Month: September 2020
Sky-High Drug Prices Driven by Pharma Profits, House Dems Charge
This story also ran on NBC News. This story can be republished for free (details). Enormous drug company profits are the primary driver of soaring prescription drug prices in America, according to a damning investigation that Democrats on the House Oversight Committee began releasing Wednesday. The first two reports in…
Lo que sabemos sobre la transmisión aérea del coronavirus
SOBRE NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL Noticias en español es una sección de Kaiser Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos. Use Nuestro Contenido Este contenido puede usarse de manera gratuita…
Clínicas post-Covid reciben a pacientes con síntomas persistentes después de recuperarse
SOBRE NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL Noticias en español es una sección de Kaiser Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos. Use Nuestro Contenido Este contenido puede usarse de manera gratuita…
The First Presidential Debate: A Night of Rapid-Fire Interruptions and Inaccuracies
Tuesday night, President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden appeared for the first presidential debate, offering voters their first side-by-side comparison of the candidates. Little was said about what either candidate would do if elected; at one point, Biden’s attempts to explain his health care plan were drowned…
What We Know About the Airborne Spread of the Coronavirus
The federal government did a quick pivot on the threat of the coronavirus spreading through the air, changing a key piece of guidance over the weekend. On Sept. 18, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that tiny airborne particles, not just the bigger water droplets from a sneeze…
Post-COVID Clinics Get Jump-Start From Patients With Lingering Illness
This story also ran on CNN. This story can be republished for free (details). Clarence Troutman survived a two-month hospital stay with COVID-19, then went home in early June. But he’s far from over the disease, still suffering from limited endurance, shortness of breath and hands that can be stiff…
Corralling the Facts on Herd Immunity
For a term that’s at least 100 years old, “herd immunity” has gained new life in 2020. It starred in many headlines last month, when reports surfaced that a member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and adviser to the president, Dr. Scott Atlas, recommended it as a strategy…
Efforts to Keep COVID-19 out of Prisons Fuel Outbreaks in County Jails
When Joshua Martz tested positive for COVID-19 this summer in a Montana jail, guards moved him and nine other inmates with the disease into a pod so cramped that some slept on mattresses on the floor. Martz, 44, said he suffered through symptoms that included achy joints, a sore throat,…
‘You’re Going to Release Him When He Was Hurting Himself?’
When Joe Prude called Rochester, New York, police to report his brother missing, he was struggling to understand why Daniel Prude had been released from the hospital hours earlier. Joe Prude described his brother’s suicidal behavior. “He jumped 21 stairs down to my basement, headfirst,” Joe said in a video…
‘No Mercy’ Explores the Fallout After a Small Town Loses Its Hospital
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen. Each season, “Where It Hurts” takes you somewhere new — to an overlooked part of the country to explore cracks in the American health system that leave people frustrated — and without the care they need. The story begins in Fort Scott,…
Salud sobre ruedas: casas rodantes ofrecen tratamiento contra la adicción en comunidades rurales remotas
SOBRE NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL Noticias en español es una sección de Kaiser Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos. Use Nuestro Contenido Este contenido puede usarse de manera gratuita…
Trump’s Executive Order on Preexisting Conditions Lacks Teeth, Experts Say
Protecting people with preexisting medical conditions is an issue that has followed President Donald Trump his entire first term. Now, Trump has signed an executive order that he says locks in coverage regardless of anyone’s health history. “Any health care reform legislation that comes to my desk from Congress must…
Promises Kept? On Health Care, Trump’s Claims of ‘Monumental Steps’ Don’t Add Up
Use Our Content This story can be republished for free (details). When it comes to health care, President Donald Trump has promised far more than he has delivered. But that doesn’t mean his administration has had no impact on health issues — including the operation of the Affordable Care Act,…
Health on Wheels: Tricked-Out RVs Deliver Addiction Treatment to Rural Communities
This story also ran on NPR. This story can be republished for free (details). STERLING, Colo. — Tonja Jimenez is far from the only person driving an RV down Colorado’s rural highways. But unlike the other rigs, her 34-foot-long motor home is equipped as an addiction treatment clinic on wheels,…
Trump Approves Final Plan to Import Drugs From Canada ‘for a Fraction of the Price’
Use Our Content This story can be republished for free (details). President Donald Trump, outlining his “America First Health Plan” Thursday, announced that his administration will allow the importation of prescription drugs from Canada. The final plan clears the way for Florida and other states to implement a program bringing…
Heartbreaking Bills, Lawsuit and Bankruptcy — Even With Insurance
