Marianne Sinisi, of Altoona, Pennsylvania, lost her 26-year-old son, Shawn, to an opioid overdose in 2018. She wants the opioid settlement dollars to be spent in ways that help spare other parents similar grief. Nancy Andrews/KHN hide caption

Shots
Health News From NPRPublic Health
Shana Alesi administers a COVID-19 booster vaccine to Marine Corps veteran Bill Fatz at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital in Hines, Ill., in 2021. A new round of boosters could become available for some people this spring. Scott Olson/Getty Images hide caption
The FDA may soon authorize a spring round of COVID-19 boosters for some people
Public health professor Arline Geronimus says marginalized people suffer nearly constant stress, which leads to increasingly serious health problems over time. Jon Cherry/Getty Images hide caption
How poverty and racism 'weather' the body, accelerating aging and disease
Kennise Nevers holds her son, AJ, in her arms at home. Nevers' mother, Nancy Josey, looks on. Jesse Costa/WBUR hide caption
Volunteer pilots fly patients to get abortions and gender-affirming medical care from states with bans to nearby states where the services are available. Rose Conlon/Kansas News Service hide caption
Volunteer pilots fly patients seeking abortions to states where it's legal
KMUW | NPR for Wichita
An unhoused individual sleeps under an American flag blanket in New York City on Sept. 10, 2013. In 2021, approximately 11% of Americans lived below the federal poverty line. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption
Private opulence, public squalor: How the U.S. helps the rich and hurts the poor
Wanda Irving holds her granddaughter, Soleil, in front of a portrait of Soleil's mother, Shalon Irving, at her home in Sandy Springs, Ga., in 2017. Wanda is raising Soleil since Shalon died of complications due to hypertension a few weeks after giving birth. Becky Harlan/NPR hide caption
Paramedics at Ben Taub General Hospital speed a patient with a gunshot wound to the trauma team for further care. Ben Taub is the largest safety-net hospital in Houston. Gregory Smith/Corbis via Getty Images hide caption
This safety-net hospital doctor treats mostly uninsured and undocumented patients
Physicians say roughly half of all preterm births are preventable, caused by social, economic and environmental factors, as well as inadequate access to prenatal health care. ER Productions Limited/Getty Images hide caption
Substitute teacher Crystal Clyburn, 51, doesn't have health insurance. She got her blood pressure checked at a health fair in Sarasota, Fla. Stephanie Colombini/WUSF hide caption
High inflation and housing costs force Americans to delay needed health care
A vial of the Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, Bivalent. Though the shots are free to pretty much anyone who wants one in the U.S. as long as federal stockpiles hold out, the next update of the vaccine might be costly for some people who lack health insurance. RINGO CHIU/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
Moderna's COVID vaccine gambit: Hike the price, offer free doses for uninsured
When Victoria Ferrell Ortiz had her daughter in 2017, she was covered by a limited form of Medicaid in Texas — which ended just two months after she gave birth. Losing insurance so soon was stressful. She supports a push for Texas to extend Medicaid coverage for a full year after childbirth. Yfat Yossifor / KERA hide caption
In Texas, Medicaid ends soon after childbirth. Will lawmakers allow more time?
Research shows many hospitals in the U.S. aren't fully prepared to deal with a surge of sick children. John Moore/Getty Images hide caption
Jennifer Mitchell thumbs through her husband's medical records from his time at the Montana State Hospital. Records show doctors took Mitchell's husband off some of his congestive heart failure medications. Mitchell says she was never consulted. Aaron Bolton/Montana Public Radio hide caption
Her husband died after stay at Montana State Hospital. She wants answers.
Montana Public Radio
Lauren Miller at her home in Dallas, in January 2023. When she was 15 weeks pregnant, she traveled to Colorado to have a "selective reduction" abortion, after one of her twins was diagnosed with a fatal condition. Nitashia Johnson for NPR hide caption
To safeguard healthy twin in utero, she had to 'escape' Texas for abortion procedure
Idaho removed nearly 10,000 people from Medicaid in the pandemic's first years when enrollees couldn't be reached. The episode previews what could occur in other states after April 1, when a COVID-era coverage mandate ends. Eric Harkleroad/KHN hide caption
Child influencers have a huge following on social media. Now a new study from the University of Connecticut's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Health finds these videos are frequently exposing young viewers to junk foods like candy, salty snacks and sugary drinks. Morgan McCloy/NPR hide caption
The Quitco family got financial coaching through a program at their pediatrician's office. It's helped them get ahead. Quitco family hide caption
Almost 60% of teen girls in the U.S. had depressive symptoms in the past year, according to new survey data published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And nearly 1 in 3 said they'd seriously considered suicide. Radu Bighian/EyeEm via Getty Images hide caption
LaShonia Ingram was one of 28 Medicaid beneficiaries in Tennessee charged with TennCare fraud last year. The District Attorney dropped the felony charges. Brad Vest/WPLN hide caption
In Tennessee, a Medicaid mix-up could land you on a 'most wanted' list
The COVID-19 dashboard created by the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering is displayed during a briefing on Capitol Hill in early March 2020, when only 245 confirmed cases had been reported in the U.S. Samuel Corum/Getty Images hide caption
Immunity Americans acquired through vaccination or via prior infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus may account for the lighter than expected COVID surge in the U.S. this winter, researchers say. David Ryder/Getty Images hide caption
This winter's U.S. COVID surge is fading fast, likely thanks to a 'wall' of immunity
A sign calling attention to drug overdoses is posted in a gas station on the White Earth reservation in Ogema, Minn.. A new study shows that early deaths due to addiction and suicide have impacted American Indian and Alaska Native communities far more than white communities. David Goldman/AP hide caption
More than 30 years ago, Johnnie Haire, grounds supervisor at Sunset Gardens of Memory cemetery in Millstadt, Illinois, set up a birdbath and purchased angel figurines for a special garden for deceased children called "Baby Land." He carefully painted each angel a hue of brown. He says he wanted the angels to be Black, like many of the children laid to rest here. Cara Anthony/KHN hide caption