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Patchwork state policies and limited federal oversight have led to a fragmented system for tracking when potential organ donors provide consent or change their minds.
Scientists are cheering California Gov. Gavin Newsom as he builds a public health bulwark against health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.鈥檚 anti-vaccine stance and President Donald Trump鈥檚 withdrawal from the World Health Organization. Still, federal cuts have sapped morale and left local health departments less prepared for outbreaks.
Mobile crisis units are trained to respond to emergency calls when people are experiencing delusions or hallucinations. But unlike police departments, which are generally funded by local taxpayers, mobile crisis teams don鈥檛 have a single, reliable funding source. As a result, some are closing down, despite successful operations and local support.
More than 1,000 American nurses have successfully applied for licensure in British Columbia since April, a massive increase over prior years. Ontario and Alberta have also seen more interest from Americans.
The Trump administration鈥檚 move to give deportation officials access to Medicaid data is forcing hospitals and states to consider alerting immigrant patients that information from emergency medical coverage applications could be used in efforts to remove them from the country.
Some hospitals are registering patients detained by federal immigration officers under pseudonyms and prohibiting staff from contacting family members. Attorneys and health care workers say the practices facilitate rights violations and create ethical concerns. Hospitals say they鈥檙e trying to protect patients.
Paid home care is buckling under the surging demands of an aging population. But there are alternatives that could upgrade jobs and improve patient care.
"An Arm and a Leg" looks back on state laws passed in 2025 aimed at removing medical debts from credit reports and reining in corporate influence on medicine.
Columbia Memorial Hospital near Oregon鈥檚 coastline planned to add a tsunami shelter, counting on a FEMA grant. After the Trump administration cut the funding, hospital officials are building anyway, saying waiting is too risky. A judge ruled Dec. 11 that the administration unlawfully ended the program without congressional approval.
The federal budget bill President Donald Trump signed into law in July is creating uncertainty for states trying to rein in health care spending. In California, a lawsuit by the hospital industry challenging state spending caps cites the law, which will slash Medicaid spending, as one of many financial pressures.
Regulations meant to prevent unfettered health care expansion are withholding needed hospital beds in a rural part of North Carolina. Here, as in communities around the country, some officials and health care providers are contesting such 鈥渃ertificate of need鈥 laws.
The Trump administration has championed its Rural Health Transformation Program as an investment in American families who have been left behind. But Native American tribes, whose communities have a significant presence in rural America and have some of the greatest health needs, are ineligible to apply directly for funding.
New details from health officials suggest the whooping-cough surge may be part of a national pattern driven by slipping vaccine coverage and waning immunity, with infants bearing the brunt of the consequences.
As voters feel financial pressure from runaway health care costs and crave innovations that would provide relief, the standoff in Congress has been firmly rooted in the status quo 鈥 keeping an existing provision of the Affordable Care Act alive.
Reversing guidance from the Biden administration, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau concludes that states cannot bar medical debt from their residents鈥 credit reports.
The Trump administration says it鈥檚 developing a digital tool to help people prove they鈥檙e meeting new Medicaid work requirements. 吃瓜不打烊 talked to officials from the two states running pilot programs and found little evidence of new 鈥 or effective 鈥 technology.
A federal probe of Medicare and Medicaid plans run by private insurance companies found that the plan operators often overstated how many mental health providers were available in their networks. In some cases, investigators found providers had never had contracts with plans they were listed on.
More men are now living long enough to develop osteoporosis. But few are aware of the risk, and fewer still are screened and treated.
The Trump administration has restored promised funds to a program that teaches people in health care how to work with aging Americans.
Amid concerns that Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is undermining trust in vaccines and public health science, some states are seeking new sources of scientific consensus and changing how they regulate insurance companies, prescribers, and pharmacists. Colorado has been at the front of this wave.
漏 2026 KFF