About a third of America’s pharmacies have closed since 2010, amounting to an “unprecedented decline” in neighborhood drug stores, a new study finds.

The drop began in 2018, primarily driven by store closures among chain pharmacies during a period of consolidation in the industry, researchers found.

This has made it much more difficult for people to have prescripti...

American seniors still pay more for health care than their counterparts in most other wealthy countries do, despite coverage by Medicare, a new study finds.

They are also more likely to postpone or skip needed care because of cost concerns.

“In the U.S., nearly all older adults are covered by Medicare and can access, at minimum, the most basic health services,” concluded...

The outgoing Biden administration will propose that pricey GLP-1 obesity medications such as semaglutide (Wegovy), and tirzepatide (Zepbound) be covered by Medicare and Medicaid.

However, the move would have to be approved by the new Trump administration. 

Right now, a law passed b...

U.S. health care costs are among the world's highest, and 1 in 4 adults with health coverage struggle with high out-of-pocket costs, a new survey shows.

The survey -- by the Commonwealth Fund, a health-care focused think tank -- finds that most people have coverage offered by employers, but their policies don't always provide timely or affordable access to care. 

As a result, m...

If Congress lets healthcare tax credits established during the pandemic expire, 4 million Americans will become uninsured, a new analysis warns.

The tax credits, which have significantly lowered out-of-pocket costs for millions of Americans, are set to expire at the end of 2025.

"Allowing these credits to expire will force families to choose between healthcare and other necessities ...

Although the United States has made significant headway in curbing cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke exposure, a new report finds deep divisions remain and they run along predictable fault lines.

Disparities in tobacco use continue to persist by income and occupation, geography, education, race and ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender and mental health status, the new data from t...

One piece left out of the abortion debate is the high transportation and medical bills facing women forced to leave their state to obtain the procedure.

A new study is the first to give hard numbers on those concerns.

It finds that, even before the fall of Roe v. Wade, 65% of women who traveled to another state to undergo abortion incurred "catastrophic" bills causing them...

More than 1 in 5 Americans likely suffer from long COVID, a new AI-assisted review has found.

The analysis suggests that nearly 23% of U.S. adults experience the symptoms of long COVID, according to results published Nov. 8 in the journal Med.

That’s much higher than the 7% prevalence of long COVID that’s ...

Having a child can cause significant and ongoing financial hardship for new parents, even if they are covered by health insurance, a new study shows.

More than half of people with private insurance spent more than $1,000 out of pocket on childbirth, and nearly 40% reported bein...

Hospice care is a compassionate and heartfelt enterprise, involving a medical team dedicated to maintaining a person’s comfort and dignity as they face the final curtain.

Now, new research shows hospice is also incredibly cost-effective as a health care service, a new report says.

For-p...

Health insurers would be required to cover the cost of over-the-counter birth control and emergency contraception under new rules proposed by the White House on Monday.

"Since Roe v. Wade was overturned more than two years ago, Republican elected officials have made clear they want to ban or restrict birth control, defund federal programs that help women access contraception, and repeal t...

A simple tweak in available vial sizes of the breakthrough Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi could save Medicare hundreds of millions of dollars each year, a new analysis claims.

About 6% of Leqembi (lecane...

During a tense hearing before a Senate committee on Tuesday, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen faced tough questions over the company's high prices for its blockbuster drugs Ozempic and Wegovy.

While testifying before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pens...

Americans have the worst health care among the world’s wealthy nations, a new report says.

People in the United States die the earliest and live the sickest lives out of 10 developed countries, even though the United States spends the most on health care, according to the annual report by health care think-tank The Commonwealth Fund.

Australia, the Netherlands and the United K...

Beginning Jan. 1, Americans with private health insurance coverage should gain better access to mental health care, as well as care to help ease substance abuse, federal officials announced Monday.

“Like medical care, mental health care is vital to the well-being of America’s workers,” U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su

Too many U.S. seniors are skipping their prescription meds due to cost, and the problem is most acute among the poor and chronically ill, new data shows.

Almost all (88.6%) Americans age 65 or older have been prescribed at least one prescription medicine, according to 2021-2022 data from an annual federal survey.

