The Latest Breaking News from KHN

Medical debt upended their lives. Here's what it took from them

First, they were struck by illness and then by medical bills they couldn't pay. Here are seven stories of Americans living under the shadow of health care debt.

WEKU · Jun 16, 2022

Sick and struggling to pay, 100 million people in the U.S. live with medical debt

The U.S. health system now produces debt on a mass scale, a new investigation shows. Patients face gut-wrenching sacrifices.

WEKU · Jun 16, 2022

Buy and bust: When private equity comes for rural hospitals

MEXICO, Missouri — When the new corporate owners of two rural hospitals suddenly announced they would stop admitting patients one Friday in March, Kayla Schudel, a nurse, stood resolute in the nearly empty lobby of Audrain Community Hospital: “You’ll be seen; the ER is open.”

Tribune News Service · Jun 16, 2022

They thought they were buying Obamacare plans. What they got wasn’t insurance

Tina Passione needed health insurance in a hurry in December. The newly retired 63-year-old was relocating to suburban Atlanta with her husband to be closer to grandchildren. Their house in Pittsburgh flew off the market, and they had six weeks to move out 40 years of memories.

Tribune News Service · Jun 10, 2022

Some people in this Montana mining town worry about the dust next door

BUTTE, Mont. — Steve McGrath stood in an empty lot a block from his home watching for dust.

Tribune News Service · Jun 9, 2022

California wants to slash insulin prices by becoming a drugmaker. Can it succeed?

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California is diving into the prescription drug business, attempting to achieve what no other state has done: produce its own brand of generic insulin and sell it at below-market prices to people with diabetes like Sabrina Caudillo.

Tribune News Service · Jun 9, 2022

Misinformation clouds America’s most popular emergency contraception

A brand of specialty mozzarella cheeses. A collection of natural-gas storage terminals. And America’s top-selling emergency contraception.

Tribune News Service · Jun 9, 2022

Black women have much at stake in states where abortion access may vanish

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — “Adulting” was not going great for Tia Freeman. She had lost her scholarship at the University of Tennessee and enlisted in the Air Force. As she finished training to be an analyst, she got pregnant despite being on birth control.

Tribune News Service · Jun 8, 2022

AARP’s billion-dollar bounty

In September, AARP, the giant organization for older Americans, agreed to promote a burgeoning chain of medical clinics called Oak Street Health, which has opened more than 100 primary care outlets in nearly two dozen states.

Tribune News Service · Jun 8, 2022

They thought they bought Obamacare plans. What they got wasn't insurance

Some consumers sign up for Obamacare and find out later they actually purchased a membership to a health care sharing ministry. But regulators and online advertising sites don't do much about it.

WEKU · Jun 7, 2022