The government shutdown may be over, but Congress still hasn’t solved the biggest problem left on its plate: Extend the expiring Affordable Care Act subsidies to avoid a doubling of insurance premiums or replace them with something new altogether. Lawmakers have committed to a vote in December.

While public debate about the issue has centered...Read more

The United States is poised to lose its measles-free status next year. If that happens, the country will enter an era in which outbreaks are common again.

More children would be hospitalized because of this preventable disease. Some would lose their hearing. Some would die. Measles is also expensive. A new study— not yet published in a ...Read more

Elisabeth Yoder’s son, Darragh, was 15 months old in August when he developed what at first looked to his parents like hand, foot, and mouth disease. The common viral infection generally clears up in less than a week, but Darragh’s condition worsened over several days. His skin turned bright red. Blisters gave way to skin peeling off his ...Read more

About 400,000 Californians could find it difficult to afford health coverage from their Obamacare plans next month as subsidies expire and premiums skyrocket.

And chances are shaky Congress will provide much help before Jan. 1, even as an unpredictable election year looms.

Lawmakers are scheduled to be in session this week and next before ...Read more

At La Belle Bridal Boutique in Beaver, Abigail Bailey is shopping for a Hailey Bieber-inspired corseted lace wedding gown. About a dozen friends and family members have joined her, toasting non-alcoholic champagne in celebration of a day made possible by an experimental brain surgery.

About a year ago, Bailey was so sick from illness and ...Read more

Medication-delivering drones and telehealth at local libraries are among the ideas state leaders revealed in November for spending their share of a $50 billion federal rural health program.

The Trump administration, which has promised “radical transparency,” said in an FAQ that it plans to publish the “project summary” for states that ...Read more

WASHINGTON — The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to approve new recommendations delaying the child hepatitis B vaccine for infants Friday, providing a win for the Make America Healthy Again movement while troubling many health officials in Baltimore and across the nation.

If enacted, the new policies would have the Centers ...Read more

Recent weeks have brought good news about vaccines, with studies indicating that flu vaccination reduces heart disease, shingles vaccines can prevent or slow dementia, and a single human papilloma virus shot protects a girl from cervical cancer for the rest of her life.

But in the upside-down world of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert ...Read more

DEAR MAYO CLINIC: A friend just underwent a rotator cuff repair and is recovering well. But I was wondering, what if you get to a point where repairing the tear is no longer an option? Is there anything else that can help with pain and improve shoulder function? And what about stem cells or this platelet-rich plasma I hear about?

ANSWER: ...Read more

After an active case of tuberculosis was detected in the Sacramento area, you may be wondering about your risks of contracting the highly contagious disease.

An individual with contagious tuberculosis was recently identified within the UC Davis “campus community,” the university said in a Tuesday, Dec. 2 news release.

In conjunction with ...Read more

A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention panel that advises the agency on recommendations for vaccines delayed a planned vote Thursday on changes for the hepatitis B shot long recommended for newborns, putting off a decision with major implications for the Bay Area.

The CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has scrutinized ...Read more

The leader of the free world is having trouble walking and talking. We need to know why.

In recent weeks, President Donald Trump has struggled to walk a straight line, and not for the first time. He was unable to state which part of his body was medically scanned — or why. He fell asleep in an Oval Office press conference and wandered off at ...Read more

ATLANTA — Catching hepatitis B is wildly more dangerous for babies than adults.

Most adults quickly recover and become immune. But about 90% of newborns with hepatitis B develop a long-haul version of the disease, then are at higher risk of liver cancer or cirrhosis.

Eventually, it kills about one in four people who were infected as newborns...Read more

Larry Humphreys, a retired Federal Emergency Management Agency worker in Moultrie, Georgia, says he and his wife won’t be traveling much next year after their monthly health insurance premium payment increases more than 40%, to $938.

Humphreys, 68, feels betrayed by the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program. “As federal employees, we ...Read more

Eliza Brader worries she soon will need to prove she’s working to continue receiving Medicaid health coverage. She doesn’t think she should have to.

The 27-year-old resident of Bloomington, Indiana, has a pacemaker and a painful joint disease. She also has fused vertebrae in her neck from a spinal injury, preventing her from turning her ...Read more

Olive oil has a reputation as a heart-healthy fat. Now, research suggests that a particular type of olive oil is most beneficial.

Researchers focused on 7,102 people who were part of a trial looking at the effects of the Mediterranean diet (which includes generous amounts of olive oil) in people at high risk for cardiovascular problems. After a...Read more

If you thought lawmakers in Congress would return from a Thanksgiving break ready to buckle down and find a deal on the expiring insurance subsidies under the Obama health law, think again.

There was little evidence of any momentum in the hallways of the Capitol this week. Instead, it felt more like Congress will let the subsidies expire and ...Read more

Working out of a tribal-owned hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, liver specialist Brian McMahon has spent decades treating the long shadow of hepatitis B. Before a vaccine became available in the 1980s, he saw the virus claim young lives in western Alaskan communities with stunning speed.

One of his patients was 17 years old when he first examined ...Read more

Terry Landers’ pickleball injuries include two concussions, a broken wrist, a shoulder injury, a torn thumb and a black eye. None of those disasters kept her from the court. In fact, she had both knees replaced so she could keep playing.

The 69-year-old from Bridgeton, Maine, has always been athletic, playing tennis, soccer and softball. She ...Read more

Rich in vitamins and minerals, kelp is a nutritious and delicious ingredient worth getting to know.

The folklore

People have eaten seaweed for thousands of years. Indigenous peoples along the Pacific coast of North America and indigenous Australians relied on kelp as an important culinary tradition, drying and preserving it for times of ...Read more