That percentage rises from 86.9% among folks aged 65 to 74 to more th...

The care of people seriously harmed by spinal cord injury can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and a new analysis suggests that ability to pay influences how long a patient remains on life support.

In a study of more than 8,400 U.S. adults with severe spinal cord injury, "uninsured patients had greater odds of withdrawal of life-supporting treatment," compared to those who had priva...

The Biden administration said Thursday that it has signed deals with drug companies that will lower the prices on 10 of the most popular and expensive drugs used by American seniors.

Taxpayers should save $6 billion because of the new prices, while seniors using Medicare could save roughly $1.5 billion on their medications, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said in a new...

When it comes to Medicaid and vision care, how much coverage people get depends on the state in which they live, a new study finds.

Most Medicaid enrollees have at least some routine vision coverage, but an estimated 6.5 million adults live in states without comprehensive coverage for routine eye exams, researchers found. Likewise, about 14.6 million adults didn’t have comprehensiv...

Older voters are keenly interested in the cost of health care, a new survey has found.

Five of the top six health issues among older adults have to do with health care costs, according to new data from the University of Michigan’s National Poll on Healthy Aging.

“There have been efforts in recent years to reduce costs of some types of care for older adults, especially t...

Pregnant women and new moms have better access to treatment for mood disorders, thanks to Obamacare, a new study finds.

More women received treatment for their pregnancy-related depression or anxiety after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) went into effect in 2014, research...

Following several years of record low rates of uninsured Americans, a new survey finds more folks are once again without health insurance.

More than 8% of Americans did not have health coverage during the first few months of 2024, according to findings published Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for D...

Screening for cancer saves lives, but a new report shows it comes with a hefty price tag: The United States spends at least $43 billion annually on tests that check for five major cancers.

Published Monday in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the new analysis focused on screenings for br...

Insured working-age adults are frequently being hit with medical bills for services that should have been covered, a new Commonwealth Fund survey has found.

Close to half (45%) of insured workers have received a bill or copay in the past year for a service they thought should have been paid by health insurance, the survey shows.

Fewer than half challenged the bills, mostly because t...

Medicare Advantage plans are touted as a great alternative to traditional Medicare, offering seniors easier access to doctors, hospitals and prescription drugs.

But access to a good Medicare Advantage plan relies heavily on where a person lives, a new study finds.

People are less likely to find a five-star Medicare Advantage plan if they live in a U.S. county with higher poverty and...

Following the end of temporary pandemic-era rules expanding access to Medicaid, about 10 million Americans have lost that coverage.

But a new report finds that most folks who've lost coverage have done so because of paperwork issues, and they're far more likely to be people of color.

"A lot of people got kicked off Medicaid for administrative reasons,"said senior study author

Allowing pharmacists to treat minor illnesses could potentially expand health care access to more people and save millions of dollars, a new study suggests.

Care for a range of minor health issues -- urinary tract infections, shingles, animal bites and headaches -- would cost an average of about $...

Having private insurance may not be all it is cracked up to be when it comes to hospital bills, new research warns.

In a report published Monday by the nonprofit research institute RAND Corp., researchers discovered that patients with private health insurance may wind up paying more for procedures or tests p...

A budget-busting 3.6 million Medicare recipients could now be eligible for coverage of the weight-loss drug Wegovy, a new KFF analysis says.

That's because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of Wegovy (semaglutide) to reduce the risk of heart attacks ...

America's mental health woes essentially serve as an annual economic downturn for the nation, a new study says.

Mental illness costs the U.S. economy $282 billion every year, equivalent to the average economic recession, researchers report.

That estimate amounts to about 1.7% of American annual spending, and is about 30% larger than previous attempts to approximate the overall cost ...

About six out of 10 working-age adults hit with a cancer diagnosis say it put real pressure on their financial survival, a new report finds.

"Today's findings reiterate the critical role access to affordable, quality care and paid family medical leave plays in reducing the financial toll of cance...

Americans living in areas where primary care doctors and nurse practitioners are in short supply face a greater risk for emergency surgeries and complications, new research shows.

They're also more likely to wind up back in the hospital after they've left it.

That's because serious health issues don't get addressed until they become emergencies, said lead study author