This summer, Code Switch is laser-focused on books that teach us about freedom. Today, we're in conversation with a romance novelist whose own identity helped inform a rich cast of characters.
Home health aides work for low wages, but they're critical for elderly and disabled people. A proposal to inject billions of dollars in federal funding may be an opportunity for sweeping change.
The nation's top doctor, Vivek Murthy, says misinformation will keep sowing mistrust and endangering lives unless all Americans do their part to fight it.
Clinical trials show Wegovy triples the average weight loss seen with other drugs. Whether it will reach many patients largely depends on whether insurers decide to cover it.
They don't qualify for Medicaid in their states, but earn too little to be eligible for subsidized ACA health plans. It's a gap in health care coverage, and some politicians are trying to fix it.
Seniors, their families and states are eager to keep older Americans in their homes and out of nursing homes, but those efforts are often thwarted by worker shortages and low pay.
To mark National PTSD Awareness Day on Sunday June 27, we hear the story of a disabled veteran and his wife, and their journey through trauma and its aftermath.
The practice of housing children who are in psychiatric crisis in local ERs — often for days, while they await appropriate in-patient treatment — has become even more prevalent during the pandemic.
A new CDC study finds that people who provide unpaid care for their children or adult loved ones are twice as likely as noncaregivers to have experienced depression or anxiety, or thoughts of suicide.
Families say schools must make up for all their children have lost after the special education services they have a legal right to were disrupted or stopped during the pandemic in many districts.
Special education services were severely disrupted when schools closed in spring 2020. In many places, they have yet to fully resume. Now, families are demanding schools take action.
After a stroke, people often lose dexterity in one hand. Now, the Food and Drug Administration has authorized a device that can restore function by encouraging the brain to rewire.
Montana now has six mobile crisis response teams — up from one in 2019 — with more in the works. Each team has a different makeup, but all use mental health support to diffuse tricky situations.
The adoption of flexible work arrangements during the pandemic has helped some employees for whom working from home is ideal. Will this trend continue for the post-pandemic work force?
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shifted its stance this week on the need to wear masks if you're vaccinated. What's that mean for kids? For travel? For work? Experts weigh in.
For most people, COVID-19 vaccines promise a return to something akin to normal life. But for the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have a transplanted organ, it's a different story.
This isn't the first big vaccine rollout, and the past holds lessons for the pandemic present. Here's a look at how the polio vaccine overcame U.S. hesitancy.
All the singers in this U.K. choir have undergone laryngectomies — voice box removal — to treat cancer. Singing builds lung strength, and performing together builds confidence, choir members say.
If the report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Inspector General is sustained, Humana Inc. could face a record penalty for overcharges in a Medicare Advantage plan.
Long-term care options are expensive and often out of reach for elders and people with disabilities. Part of the president's proposed infrastructure plan would help fund home-based health services.
Monday's announcement comes after thousands of borrowers with disabilities had their federal student loans erased, then handed back to them during the pandemic.
The GO FlyEase is scheduled to be released on April 30. Some people with disabilities worry that they won't be able to get a pair because of the company's mass marketing strategy.
If passed, Biden's relief bill would significantly expand the number of people eligible for federal help in paying their health plan premiums, and would boost the size of those subsidies.
![Bell helps Caleb to the kitchen table for breakfast in their Harlem home. "It was very difficult for him to participate in any [remote] activities or related services due to his inability to see, hear or speak," she says. "All of his services decreased i](https://knpr.org/sites/default/files/public/styles/thumbnail/public/images/npr-story/1006263357_1670594775.jpg?itok=pnGbgU2b "Cassandra Giraldo for NPR")
