier were the subject of a recent KHN “Spinal Tap” investigation.

A change in FDA rules during the pandemic has let women receive the drugs needed for a medical abortion by mail after a telemedicine appointment. While some abortion rights advocates hail the move, others note that these services, which are often cheaper than going to a clinic, could siphon away patients needed to keep those brick-and-mortar facilities operating.

KHN Editor-in-Chief Elisabeth Rosenthal joins “CBS This Morning” to discuss the latest Bill of the Month installment, in which a man discovered the hard way that health plans can vary from one job to the next, even if the insurer is the same.

As the delta variant overtakes Mississippi and other undervaccinated parts of the country, one 13-year-old girl’s experience with covid and MIS-C shows a community’s reluctance to embrace public health precautions and continued vulnerability to the pandemic.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s pandemic policies are effectively on California’s Sept. 14 recall ballot — and the electorate views them with a mix of resentment, gratitude and disillusionment.

Lynn Casteel Harper, a minister at the interdenominational Riverside Church in New York City, discusses the spiritual dimension of aging.

Fall and football go hand in hand. But with covid-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths soaring from the delta variant, is it safe to go to the stadium? KHN asks the experts.

Televisits took off during the worst days of the pandemic, but states are now rolling back the temporary rules that facilitated them. That’s adding fuel to debates about states’ authority over medical licensing.

How a sexual assault survivor is questioned by police can greatly influence the ability to access memories of the traumatic incident. Better interview techniques might help solve more cases.

Back-to-school season has fueled immediate covid outbreaks. Instead of beefing up protections, some districts are letting students go without masks, physical distancing and quarantines. And parents are left to make impossibly tough decisions.

Two days before hosting an outdoor Wilco concert, the St. Louis Music Park announced it would require proof of vaccination or a negative covid test for all ticket holders, sending some attendees scrambling and upending plans. Concertgoers, promoters and venues nationwide are all having to pivot quickly to find safer ways of enjoying live music amid the pandemic’s delta surge.

Zoom in on states with overall good vaccination rates and you see a checkerboard effect, with rural areas far lagging urban zones. That’s allowed the pandemic to rage in places like Jackson County, Oregon, overwhelming hospitals.

Reproductive rights groups and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom argue that Californians’ access to abortion would be threatened if he is recalled. But a replacement governor’s power to restrict access to the procedure would be limited.

A Seattle patient discovers the hard way that you can still hit a lifetime limit for certain types of care. And health plans can vary a lot from one job to the next, even if the insurer is the same.