Health Insurance News

More than 10,000 people have enrolled in Nevada’s new public option health plans, which debuted last fall with the expectation that they would bring lower prices to the health insurance market. Those preliminary numbers from the open enrollment period that…

It’s the rare policy question that unites Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and the Democratic-led Maryland government against President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom of California: How should health insurers use AI? Regulating artificial intelligence, especially its use…

El gobierno de Trump presentó un amplio paquete de propuestas regulatorias que cambiarían de manera sustancial la oferta de planes de salud en los mercados establecidos por la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA) el próximo año….

Listen in as “Life Kit” host Marielle Segarra and health reporter Sarah Boden untangle the red tape that can make the prior authorization process frustrating. When the doctor says you need a prescription or treatment, sometimes you need approval from…

Republicans think patients should be shopping for better health care prices. The party has long pushed to give patients money and let consumers do the work of reducing costs. After some GOP lawmakers closed out 2025 advocating to fund health…

Listen in as “Life Kit” host Marielle Segarra and health reporter Sarah Boden untangle the red tape that can make the prior authorization process frustrating. When the doctor says you need a prescription or treatment, sometimes you need approval from your health insurance first. That’s called prior authorization. Without that sign-off, insurance won’t pay. What

It’s February, so open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act is over. We’re getting the first glimpses of how sign-ups are shaking out after the expiration of enhanced subsidies that helped most people with their premium costs.  While more Americans enrolled than some policy analysts had expected, the number was still 1.2 million below what it was at the same time…

The Trump administration has unveiled a sweeping set of regulatory proposals that would substantially change health plan offerings on the Affordable Care Act marketplace next year, aiming, it says, to provide more choice and lower premiums. But it also proposes…

Health policy has never looked so flirtatious. Every year, our readers send us valentines that make us swoon, laugh, and occasionally clutch our insurance cards. And in 2026, you did not hold back. You wrote about overcharging, rising insurance, AI in health…

Can’t see the audio player? Listen on: The Host The Food and Drug Administration is back in the headlines, with a political appointee overruling agency scientists to reject an application from the drugmaker Moderna for a new flu vaccine, and…

Lori Kelley’s deteriorating vision has made it hard for her to find steady work. The 59-year-old, who lives in Harrisburg, North Carolina, closed her nonprofit circus arts school last year because she could no longer see well enough to complete…

Leonard Bighorn said his mother tried for two years to get help for severe stomach pain through the limited health services available near her home on the Fort Peck Reservation in northeastern Montana. After his mom finally saw a specialist…

Más personas de las que se esperaba se inscribieron este año en los planes de seguro médico de la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA, por sus siglas en inglés), a pesar de la fuerte reducción de…

More Americans than expected enrolled in Affordable Care Act health insurance plans for this year, after premium subsidies were dramatically cut — but it remains to be seen whether they’ll keep the coverage as their costs mount. It’s all part…

KFF Health News senior correspondent Renuka Rayasam discussed concerns about health care costs following the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits on CBS News’ CBS News 24/7 on Feb. 5. Rayasam also discussed rising health insurance costs on…

As Gov. Gavin Newsom spars with President Donald Trump and courts national attention for a potential presidential bid, at home he’s catching flak from the left and the right on health care.  The California Democrat came into office promising to fight for “guaranteed health care for all,” and he came close to achieving it. Really close. But…

(Heidi de Marco/KFF Health News) Listen: More than 2 million Americans could benefit from PrEP, but only about a quarter of them are getting the HIV prevention medication. On Feb. 4, during WAMU’s “Health Hub,” KFF Health News reporter Zach…

El gobernador de California, Gavin Newsom, que aspira a presentarse en las elecciones presidenciales, ha enfurecido tanto a demócratas como a republicanos por su posición sobre la atención médica para los inmigrantes en su estado. La situación revela el delicado…

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is eyeing a presidential bid, has incensed both Democrats and Republicans over immigrant health care in his home state, underscoring the delicate political path ahead. For a second year, the Democrat has asked state lawmakers…

Cuando tuvo un antojo inusual de hotdogs, Matte’a Brooks sospechó que su cuerpo le quería decir algo, así que decidió hacerse una prueba de embarazo. Se hizo dos, para estar segura. Ambas dieron positivo. “Definitivamente me asusté”, dijo Brooks, de…

Los cambios en las políticas de salud en Washington están teniendo repercusiones en todo el país y haciendo que millones de personas pierdan su cobertura de Medicaid o de la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA). Pero…

Cuando Noah Hulsman, dueño de una tienda de patinetas en Louisville, Kentucky, se enteró de que ya no calificaba para los subsidios federales que lo ayudaban a pagar su plan de salud “Oro” de la Ley de Cuidado de Salud…

