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KFF Health News' 'What the Health?': Cutting Medicaid is hard — even for the GOP

After narrowly passing a budget resolution this spring foreshadowing major Medicaid cuts, Republicans in Congress are having trouble agreeing on specific ways to save billions of dollars from a pool of funding that pays for the program without cutting benefits on which millions of Americans rely.

8 May 2025

HIV drugs found to significantly reduce Alzheimer's risk in new study

UVA Health scientists are calling for clinical trials testing the potential of HIV drugs called NRTIs to prevent Alzheimer's disease after discovering that patients taking the drugs are substantially less likely to develop the memory-robbing condition.

8 May 2025

Seeking spending cuts, GOP lawmakers target a tax hospitals love to pay

On the eastern plains of Colorado, in a county of less than 6,000 people, Lincoln Health runs the only hospital within a 75-minute drive. The facility struggles financially, given its small size and the area's tiny population.

8 May 2025

New heart rate measure offers clues to future cognitive health

Healthy hearts are adaptable, and heartbeats exhibit complex variation as they adjust to tiny changes in the body and environment.

7 May 2025

Trump policies at odds with ‘make America healthy again’ push

In his March address to Congress, President Donald Trump honored a Texas boy diagnosed with brain cancer. Amid bipartisan applause, he vowed to drive down childhood cancer rates through his "Make America Healthy Again" initiative.

7 May 2025

Mental health diagnoses rise sharply among publicly insured children

In the first comprehensive investigation into the trends of mental health diagnoses among children with public health insurance, a new study reports the percentage of mental health and neurodevelopmental disorder diagnoses increased substantially in the decade before the COVID-19 pandemic.

6 May 2025

Varicose veins increase your risk of dementia, study finds

A nationwide Korean study finds a surprising link between varicose veins and dementia, and suggests that treating the veins could help prevent vascular brain damage.

6 May 2025

HIV testing and outreach falter as Trump funding cuts sweep the South

Storm clouds hung low above a community center in Jackson, where pastor Andre Devine invited people inside for lunch. Hoagies with smoked turkey and ham drew the crowd, but several people lingered for free preventive health care: tests for HIV and other diseases, flu shots, and blood pressure and glucose monitoring.

6 May 2025

Medicaid unwinding may have put opioid recovery care at risk

The massive national effort to return the Medicaid enrollment process to its pre-pandemic rules starting in April 2023 may have disrupted the care of people receiving treatment for opioid addiction, a new University of Michigan study suggests.

3 May 2025

National initiative boosts heart failure treatment across US hospitals

About 6.7 million adults in the U.S. are living with heart failure, and that number is expected to increase to more than 8 million by 2030.

3 May 2025

Medicaid enrollment drops linked to disrupted care for young people

Children and young adults with depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, asthma and epilepsy can get great relief from medications to control their symptoms, helping them stay in school or work and prepare for their futures.

3 May 2025

Medicaid rollbacks could deepen health inequities

A new analysis provides evidence that reductions in access to Medicaid could increase deaths and cause financial hardship to people currently covered under an expansion of Medicaid that was implemented under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

2 May 2025

Covered California pushes for better health care as federal spending cuts loom

Faced with potential federal spending cuts that threaten health coverage and falling childhood vaccination rates, Monica Soni, the chief medical officer of Covered California, has a lot on her plate — and on her mind.

2 May 2025

Sequential cancer therapies improve survival in rare lymphomas

Study data reveal how a specific sequence of cancer therapies can improve outcomes for patients with hard-to-treat lymphomas.

2 May 2025

California’s primary care shortage persists despite ambitious moves to close gap

Sumana Reddy, a primary care physician, struggles on thin financial margins to run Acacia Family Medical Group, the small independent practice she founded 27 years ago in Salinas, a predominantly Latino city in an agricultural valley often called "the salad bowl of the world."

1 May 2025

New protein target offers hope for treating high blood pressure and aortic aneurysms

Oxidative stress can occur when our cells are exposed to harmful molecules called "reactive oxygen species" over time. These reactive oxygen species can damage cells and are found in important disease states, such as high blood pressure and aortic aneurysms.

30 Apr 2025

The patient expected a free checkup. The bill was $1,430.

Carmen Aiken of Chicago made an appointment for an annual physical exam in July 2023, planning to get checked out and complete some blood work.

30 Apr 2025

Financial Toxicity Tumor Board approach provides relief from cancer treatment costs

Financial toxicity, the financial distress linked to cancer treatment, significantly impacts patient outcomes. To combat this, the Atrium Health Levine Cancer Institute established a Financial Toxicity Tumor Board in 2019.

29 Apr 2025

AI predicts pediatric glioma recurrence using multiple brain scans

Artificial intelligence (AI) shows tremendous promise for analyzing vast medical imaging datasets and identifying patterns that may be missed by human observers.

24 Apr 2025

Metabolic syndrome in midlife linked to higher dementia risk

Having a larger waistline, high blood pressure and other risk factors that make up metabolic syndrome is associated with an increased risk of young-onset dementia, according to a study published on April 23, 2025, online in Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

23 Apr 2025