As Americans gather for holiday celebrations, many will quietly give thanks for the health care workers who keep their families and friends well: the ICU nurse who stabilized a grandparent, the doctor who adjusted a tricky prescription, the home health aide who ensures an aging relative can bathe and eat safely.

Will most of us notice how many ...Read more

Each year, about 50,000 children under age 5 end up in emergency departments for poisoning after swallowing medicine unintentionally.

Medications are meant to improve and save lives. But when a medicine gets into the wrong hands and is taken by a child or teen, the results can be deadly. That’s why all prescription drugs, over-the-counter ...Read more

MINNEAPOLIS — The coastal sun was shining on Sarah Bridges, she recalled, when she decided to stage a one-person protest on Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s porch in Hyannis Port.

The Minnesota mom would sit there — after showing up unannounced in 2005 with an 18-inch stack of documents — until the famed environmental attorney agreed to read the...Read more

NORFOLK, Va. — This flu season has been relatively mild so far but medical experts expect it to intensify in the coming weeks due to a new strain that emerged after the current vaccine’s production — though that inoculation remains the best form of protection.

Data out of the United Kingdom indicates the new strain has resulted in the ...Read more

As Congress debates whether to extend the temporary federal subsidies that have helped millions of Americans buy health coverage, a crucial underlying reality is sometimes overlooked: Those subsidies are merely a band-aid covering the often unaffordable cost of health care.

California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and five other states have set ...Read more

ATLANTA — One of the biggest measles outbreaks of the past two decades is taking place less than 200 miles from Atlanta.

More than 130 people in South Carolina have contracted the infection in recent months — almost all of them children who were unvaccinated. Public health officials in the state said travel over the Thanksgiving holiday ...Read more

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Over a roughly three-year period beginning in March 2020, 1,564 Alaskans died from COVID-19.

That's according to a new report from the Alaska Department of Health, which provides a detailed review of data on how the state fared dealing with the coronavirus between March 2020 and the end of the the federal public health ...Read more

Proton beam radiation therapy performed 10% better at stopping cancer of the throat compared to traditional X-ray radiation, a new study shows, with 15% fewer side effects.

“With this study, it is my personal belief that proton beam therapy is a new standard-of-care treatment for patients with oropharyngeal cancer,” said Dr. Jason Molitoris...Read more

Six days after a senior FDA official sent a sweeping internal email claiming that COVID vaccines had caused the deaths of “at least 10 children,” 12 former FDA commissioners released an extraordinary warning in the Dec. 3 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

They wrote that the claims and policy changes in the memo from Vinay ...Read more

COLUMBIA, S.C. — As South Carolina faces climbing measles cases, a lawmaker wants to ban all vaccine mandates for children under two-years-old.

The bill is one of several proposed policies for 2026 that reflect the priorities of President Donald Trump and his administration.

Some vaccines, including measles, are mandatory for children ...Read more

CHICAGO — In a move that could further reduce gender-affirming care for minors in Illinois, the federal government is proposing rules that would strip Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that provide such services.

The administration of President Donald Trump has been threatening since early this year to block federal funding for ...Read more

WASHINGTON — With no hope of preventing Obamacare health insurance premium costs from soaring in two weeks, Democrats and a few Republicans turned to ways to stop the increases when Congress returns in January.

But getting any such action next month, or as long as Republicans control Congress, appears difficult.

The Republican-led House ...Read more

PHILADELPHIA — President Donald Trump’s administration proposed a sweeping set of rules Thursday designed to prevent hospitals from providing gender-affirming care to minors, a move that could have consequential implications for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

CHOP runs one of the nation’s largest clinics providing medical care ...Read more

The Trump administration and House Republicans advanced measures this week to end gender-affirming care for transgender children and some young adults, drawing outrage and resistance from LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, families with transgender kids, medical providers and some of California's liberal leaders.

The latest efforts — which seek ...Read more

Hospitals that offer gender-affirming care to minors will be forced to forgo federal insurance funding under a rule proposed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of an effort by the Trump administration to curtail the practice.

The Department of Health and Human Services said Thursday it will roll out a cross-agency plan to ...Read more

For the millions of Americans who buy Affordable Care Act insurance, there’s still time left to enroll for 2026. But premium increases and the expiration of enhanced tax subsidies have led to larger-than-expected costs.

Concerned shoppers, wondering if there’s anything they can do, are consulting insurance brokers or talking to ...Read more

MIAMI – Florida’s surgeon general wants to do away with all state vaccine mandates. But the first step in his plan targets four specific vaccines.

Earlier this month, the Department of Health had a meeting during which officials unveiled a proposal to drop the requirement for the chickenpox; the Hepatitis B; the Haemophilus influenzae type ...Read more

When Su Wang was in medical school, she donated blood. That’s when she learned she was infected with hepatitis B, a virus that attacks the liver and can lead to cancer and death decades later.

“I was 18, healthy, in college,” she said. “And suddenly I had a chronic illness I didn’t even know about.”

Born in Florida in 1975, Wang ...Read more

If federal subsidies for marketplace health insurance plans expire at the end of the year, Idahoans on the most “vulnerable fringes” will feel the effects first, Idaho state Rep. Ilana Rubel, a Boise Democrat, said Tuesday.

But it won’t be long until the loss of those subsidies, which keep insurance premiums low for people on Affordable ...Read more