health care

Under the Affordable Care Act, insurers are required to cover birth control with no copay. It's unclear what will happen to coverage if the act is repealed or amended.

Spike In Demand For Long-Acting Birth Control Strains Clinic Budgets

12:49pm November 23, 2016

by Erin Ross

Family planning centers funded by the federal government are straining to meet a post-election surge in demand for contraceptives. And it's unclear if the new Congress will continue support.

Chicago Orthopedic Surgeon Recalls Volunteer Work In War-Torn Syria

4:39pm November 22, 2016

NPR's Kelly McEvers speaks to Dr. Samer Attar, an orthopedic surgeon at Northwestern Medicine, who spent months in Aleppo, Syria, this past summer as a volunteer doctor.

Iowa Insurance Commissioner Outlines Potential Effects Of Repealing Obamacare

4:41pm November 21, 2016

NPR's Audie Cornish talks to Republican Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart on what a GOP push to repeal the Affordable Care Act could mean for the insurance market and the U.S. economy.

Volunteer Julia Torrano helps Estelle Day, 79, style her hair while she's a patient at UCLA Medical Center.

Hospital Companions Can Ease Isolation For Older People

1:43pm November 21, 2016

by Ina Jaffe

Loneliness and social isolation can affect health for the worse. A California hospital is training volunteers to provide companionship and friendly assistance.

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When Morton Pollner was diagnosed with lung cancer at age 76, he thought it was a death sentence.

Older Patients Can Benefit From Lung Cancer Surgery

8:50am November 21, 2016

by Patti Neighmond

Lung cancer affects mostly older people, but they're often not offered surgery as a treatment. A study finds that most older people can tolerate surgery, and that it extends lives.

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Protest signs at the Florida Keys Mosquito Control District board's meeting Saturday in Marathon, Fla.

Florida Keys Approves Trial Of Genetically Modified Mosquitoes To Fight Zika

2:58pm November 20, 2016

by Greg Allen

In the Florida Keys, no cases of locally transmitted Zika have been reported, but officials have decided to go ahead with trials of a genetically modified mosquito to combat the spread of the disease.

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At the Grace Community Health Center in Manchester, Ky., psychologist Joan Nantz meets with patient Ramiro Salazar, who gained Medicaid under the expansion.

In Depressed Rural Kentucky, Worries Mount Over Medicaid Cutbacks

4:27pm November 19, 2016

by Phil Galewitz

People in poverty-stricken Clay County, Kentucky, worry about what will happen to their health care if Gov. Matt Bevin's and President-elect Trump's ambitions to overhaul Medicaid proceed.

A mother holds her baby, who has microcephaly, in Recife, Brazil.

Zika No Longer Global 'Health Emergency,' WHO Declares

6:17pm November 18, 2016

by Michaeleen Doucleff

But it's too early to say whether the epidemic isn't has bad as the agency first predicted back in February.

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Anthony Salemi, of Everett, Mass., holds a photo of his brother Joe, who died from an overdose of fentanyl-laced heroin earlier this year.

Deaths Linked To Fentanyl Rise As Curbing Illicit Supply Proves Tough

5:21pm November 18, 2016

by Martha Bebinger

Law enforcement is scrambling to get ahead of the opioid, which is far more chemically potent than heroin. Most illegal fentanyl is made in China. As soon as one version is outlawed, another pops up.

When Georgia Moore (second from left) was diagnosed with leukemia in 2010, her parents, Trevor and Courtney Moore, worried about the germs her younger sister, Ivy, would bring home from school.

Texas Parents Have Unanswered Questions About School Vaccination Rates

11:57am November 18, 2016

by Anna Casey

Data about the number of unvaccinated kids in individual public schools aren't available to parents in Texas. Some of them are looking to change the reporting requirements.