Kaiser Health News

Some Republicans in Congress say they could partly fix the federal health law by again separating people who buy insurance into two categories — sick and healthy. Critics say it won’t save money.

A quarter of doctors practicing in the U.S. went to medical school elsewhere. Many of these physicians practice in parts of this country that the government says need more primary care providers.

The Obama administration has said no to many states’ requests to take more control over Medicaid. But the incoming Congress and new White House team may be more amenable.

California boasts one of the lowest rates of tobacco smoking in the nation. Researchers worry that pot smoking will lead the way to cigarette smoking.

In 2007, Juneau voted fluoride out of the tap water by almost 2-1. This summer, at least seven cities or towns across the country debated fluoridation.

Here are five reasons why high drug prices are an issue again — and why it is so difficult to solve.

“For patients who are similar across a broad range of characteristics … there appears to be a large range in the propensity of hospitals to prescribe opioids,” said Dr. Anupam Jena, associate professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School and the study’s lead author.

The president made the proposal as part of a comprehensive look at the Affordable Care Act’s legacy in an article under his byline in JAMA, the top journal of the American Medical Association.

Researchers found that in states with medical marijuana laws on the books, the number of prescriptions dropped for drugs to treat anxiety, depression, nausea, pain, seizures and sleep disorders.

Wintemute is one of the nation’s most prominent gun violence experts. He studies the problem from a public health perspective, using empirical research, and then proposes potential solutions based on his findings.