This story also ran on NPR. This story can be republished for free (details). Matthew Fentress was just 25 when he passed out while stuffing cannolis as a cook for a senior living community six years ago. Doctors diagnosed him with viral cardiomyopathy, heart disease that developed after a bout…
In Los Angeles, Latinos Hit Hard By Pandemic’s Economic Storm
This story is part of a partnership that includes KPCC, NPR and Kaiser Health News. This story can be republished for free (details). Working as a fast-food cashier in Los Angeles, Juan Quezada spends a lot of his time these days telling customers how to wear a mask. “They cover…
En Los Angeles, la tormenta económica por la pandemia ha pegado fuerte en los latinos
SOBRE NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL Noticias en español es una sección de Kaiser Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos. Use Nuestro Contenido Este contenido puede usarse de manera gratuita…
KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: ACA in Peril With Ginsburg’s Seat in Play
Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on SoundCloud. The death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg — and the insistence of President Donald Trump and the GOP-led Senate to fill that vacancy this year — could have major implications for health care. The high court will hear…
California Expands Privacy Protection to Public Health Workers Amid Threats
Use Our Content This story can be republished for free (details). SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — California will allow public health officials to participate in a program to keep their home addresses confidential, a protection previously reserved for victims of violence, abuse and stalking and reproductive health care workers. The executive…
These Secret Safety Panels Will Pick the COVID Vaccine Winners
This story also ran on NBC News. This story can be republished for free (details). Most Americans have never heard of Dr. Richard Whitley, an expert in pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama-Birmingham. Yet as the coronavirus pandemic drags on and the public eagerly awaits a vaccine, he…
As Fires and Floods Wreak Havoc on Health, New Climate Center Seeks Solutions
For the past month, record-breaking wildfires have torched millions of acres from the Mexican border well into Canada, their smoke producing air so toxic that millions of people remained indoors for days on end while many visited hospitals because of respiratory distress. Last week, Hurricane Sally left a trail of…
A Fair to Remember: County Fairs Weigh Risk of Outbreak Against Financial Ruin
Laura Stutzman had no doubts that this year’s Twin Falls County Fair should go on despite the pandemic still raging across the U.S. — and several outbreaks tied to such community fairs. Though she saw few people wearing masks from her volunteer station in the fair’s hospitality tent in southern…
How Families Are Keeping Halloween From Turning Into a COVID Nightmare
Use Our Content This story can be republished for free (details). DENVER — For Laura Stoutingburg and her family, Halloween has always been a monthlong celebration of corn mazes, pumpkin patches and, of course, trick-or-treating in their suburban Denver neighborhood. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the mother of two…
Reapertura de universidades generó 3,000 nuevos casos de COVID por día, según estudio
SOBRE NOTICIAS EN ESPAÑOL Noticias en español es una sección de Kaiser Health News que contiene traducciones de artículos de gran interés para la comunidad hispanohablante, y contenido original enfocado en la población hispana que vive en los Estados Unidos. Use Nuestro Contenido Este contenido puede usarse de manera gratuita…
Colleges’ Opening Fueled 3,000 COVID Cases a Day, Researchers Say
Use Our Content This story can be republished for free (details). Reopening colleges drove a coronavirus surge of about 3,000 new cases a day in the United States, according to a draft study released Tuesday. The study, done jointly by researchers at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, Indiana University, the…
Native Americans Feel Double Pain of COVID and Fires ‘Gobbling Up the Ground’
When the first fire of the season broke out on the Hoopa Valley Reservation in Northern California in July, Greg Moon faced a dilemma. As Hoopa’s fire chief and its pandemic team leader, Moon feared the impact of the blaze on the dense coniferous forests of the reservation, near Redwood…
Battle Rages Inside Hospitals Over How COVID Strikes and Kills
Front-line health care workers are locked in a heated dispute with many infection control specialists and hospital administrators over how the novel coronavirus is spread ― and therefore, what level of protective gear is appropriate. At issue is the degree to which the virus is airborne ― capable of spreading…
Rural Hospitals Teeter on Financial Cliff as COVID Medicare Loans Come Due
This story also ran on NPR. This story can be republished for free (details). Note to Readers: Sarah Jane Tribble spent more than a year and half reporting on a small town in Kansas that lost its only hospital. This month, KHN and St. Louis Public Radio will launch “Where…
It’s Not Just Insulin: Lawmakers Focus on Price of One Drug, While Others Rise Too
Michael Costanzo, a Colorado farmer diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2016, has a well-honed ritual: Every six months, he takes an IV infusion of a medicine, Rituxan, to manage his disease, which has no cure. Then he figures out how to manage the bill, which costs thousands of dollars. For…