Matte’a Brooks takes care of her daughter inside their home in southern Illinois. Brooks signed up for Medicaid after finding out that her daughter was on the way. (Cara Anthony/KFF Health News) LISTEN: If you’re newly pregnant and not able…

(iStock/Getty Images) Health policy changes in Washington will ripple through the country, resulting in millions of Americans losing their Medicaid or Affordable Care Act coverage. But there are still ways to find care. Over the next decade, the GOP’s One…

When Noah Hulsman, who owns a skate shop in Louisville, Kentucky, learned he no longer qualified for federal subsidies to help him pay for his “gold” Affordable Care Act health plan, the 37-year-old opted for skimpier coverage. But the deductible…

Barbara Tuszynski was concerned about her vision but confident in her insurance coverage when she went to an eye clinic last May. The retiree, 70, was diagnosed with glaucoma in her right eye in 2019. She had a laser procedure…

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After Susannah Reed-McCullough’s husband died in 2018, she and their young daughters continued to receive health insurance through his job as a firefighter in Maryland. Then, in 2024, she got an unexpected medical bill: $377 for a checkup for one…

Desde que Larry Wilkewitz, de 79 años, se jubiló de una empresa de productos de madera, hace más de 20 años, ha tenido un plan comercial de Medicare Advantage ofrecido por la aseguradora Humana. Pero hace dos años, escuchó sobre…

Ever since Larry Wilkewitz retired more than 20 years ago from a wood products company, he’s had a commercial Medicare Advantage plan from the insurer Humana. But two years ago, he heard about Peak Health, a new Advantage plan started…

El año pasado fue difícil para los agricultores. Ante la caída de los precios de cultivos como el maíz y la soya, el aumento de los costos de insumos como fertilizantes y semillas, así como los aranceles impuestos por el…

Can’t see the audio player? Listen on: The Host Congress appears ready to approve a spending bill for the Department of Health and Human Services for the first time in years — minus the dramatic cuts proposed by the Trump…

Meghan and John Palmer own Prairie Star Farm in Allamakee County, Iowa. They say rising health care costs add to the financial pressures many farm families face.(Meghan Palmer) Last year was a tough one for farmers. Amid falling prices for…

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Cynthia Freeman, una artista de 61 años que vive en Nueva York, lleva tiempo tratando de encontrar la manera de mantener el plan médico de la Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA, en inglés) del que dependen…

When a “Make America Healthy Again” summit was held at the posh Waldorf Astoria in Washington, the line of attendees stretched down the block. The daylong, invitation-only event in November featured a who’s who of MAHA luminaries. Vice President JD…

Cynthia Freeman and her husband, Brad Lawrence, work freelance jobs in storytelling and podcasting. They rely on their Affordable Care Act insurance to treat Brad’s newly diagnosed kidney disease. (José A. Alvarado Jr. for NPR) New York-based performer Cynthia Freeman,…

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Can’t see the audio player? Listen on: The Host Millions of Americans are facing dramatically higher health insurance premium payments due to the Jan. 1 expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies. But much of Washington appears more interested at…

In the largest Medicare Advantage fraud settlement to date, Kaiser Permanente has agreed to pay $556 million to settle Justice Department allegations that it billed the government for medical conditions patients didn’t have. The settlement, announced Jan. 14, resolves whistleblower…

Martha Santana-Chin, quien asumió la dirección de L.A. Care hace un año, teme que los recortes federales a la atención médica pongan a prueba los recursos no solo de su organización, sino de todo el sistema de salud. (Bernard J….

Martha Santana-Chin, who took the helm of L.A. Care a year ago, worries that federal health care cuts will strain the resources not only of her organization but of the entire health care system. (Bernard J. Wolfson/KFF Health News) When…

When Virginia Guevara moved into a studio apartment in California’s Orange County in 2024 after nearly a decade of homelessness, she needed far more than a roof and a bed. Scattered visits to free clinics notwithstanding, Guevara hadn’t had a…

Estás listo para salir del hospital, pero todavía no te sientes en condiciones de cuidarte solo en casa. O bien ya terminaste un par de semanas de rehabilitación. ¿Podrás manejar una rutina complicada de medicamentos, además de hacer las compras…

Robert Sory feeds a treat to a blind, albino raccoon named Cricket. Russian foxes, African porcupines, emus, bobcats, and goats are also part of his menagerie.(Blake Farmer/WPLN) It’s feeding time for the animals on this property outside Nashville, Tennessee. An…

KFF Health News senior correspondent Julie Appleby discussed changes to the Affordable Care Act in 2026 and how enrollees may be affected on WUNC’s Due South on Jan. 7. Click here to hear Appleby on Due South (begins 33:00). Read…

