A free cruise turned into a financial nightmare for Mike Cameron, a Minnesota truck driver of 25 years, and his girlfriend, Tamra. The couple won a free cruise with Norwegian Cruise Line and were excited to celebrate Tamra's recent lung cancer recovery. The pair set sail for the week-long trip in early January, but shortly into the week, Cameron got sick. He said he went to the ship's medical center and was diagnosed with the flu. ... But when it came time to pay the bill, Cameron was shocked to learn that the total cost of his care was more than $47,000.
A new study analyzing Long COVID healthcare utilization in Colorado reveals a significant shift from acute care to outpatient services following diagnosis, shedding light on evolving treatment patterns and the broader healthcare burden posed by the condition.
Trump said last month that he would not make cuts to the country's public health insurance program for low-income and disabled Americans. But the White House and Republicans in Congress are considering a menu of options that could add up to $2.3 trillion in potential cuts to Medicaid over the next decade.
President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans may no longer be pushing to wholly repeal Obamacare, but big cuts to the nation’s health system are still on the table.
A report from the Florida Center for Nursing noted that in 2024 Florida had the nation's lowest pass rate on the exam required for registered nurses and practical nurses to receive their licenses. The National Council Licensure Examination, or NCLEX has separate tests for registered nurses and practical nurses. The first-time pass rate for Florida RNs was 84.9%, a drop of more than 6 percentage points below the national average. For PNs, the first-time rate 80.78%, a gap of more than 7 percentage points below the national average.
States are absorbing substantial increases in healthcare costs for the poor, as they realize that the people remaining on Medicaid rolls after the COVID-19 pandemic are sicker than anticipated — and costlier to care for. In Pennsylvania, state budget makers recently unveiled the scale of that miscalculation, with Democratic Gov. Josh Shapiro proposing an increase of $2.5 billion in Medicaid spending in the next fiscal year. That amounts to a roughly 5% increase in overall state spending, mostly driven by the cost to care for unexpectedly sick people remaining on the state's Medicaid rolls.