health care

An interior view of the plans for the Gaza children's cancer treatment center.

In Gaza, Kids With Cancer Have 'Virtually No Care.' One Group Hopes To Help

6:41pm December 06, 2015

by Noor Wazwaz

If children in the Gaza Strip need to get treatment for cancer, they face a bureaucratic morass — and a trek outside Gaza. One nonprofit hopes to fix that by building a pediatric cancer center there.

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In a hospital in Dhankuta, Nepal, a mother sits with her son, who is recovering from hernia surgery.

'I Hope The Hospital Has Enough Diesel For Their Generator'

6:03am December 06, 2015

by Donatella Lorch

A health crisis grips the country, triggered by fuel blockades. Medicine is in short supply. But our writer, living in Kathmandu, needed emergency surgery.

The World Is A Safer Place — Except Where It's Not

4:00pm December 04, 2015

by Maanvi Singh

Injuries have dropped worldwide. But road accidents still take a big toll in the developing world.

Michael Palone, 26, who has Asperger's syndrome and mild autism, is paid to assemble packages through a program run by The Arc in Union City, Calif. The program may close soon due to budget problems.

In California, Aid Withers For People With Developmental Disabilities

2:09pm December 04, 2015

by Melissa Hellmann

Budget cuts and rising costs are imperiling California's programs for people with developmental disabilities. The state had led the nation in providing innovative community based services.

Health & Safety

Many Flexible Health Plans Come With A Costly Trap

5:03pm December 03, 2015

by Julie Appleby

A growing number of marketplace plans leave consumers responsible for potentially unlimited out-of-network health care bills, despite expectations that there are caps in place.

Behind-the-scenes work to reduce injuries and infections in hospitals has paid off. Further improvements may be more challenging.

Health & Safety

Hospital Injury Rates Plateau, After 3 Years Of Decline

2:23pm December 03, 2015

by Jordan Rau

Hospitals have averted many types of injuries where clear preventive steps have been identified. But complications with less clear-cut solutions remain a problem, a government report finds.

A recent analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds that Medicare recipients taking Revlimid for cancer could end up paying, on average, $11,538 out of pocket for the drug in 2016, even if the medicine is covered by their Medicare Part D plan.

Specialty Drugs Can Prove Expensive Even With Medicare Coverage

10:21am December 03, 2015

by Alison Kodjak

Medicare insurance plans for drugs vary widely in the medicines they cover. For 2016, some patients who pick the wrong plan could pay nearly $12,000 out of pocket annually for a single drug.

In a study of 1.3 million women, ages 40 to 74, having a false positive on a screening mammogram was associated with a slightly increased chance that the woman would eventually develop breast cancer. The extra risk seemed to be independent of the density

False Alarm Mammograms May Still Signal Higher Breast Cancer Risk

4:01pm December 02, 2015

Largest study to date finds women who have abnormal mammograms but negative results from further tests have a somewhat higher risk of developing breast cancer during the next 10 years.

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Kentucky Gov.-elect Matt Bevin has vowed to do away with Kynect, the successful state-run insurance exchange.

What Happens If Kentucky Dismantles Its Health Insurance Exchange?

2:50pm December 01, 2015

by Phil Galewitz

Supporters of Kentucky's insurance exchange have asked the governor-elect to reconsider a pledge he made to shutter it and shift people to the federally run HealthCare.gov.

Expanded Medicaid Coverage Means More Women Get Mammograms

12:14pm December 01, 2015

by Lynne Shallcross

Low-income women were 25 percent more likely to get screened for breast cancer in states that expanded their Medicaid programs early under the Affordable Care Act.