Category: Health Insurance
Americans are unprepared for the expensive and complex process of aging
A geriatrician explains how they can start planning
Commentary: The Cost of Care in the Land of Plenty
We don’t talk about it much, but the numbers tell the story plain: about four in 10 adults in America carry medical or dental debt, and rural folks are more likely to struggle with it than people living in urban areas.
AI vs. AI: Patients deploy bots to battle health insurers that deny care
Several businesses and nonprofits have launched AI-powered tools to help patients get their insurance claims paid and navigate byzantine medical bills, creating a robotic tug-of-war over who gets care and who foots the bill for it.
Rural Health Transformation Program Won’t Make Up for Federal Budget Cuts, Experts Agree
A new program touted to give $50 billion in federal funding to rural hospitals won’t necessarily keep rural hospitals from closing, according to several experts in rural health.
‘You’re Going to See Very Severe Things and Dangerous Things’: Medicaid Cuts in Rural Idaho
Maternity care deserts are counties with no hospital or birth center offering obstetric care and no obstetric clinicians. According to data collected by March of Dimes, 32% of Idaho’s counties are maternity care deserts.
Trump’s new law will limit payments to hospitals that treat low-income patients
President Donald Trump’s new tax and spending law will likely force more than half the states to reduce payments to doctors and hospitals that treat Medicaid patients, a change critics warn will be particularly harmful to rural hospitals struggling to stay afloat.
Medicaid cuts are likely to worsen mental health care in rural America
Medicaid cuts in the massive tax and spending bill signed into law earlier this month will worsen mental health disparities in those communities, experts say, as patients lose coverage and rural health centers are unable to remain open amid a loss of funds.
How 17M Americans enrolled in Medicaid and ACA plans could lose their health insurance by 2034
As a public health professor, I see these changes, which will be phased in over several years, as the first step in a reversal of the expansion of access to health care that began with the ACA’s passage in 2010. About 25.3 million Americans lacked insurance in 2023, down sharply from 46.5 million when President Barack Obama signed the ACA into law. All told, the changes in the works could eliminate three-quarters of the progress the U.S. has made in reducing the number of uninsured Americans following the Affordable Care Act.
Republican Megabill Will Mean Higher Health Costs for Many Americans
Under the legislation Trump’s expected to sign on Friday, Independence Day, reductions in federal support for Medicaid and Affordable Care Act marketplaces will cause nearly 12 million more people to be without insurance by 2034, the Congressional Budget Office estimates. That in turn is expected to undermine the finances of hospitals, nursing homes, and community health centers — which will have to absorb more of the cost of treating uninsured people. Some may reduce services and employees or close altogether
Congress Is Pushing for a Medicaid Work Requirement. Here’s What Happened When Georgia Tried It.
Congressional Republicans, looking for ways to offset their proposed tax cuts, are seeking to mandate that millions of Americans work in order to receive federally subsidized health insurance.
How artificial intelligence controls your health insurance coverage
Unlike doctors and hospitals, which use AI to help diagnose and treat patients, health insurers use these algorithms to decide whether to pay for health care treatments and services that are recommended by a physician.
‘MAGA’ Backers Like Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’ — Until They Learn of Health Consequences
Nearly two-thirds of adults oppose President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” approved in May by the House of Representatives, according to a new poll.
And even Trump’s most ardent supporters like the legislation a lot less when they learn how it would cut federal spending on health programs, the poll shows.
When you lose your health insurance, you may also lose your primary doctor – and that hurts your health
The connection to your primary care provider, usually a doctor, gets severed. You stop getting routine checkups. Warning signs get missed. Medical problems that could have been caught early become emergencies. And because emergencies are both dangerous and expensive, your health gets worse while your medical bills climb.
‘Expensive and complicated’: Most rural hospitals no longer deliver babies
Nationwide, most rural hospitals no longer offer obstetric services. Since the end of 2020, more than 100 rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies. Fewer than 1,000 rural hospitals nationwide still have labor and delivery services.
‘Big Beautiful Bill’ dings states that offer health care to some immigrants here legally
The Republican budget bill the U.S. House approved last month includes a surprise for the 40 states that have expanded Medicaid: penalties for providing health care to some immigrants who are here legally.