Blog

• KFF Health News: Historic Numbers of Americans Live by Themselves as They Age

  September 19, 2024: Gerri Norington, 78, never wanted to be on her own as she grew old. But her first marriage ended in divorce, and her second husband died more than 30 years ago. When a five-year relationship came to a close in 2006, she found herself alone — a s...Read more >

• KFF Health News: New Lines of Attack Form Against the Affordable Care Act

  August 22, 2024: The Affordable Care Act is back under attack. Not as in the repeal-and-replace debates of yore, but in a fresher take from Republican lawmakers who say key parts of the ACA cost taxpayers too much and provide incentive for fraud. Several House Rep...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Despite Past Storms’ Lessons, Long-Term Care Residents Again Left Powerless

  July 18, 2024: HOUSTON — As Tina Kitzmiller sat inside her sweltering apartment, windows and doors open in the hope of catching even the slightest breeze, she was frustrated and worried for her dog and her neighbors. It had been days since Hurricane Beryl blew...Read more >

• KFF Health News: States Set Minimum Staffing Levels for Nursing Homes. Residents Suffer When Rules Are Ignored or Waived.

  July 18, 2024: For hours, John Pernorio repeatedly mashed the call button at his bedside in the Heritage Hills nursing home in Rhode Island. A retired truck driver, he had injured his spine in a fall on the job decades earlier and could no longer walk. The antibiot...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Lack of Affordability Tops Older Americans’ List of Health Care Worries

  July 11, 2024: What weighs most heavily on older adults’ minds when it comes to health care? The cost of services and therapies, and their ability to pay. “It’s on our minds a whole lot because of our age and because everything keeps getting more expens...Read more >

• KFF Health News: The Concierge Catch – Better Access for a Few Patients Disrupts Care for Many

  July 01, 2024: “You had to pay the fee, or the doctor wasn’t going to see you anymore.” That was the takeaway for Terri Marroquin of Midland, Texas, when her longtime physician began charging a membership fee in 2019. She found out about the change when so...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Older Women Are Different Than Older Men. Their Health Is Woefully Understudied.

  June 20, 2024: Medical research has shortchanged women for decades. This is particularly true of older women, leaving physicians without critically important information about how to best manage their health. Late last year, the Biden administration promised to ...Read more >

• Forget Ringing the Button for the Nurse. Patients Now Stay Connected by Wearing One.

  May 22, 2024: HOUSTON — Patients admitted to Houston Methodist Hospital get a monitoring device about the size of a half-dollar affixed to their chest — and an unwitting role in the expanding use of artificial intelligence in health care. The slender, batte...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Stranded in the ER, Seniors Await Hospital Care and Suffer Avoidable Harm

  May 09, 2024: Every day, the scene plays out in hospitals across America: Older men and women lie on gurneys in emergency room corridors moaning or suffering silently as harried medical staff attend to crises. Even when physicians determine these patients need ...Read more >

• KFF Health News: Biden Administration Sets Higher Staffing Mandates. Most Nursing Homes Don’t Meet Them.

  April 25, 2024: The Biden administration finalized nursing home staffing rules Monday that will require thousands of them to hire more nurses and aides — while giving them years to do so. The new rules from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services are t...Read more >