How to (Finally) Break That Bad Habit

James Clear, author of Atomic Habits, adds that looking at data can be a good starting point. “For fitness habits, it could be things like your Apple Watch or Whoop band or MyFitnessPal. There are many different ways to get data,” he says. “It also can be true for habits that maybe you wouldn’t think about tracking.” For example, […]

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A Drug to Treat Aging May Not Be a Pipe Dream

Life expectancy in the best-performing countries has been increasing by three months per year every year since the early 1800s. Throughout most of human history, you had a roughly 50–50 chance of making it into your twenties, mainly due to deaths from infectious diseases and accidents. Thanks to medical advances, we’ve gradually found ways to […]

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Journalists Recap Coverage of Gun Violence, Drug Imports, and Mental Health

Thank you for your interest in supporting Kaiser Health News (KHN), the nation’s leading nonprofit newsroom focused on health and health policy. We distribute our journalism for free and without advertising through media partners of all sizes and in communities large and small. We appreciate all forms of engagement from our readers and listeners, and […]

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‘Caged … For No Fault of Your Own’: Detainees Dread Covid While Awaiting Immigration Hearings

Renuka Rayasam LUMPKIN, Ga. — In October, Yibran Ramirez-Cecena didn’t alert the staff at Stewart Detention Center to his cough and runny nose. Ramirez-Cecena, who had been detained at the immigration detention facility in southwestern Georgia since May, hid his symptoms, afraid he would be put in solitary confinement if he tested positive for covid-19. […]

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ER Doctors Call Private Equity Staffing Practices Illegal and Seek to Ban Them

Bernard J. Wolfson A group of emergency physicians and consumer advocates in multiple states are pushing for stiffer enforcement of decades-old statutes that prohibit the ownership of medical practices by corporations not owned by licensed doctors. Thirty-three states plus the District of Columbia have rules on their books against the so-called corporate practice of medicine. […]

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‘An Arm and a Leg’: Getting Insurance to Pay for Oral Surgery Is Like Pulling Teeth

Dan Weissmann Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen. Click here for a transcript of the episode. Health coverage generally does not cover dental work. But Susan Rice of Atlanta should have been the exception: She was hit by a speeding car, causing extensive damage to her own “grill.” She’s been fighting to get […]

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Centene, Under Siege in America, Moved Into Britain’s National Health Service

LONDON — In the final days of 2020, the U.S. health insurer Centene made a swift incursion into Britain’s prized National Health Service, one of the world’s largest employers. A Centene subsidiary, Operose Health, took over nearly three dozen medical practices in London — gateways for NHS care — in a deal worth tens of […]

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KHN’s ‘What the Health?’: The Covid Response Coordinator Speaks

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen on Acast. You can also listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Click here for a transcript of the episode. Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House covid-19 response coordinator, is the guest for a wide-ranging interview on this week’s […]

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Colorado Considers Changing Its Red Flag Law After Mass Shooting at Nightclub

Markian Hawryluk A Nov. 19 shooting that killed five people and wounded 19 at a Colorado Springs nightclub has officials considering changes to strengthen Colorado’s red flag law, particularly in self-declared “Second Amendment sanctuaries,” where emergency petitions to remove a person’s guns are filed less frequently and usually denied. The three-year-old state law allows law […]

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KHN-NPR’s ‘Bill of the Month’ at 5: A Treasury of Solutions for Confounding Medical Bills

In 2022, readers shared more than 1,000 personal stories of medical billing problems, contributing one patient at a time to an ongoing portrait of the rippling financial consequences of becoming sick or injured in the United States. Many of the submissions received during the fifth year of KHN-NPR’s “Bill of the Month” investigative series conveyed […]

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