President Trump has directed federal agencies to look for ways to strengthen work requirements for various aid programs, including Medicaid, food stamps, housing assistance and cash welfare.
Ausberto Maldonado picked corn and asparagus for years on the U.S. mainland before retiring in Puerto Rico. He has diabetes, and as the island's safety net wears thin, he's struggling to survive.
The Martinez family has been waiting more than a year for a neurologist to diagnose the son's condition. He needs a diagnosis to be eligible for the health care he needs, but can't get an appointment.
Medicaid expansion is a real possibility in Virginia this year. The matter will be taken up in a special session after lawmakers failed to agree on whether or not to do it in the regular session.
The tax reform law passed in December did repeal the Affordable Care Act's penalties for not having comprehensive health insurance. But the penalties are still in effect until 2019.
The Trump administration rolled out a list of actions in its budget proposal to attack drug prices, but most of the measures dance around the edges of the problem.
Federal officials signed off on an Indiana plan that would lock out people who fail to promptly file Medicaid paperwork. The provision could drive thousands of people off Medicaid in the state.
The state built some key conservative policies into its experimental expansion of Medicaid. Lawmakers, health officials and patient advocates across the U.S. are now keenly watching the results.
While the federal health law made insurers cover the full cost of screening colonoscopies, consumers with a history of polyps who need more frequent tests may have to pick up some costs.
For more than 50 years, the health program for the poor and sick has been required to ferry some clients to and from medical appointments. But a few states say transport is currently too expensive.
Since taking over as president of Planned Parenthood in 2006, Cecile Richards has led the organization through numerous political fights. Those conflicts have intensified under President Trump.
Dr. Andrey Ostrovsky, until recently chief medical officer for Medicaid, quit his job to more directly fight the stigma of addiction — a stigma that made his beloved uncle afraid to ask for help.
Last summer, the Oregon Legislature passed a package of state taxes to cover Medicaid's expanding rolls. But Oregon voters Tuesday could throw a wrench in that plan by refusing some of the taxes.
Civil liberties groups in Missouri and at least five other states are suing to get more inmates treated with hepatitis drugs that are highly effective but quite expensive.
Home health firms sometimes turn away Medicare beneficiaries who have chronic health problems by incorrectly claiming Medicare won't pay for their services, say advocates for patients.
Indiana is one of the states poised to get permission to require Medicaid recipients to work. Advocates say work requirements may be good politics but they're bad policy.
The move comes one day after the Trump administration said it would let states add work requirements to their Medicaid programs, which provide health coverage for people with low incomes.
The Nevada Department of Public and Behavioral Health announced Wednesday it has amended the state’s Medicaid policy to include coverage for medically necessary surgeries for transgender individuals.
Ten states have already asked the administration to add work requirements to the popular health insurance program for low-income people. But many recipients are already working.
Hundreds of thousands of people gained health insurance in states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. In those states, hospitals were less likely to close.
Washington, D.C., is experimenting with providing home visits and telemedicine to people on Medicaid, with the goal of making it less likely they'll end up in the emergency room.
The federal funding of the program lapsed in September. States have been burning through leftover funds, or borrowing from other accounts, as they wait for Congress to act before the end of January.
Funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program expired in September. Millions of children could lose coverage, unless Congress acts soon to restore the money to keep the program running.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine get very specific in their recommendations of actions they think the federal government should take to lower prescription drug costs.
