Pennsylvania may be short 20,000 nurses by 2026

Imagine nearly every seat in Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center − over 20,000 seats − are empty. That’s the scale of Pennsylvania’s projected shortfall of registered nurses by 2026, according to…

Medicare Advantage is covering more and more Americans − some because they don’t get to choose

Since the mid-2000s, the Medicare system has dramatically transformed. Enrollment in Medicare Advantage – the private alternative to the traditional Medicare program administered by the government – has more than…

Supreme Court considers whether states may prevent people covered by Medicaid from choosing Planned Parenthood as their health care provider

Having the freedom to choose your own health care provider is something many Americans take for granted. But the Supreme Court is weighing whether people who rely on Medicaid for…

Poor neighborhoods, health care barriers are factors for heart disease risk in Black mothers

Living in a disadvantaged neighborhood contributes to a rare form of heart failure known as peripartum cardiomyopathy, a potentially deadly disease that disproportionately affects Black mothers. That’s the key finding…

A brief history of Medicaid and America’s long struggle to establish a health care safety net

The Medicaid system has emerged as an early target of the Trump administration’s campaign to slash federal spending. A joint federal and state program, Medicaid provides health insurance coverage for…

5 years of COVID-19 underscore value of coordinated efforts to manage disease – while CDC, NIH and WHO face threats to their ability to respond to a crisis

Five years ago, on March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of COVID-19 a global pandemic. The novel coronavirus, dubbed SARS-CoV-2, began as a “cluster of severe…

3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future, starting with health care

Rural America faces many challenges that Congress and the federal government could help alleviate under the new Trump administration. Rural hospitals and their obstetrics wards have been closing at a…

3 ways the Trump administration could reinvest in rural America’s future

Rural America faces many challenges that Congress and the federal government could help alleviate under the new Trump administration. Rural hospitals and their obstetrics wards have been closing at a…

5 of the most frustrating health insurer tactics and why they exist

The U.S. has made great progress in getting more people insured since the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2014. The share of uninsured Americans ages 18 to 64 fell…

Health risks are rising in mountain areas flooded by Hurricane Helene and cut off from clean water, power and hospitals

Hurricane Helene’s flooding has subsided, but health risks are growing in hard-hit regions of the North Carolina mountains, where many people lost access to power and clean water. More than…