Can’t see the audio player? Listen on: The Host Congress returned from its holiday break to the same question it faced in December: whether to extend covid-era premium subsidies for health plans sold under the Affordable Care Act. The expanded…

El gobierno federal ha reducido drásticamente la cantidad de vacunas infantiles recomendadas, dejando fuera seis inmunizaciones de rutina que han protegido a millones de personas de enfermedades graves, discapacidades a largo plazo y muertes. Solo tres de las seis vacunas…

The federal government has drastically scaled back the number of recommended childhood immunizations, sidelining six routine vaccines that have safeguarded millions from serious diseases, long-term disability, and death. Just three of the six immunizations the Centers for Disease Control and…

Cuando Matthew Hurley quiso empezar a tomar PrEP para prevenir el VIH, el médico no conocía el medicamento, y cuando finalmente se lo recetó, las facturas que le enviaron eran caras… y erróneas. “Decidí escribirles porque el proceso fue realmente…

ALEXANDER, Carolina del Norte — Aubreigh Osborne tiene una nueva amiga. Vestida de azul y con un gran moño en sus rizos rubios, la niña de 3 años se sentó en el regazo de su madre pronunciando con cuidado el…

In 2013, before the Affordable Care Act helped millions get health insurance, California’s Placer County provided limited health care to some 3,400 uninsured residents who couldn’t afford to see a doctor. For several years, that number has been zero in…

ORANGE, California — Una mañana reciente, Carmen Basu, abrigada con una chaqueta roja y una bufanda de lana, se paró frente a la sede del plan de salud local, luego de recoger alimentos gratuitos. Había traído a su esposo, a…

Affordable Care Act subsidies have expired. What that means for millions of Americans Jan. 1 is the day the extra financial help to buy Affordable Care Act health insurance goes away. National January 1, 2026 7:02 AM ET Affordable Care Act subsidies have expired. What that means for millions of Americans Download Embed Jan. 1

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A Texas boy’s second dose of the MMRV vaccine cost over $1,400. A Pennsylvania woman’s long-acting birth control cost more than $14,000. Treatment for a Florida Medicaid enrollee’s heart attack cost nearly $78,000 — about as much as surgery for…

ALEXANDER, N.C. — Aubreigh Osborne has a new best friend. Dressed in blue with a big ribbon in her blond curls, the 3-year-old sat in her mother’s lap carefully enunciating a classmate’s first name after hearing the words “best friend.”…

ORANGE, Calif. — Carmen Basu, bundled in a red jacket and woolly scarf, stood outside the headquarters of her local health plan one morning after picking up free groceries. She had brought her husband, teenage son, and 79-year-old mother-in-law to…

KFF Health News senior correspondent Renuka Rayasam discussed gun violence in Bogalusa, Louisiana, on KALW’s Your Call on Dec. 19. Click here to hear Rayasam on Your Call. Read Rayasam’s “Guns, Race, and Profit: The Pain of America’s Other Epidemic,”…

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I’ve been checking on the progress of the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment season, which is happening as Congress continues to debate whether to extend the subsidies that have given consumers extra help paying their health insurance premiums.  The story…

Can’t see the audio player? Listen on: The Host The enhanced premium tax credits that since 2021 have helped millions of Americans pay for insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces will expire Dec. 31, despite a last-ditch effort by…

WASHINGTON, DC — Cada noche, Abdullah Ibrahim se retira de las calles hacia un área boscosa junto al río Potomac. Cuando cae la noche y bajan las temperaturas, arma una tienda de campaña y enciende una fogata bajo un grupo…

For the millions of Americans who buy Affordable Care Act insurance, there’s still time left to enroll for 2026. But premium increases and the expiration of enhanced tax subsidies have led to larger-than-expected costs. Concerned shoppers, wondering if there’s anything…

WASHINGTON — Every night, Abdullah Ibrahim retreats from the streets into a wooded stretch along the Potomac River. As night falls and temperatures drop, he erects a tent and builds a fire beneath a canopy of pine, hemlock, and cedar…

As Congress debates whether to extend the temporary federal subsidies that have helped millions of Americans buy health coverage, a crucial underlying reality is sometimes overlooked: Those subsidies are merely a band-aid covering the often unaffordable cost of health care….

