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In California, where abortion rights are guaranteed, there鈥檚 a loophole. The growth of Catholic hospital systems, which restrict reproductive health care, has left patients with no other option for care. That will be the case for pregnant women in Northern California, with a hospital set to close its birth center.
The vice presidential debate showcased the very different views of Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance, Donald Trump鈥檚 running mate, and Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, Kamala Harris鈥 VP pick, on health policies past and present.
A remote Wyoming community hoped for years to have more access to health care. Now, after receiving federal funding, it is bucking dismal closure trends throughout the rural U.S. and building its own hospital. And it鈥檚 not the only one.
State officials threatened to withhold public money from hospitals, pioneering a strategy that could become a national model.
One rural North Carolina county is on track to be among the first where a hospital reopens owing to a new federal hospital classification meant to help save small, struggling facilities.
Ballad Health, a 20-hospital system with the nation's largest state-sanctioned hospital monopoly, serves patients in Tennessee, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina.
Many Catholic health systems, which are tax-exempt, pay their executives millions and can charge some of the highest prices around 鈥 while critics say they scrimp on commitments to their communities.
Insurance coverage for abortion care in the U.S. is a hodgepodge. Patients often don鈥檛 know when or if a procedure or abortion pills are covered, and the proliferation of abortion bans has exacerbated the confusion.
Political drama involving a rural Georgia county reflects how state regulations that govern when and where hospitals can be built or expanded are evolving.
鈥淐ertificate of need鈥 laws, largely supported by the hospital industry, limit health facility construction in 35 states and Washington, D.C. Georgia lawmakers decided its law was complicating the reviving of two hospitals critical to their communities.
Taborian Hospital in Mound Bayou, Mississippi, was established to exclusively admit Black patients during a time when Jim Crow laws barred them from accessing the same health care facilities as white patients. Its closure underscores how hundreds of Black hospitals in the U.S. fell casualty to social progress.
This installment of InvestigateTV and 吃瓜不打烊鈥 鈥淐ostly Care鈥 series digs into patients' getting charged hospital prices for doctor鈥檚 office care. For five years, a patient got the same injection from the same office. Then it changed how it billed and she owed more than $1,100 for one treatment.
Proposed legislation would require the state attorney general鈥檚 consent for a wide range of private equity acquisitions in health care. The hospital lobby negotiated an exemption for for-profit hospitals.
Kamala Harris fought health care consolidation during her tenure as California鈥檚 attorney general, and she could escalate the fight nationally if she wins in November. Still, the pace of mergers has accelerated.
Hospitals in several states are partnering with a private equity-backed company to offer combined emergency and urgent care in a single building. But patients may not realize prices vary between the two services 鈥 often by a lot.
Legal maneuvering, industry lobbying, and lax IRS oversight leave lots of room for 鈥渙perating surpluses.鈥
Montana鈥檚 proposal to increase oversight is part of a national trend by states to ensure nonprofit hospitals act as charitable organizations as they claim tax-exempt status. But the state has yet to set standards for how much the hospitals must do.
In this episode of 鈥淎n Arm and a Leg,鈥 host Dan Weissmann speaks with Georgann Boatright, a patient in Mississippi who was willing to drive to another state to avoid paying a steep fee to her local hospital.
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