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This poll finds most of the public believe the cutbacks at USAID will lead to increases in illness and death in low-income countries. Nearly half say it will reduce the U.S. budget. Most of the public also overestimates the share of the federal budget that is spent on foreign aid, and when informed it is about 1% of the federal budget, the share who want to reduce spending drops.

This brief examines the legal considerations for physicians providing abortion care, including criminal and professional penalties, as well as the potential for medical malpractice lawsuits for delayed care to patients due to bans and prosecution for violation of abortion bans across state lines.

This tracker provides data on global COVID-19 cases and deaths by country, region, and income-level. Additionally, the tracker reports current closure, economic, and health system policy responses to the COVID-19 pandemic globally. This tracker will be updated as new data are available.

Amy Maxmen, national public health correspondent, covers efforts to prevent disease and improve well-being outside of the medical system, and the obstacles that stand in the way. Before joining KFF Health News in 2024, she was a senior reporter at Nature covering health inequities, global health, infectious diseases, and genomics.…

Education leaders and policymakers are turning to cellphone bans in schools to help address youth mental health concerns and improve learning, an idea that has largely received bipartisan support. Cellphone ban legislation has had a resurgence following advisories from the U.S. Surgeon General on youth mental health and the impacts of social media. Research on the effectiveness of these bans, however, is limited, and challenges with implementation and enforcement remain.

We explain the role of Medicaid for hospitals, including how much spending on hospital care comes from Medicaid, the share of births covered by the program, and how Medicaid expansion has impacted hospital finances.

This analysis presents key facts about hospitals with more than 40 charts related to national spending on hospital care, characteristics of the hospital industry, rural hospitals, use of hospital care, out-of-pocket spending and medical debt, hospital prices, hospital finances, and charity care.

David Hilzenrath, senior correspondent and a veteran of The Washington Post, joined the staff in 2022. At KFF Health News, he was lead author of coverage that exposed a crisis in the Social Security system, spurred sweeping policy changes, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Public Service.…