Letters to the Editor is a periodic feature. We welcome all comments and will publish a selection. We edit for length and clarity and require full names. How To Excise Politics From Health Care More than a decade after the Affordable Care Act…

The Trump administration is trying to slash access to lawyers who defend the rights of Americans with disabilities, advocates say. Most of the lawyers work either for the Department of Justice or for disability rights agencies that Congress set up…

Note: “An Arm and a Leg” uses speech-recognition software to generate transcripts, which may contain errors. Please use the transcript as a tool but check the corresponding audio before quoting the podcast. Dan hosting: Hey there. As we started writing…

David Garza a veces siente que no tiene seguro médico, por lo caro que le cuesta tratar su diabetes tipo 2. Su prima mensual de $435 por la cobertura familiar es casi igual a la del seguro de su trabajo…

We’ve been here before: congressional Democrats and Republicans sparring over the future of the Affordable Care Act. But this time there’s an extra complication. Though it’s the middle of open enrollment, lawmakers are still debating whether to extend the subsidies…

Can’t see the audio player? Listen on: The Host Congress is running out of time to avert a huge increase in health care premium payments for millions of Americans who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Dec. 15…

In a recent Meet the Press appearance, Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) joined a growing number of Republicans who are speaking out against Obamacare. One of his lines of attack: that the Affordable Care Act fueled health care consolidation. “What Democrats…

Florida resident Keith Jones says his Affordable Care Act insurance plan was changed multiple times this year without his permission. Now the 52-year-old is struggling with his health problems while facing large premium bills he says he shouldn’t owe. The…

Sarah Monroe once had a relatively comfortable middle-class life. She and her family lived in a neatly landscaped neighborhood near Cleveland. They had a six-figure income and health insurance. Then, four years ago, when Monroe was pregnant with twin girls,…

David Garza sometimes feels as if he doesn’t have health insurance now that he pays so much to treat his Type 2 diabetes. His monthly premium payment of $435 for family coverage is roughly the same as the insurance at…

Sarah Monroe once had a relatively comfortable middle-class life. She and her family lived in a neatly landscaped neighborhood near Cleveland. They had a six-figure income and health insurance. Then, four years ago, when Monroe was pregnant with twin girls, something started to feel off. “I kept having to come into the emergency room for

Some farmers says Trump’s proposed bailout won’t help with rising health care costs President Trump has proposed a $12 billion plan to help farmers across the country, but some say they also need help with the rising health insurance costs they may face if certain subsidies expire. National December 9, 2025 4:41 AM ET From

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On What the Health? From KFF Health News, distributed by WAMU, chief Washington correspondent and host Julie Rovner sat down with Avik Roy, a GOP health policy adviser, to talk about how health care has evolved as a Republican issue….

KFF Health News senior correspondent Aneri Pattani discussed Maine’s largest HIV outbreak to date, including the challenges in tracking transmission and treating people with the virus, on The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health’s Public Health On Call on…

Video Week ending Dec. 5, 2025 Posted December 5, 2025 at 3:50pm Facebook Twitter Email Reddit The end-of-the-year rush was on this week, as lawmakers worked on a flurry of issues, including extending health insurance premium subsidies that are set to expire, revising federal water conservation standards related to showerheads, lighting the Capitol Christmas tree

Alejandro Santillan-Garcia teme perder la ayuda que le permite comprar comida. El residente de Austin, de 20 años, calificó el año pasado para recibir beneficios federales de alimentos porque salió del sistema de cuidado temporal (foster care, en inglés) de…

Alejandro Santillan-Garcia is worried he’s going to lose the aid that helps him buy food. The 20-year-old Austin resident qualified for federal food benefits last year because he aged out of the Texas foster care system, which he entered as…

A Eliza Brader le preocupa tener que demostrar pronto que trabaja para seguir recibiendo cobertura de Medicaid. Ella cree que no debería tener que hacerlo. Brader, de 27 años y residente de Bloomington, Indiana, tiene un marcapasos y una enfermedad…

On vacation in Mexico last year, Michael DiPlacido passed out twice while scuba diving and again in his hotel. Back in St. Louis, doctors diagnosed him with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, an incurable disease that often requires mechanical ventilation….

Eliza Brader worries she soon will need to prove she’s working to continue receiving Medicaid health coverage. She doesn’t think she should have to. The 27-year-old resident of Bloomington, Indiana, has a pacemaker and a painful joint disease. She also…

As millions of Americans brace for dramatically higher health care costs come January 2026, after enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies expire, the White House is expected to propose a two-year extension to prevent a massive spike in premiums. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), the nonpartisan budget watchdog that regularly crunches numbers

Además de los dolores ocasionales, envejecer puede traer sorpresas desagradables y enfermedades graves. Las relaciones de largo plazo con doctores de confianza suelen hacer que incluso las malas noticias sean más llevaderas. Perder ese respaldo —especialmente en medio de una…

For nearly three years, Eric Tennant endured chemotherapy infusions, rounds of radiation, biopsies, and hospitalizations that left him weak and depleted. “It’s good to be home,” he said after one hospital stay in early June, “yet I’m tired and ready…

Can’t see the audio player? Listen on: The Host Millions of people in Republican-dominated states are among those seeing their Affordable Care Act plan premiums spike for 2026 as enhanced, pandemic-era subsidies expire. Yet Republicans in the White House and…

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