The four months of care Annie Mae Bullock received for her stage 4 lung cancer were rocky at best. But the final three days of that care, her daughter Karen Bullock said, were excellent. Annie Mae spent those few days in hospice care at home surrounded by loved ones singing, chanting and praying as she
LOS ANGELES — Wes Yin says it’s impossible to study health care these days without coming across the issue of medical debt. “There’s a lot of people who are struggling,” said Yin, an associate professor of economics at UCLA and one of the nation’s leading researchers on medical debt. https://cpa.ds.npr.org/s4780019/audio/2022/11/medicaldebt-2way.mp3 Listen to this story here.
OGDEN DUNES, Ind. — Multiple sclerosis was a one-two punch to Therese Humphrey Ball’s life. She had to deal with the disease – and the cost to treat it. Symptoms like loss of vision and weakness in her legs forced the 68-year-old former nurse from Indiana to retire early, and high drug costs forced her
SAN FRANCISCO — Serena Maria warmly remembers the first older person she took care of. “Her name was Liberty Bell, and she was born on [the] Fourth of July and she was the sweetest thing,” Maria said. Listen to this story here. For about a year, Maria would go to the nonegenarian’s home in Southern
Who is allowed to care for patients? And when, where and how can they do it? Those questions have been the focus of more than 450 bills and 200 executive orders introduced in state capitols since COVID-19 hit. “This is the wild west,” said Bianca Frogner, director of the University of Washington Center for Health
The U.S. is caught in a critical shortage of a drug known as contrast media that helps physicians diagnose conditions like a heart attack or stroke. Doctors perform about 50 million scans a year using the injectable drug, which is also used for cancer patients and gunshot and car crash victims. It helps them see