AMANDA SEITZ

Health policy reporter

Seitz is an Associated Press reporter covering federal health care policy. She is based in Washington, D.C.

Imani Mfalme poses for a portrait outside her late mother's house Thursday, March 7, 2024, in Knoxville, Tenn. Mfalme's mother suffered from Alzheimer's and was placed in long term care. After her death the state is now trying to lay claim to the estate to pay for that care. (AP Photo/Caitie McMekin)

State Medicaid offices target dead people’s homes to recoup their health care costs

Many Americans rely on Medicaid when fighting diseases. But there’s a catch. Often, states try to recoup the costs after the recipients die.

FILE - Protesters gather outside the Supreme Court in Washington, Friday, June 24, 2022, after the Supreme Court ended constitutional protections for abortion that had been in place nearly 50 years. More than a quarter of female Black voters describe abortion as their top issue in this year's presidential election, a new survey out Thursday from health policy research firm KFF finds. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

More Black women say abortion is their top issue in the 2024 election, a survey finds

More than a quarter of female Black voters describe abortion as their top issue in this year’s presidential election.

FILE - Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra testifies during a hearing of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill, Nov. 8, 2023, in Washington. The Biden administration will send Becerra, the nation's top health official, to meet with patients and doctors in Alabama on Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2024, to discuss a controversial court ruling that upended in vitro fertilization treatment, or IVF, in the state. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Nation’s top health official to visit Alabama in wake of IVF ruling

The Biden administration is sending the nation’s top health official to meet with patients and doctors in Alabama on Tuesday to discuss a controversial court ruling that upended in vitro fertilization treatment in the state.

FILE - Migrant teens line up for a class at a "tender-age" facility for babies, children and teens, in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, in San Benito, Texas, Aug. 29, 2019. The Biden administration struggled to properly vet and monitor the homes where they placed a surge of migrant children who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021. That's according to a federal watchdog report released Thursday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay File)

Biden administration failed to vet adults housing migrant children, federal watchdog says

The Biden administration struggled to properly vet and monitor the homes where they placed a surge of migrant children who arrived at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021.

FILE - Lurie Children's Hospital sign is seen at the hospital as patients walk in, Feb. 5, 2024, in Skokie, Ill. A cyberattack on a renowned children’s hospital in Chicago has left some parents scrambling. They've had to reschedule surgeries on babies or scramble to get prescriptions filled for their sick kids. Experts warn this is just the start of a growing trend of foreign criminals attacking U.S. hospitals for hefty ransoms. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)

Cyberattacks on hospitals are likely to increase, putting lives at risk, experts warn

Cybersecurity experts are warning that hospitals around the United States are at risk for attacks such as the one that’s crippling operations at a premier Midwestern children’s hospital.

FILE - An operating room technician performs an ultrasound on a patient at Hope Medical Group for Women in Shreveport, La., on July 6, 2022. Doctors in states with strict abortion restrictions say an increasing number of pregnant women are seeking early prenatal testing, hoping to detect serious problems while they still have time to choose whether to continue the pregnancy. (AP Photo/Ted Jackson, File)

Post-Roe v. Wade, more patients rely on early prenatal testing as states toughen abortion laws

Doctors in states with strict abortion restrictions say an increasing number of pregnant women are seeking early prenatal testing.

FILE - An Anti-abortion supporter holds a sign at the California Republican Party Convention in Anaheim, Calif., Sept. 30, 2023. In a new twist to the abortion debate, congressional Republicans are trying to block a Biden administration spending rule that they say will cut off millions of dollars to anti-abortion counseling centers. The rule would prohibit states from sending federal funds earmarked for needy Americans to so-called "crisis pregnancy centers," which counsel against abortions.(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)

Republicans try to block Biden administration plan to cut money for anti-abortion counseling centers

In a new twist in the abortion access fight, congressional Republicans are trying to block a Biden administration spending rule that they say will cut off millions of dollars to anti-abortion counseling centers.

FILE - An insurance agent talks with clients inside the main location of Las Madrinas de los Seguros, Spanish for "The Godmothers of Insurance," at a shopping center in Miami, on Dec. 5, 2023. The Biden administration says 20 million people have enrolled for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, with still a few days left for signing up. That's a figure President Joe Biden will likely talk about regularly on the campaign trail as the Republican front-runner, former President Donald Trump, vows to dismantle the Obama-era program. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

‘Obamacare’ sign-ups surge to 20 million, days before open enrollment closes

The Biden administration says 20 million people have enrolled for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, with still a few days left for signing up.

FILE - A waist is measured during an obesity prevention study in Chicago, Jan. 20, 2010. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green, File)

New weight loss drugs are out of reach for millions of older Americans because Medicare won’t pay

Obesity drugs like Wegovy and Zepbound are capturing the attention of celebrities and showing promising results in helping people shed pounds.

President Joe Biden speaks about prescription drug costs at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Older Americans to pay less for some drug treatments as drugmakers penalized for big price jumps

Hundreds of thousands of older Americans could pay less for outpatient drug treatments beginning early next year.

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks during an event on prescription drug costs, in the East Room of the White House, Aug. 29, 2023, in Washington. The Biden administration is putting pharmaceutical companies on notice. It's warning them that if the price of certain drugs is too high, they might allow other companies to make their product. Under the new plan, the government would consider overriding the patent for high-priced drugs that have been developed with the help of taxpayer money. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

The White House is threatening the patents of high-priced drugs developed with taxpayer dollars

The Biden administration is putting pharmaceutical companies on notice. Washington is warning them that if the price of certain drugs is too high, the government might cancel their patent protection and allow rivals to make their own versions.

Teacher Dawn Hill works with children during a preschool class at the Life Learning Center - Head Start, in Cincinnati, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2023. A new plan from the Biden administration could significantly increase salaries for hundreds of low-paid early childhood teachers caring for the country's poorest children but might also force some centers to cut enrollment. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

Biden’s plan would raise salaries for Head Start teachers but could leave fewer spots for kids

A Biden administration plan could increase salaries for hundreds of low-paid early childhood teachers caring for the country’s poorest children.

FILE - COVID-19 antigen home tests indicating a positive result are photographed in New York, April 5, 2023. Americans will be able to order four free COVID-19 tests again and the United States Postal Service will deliver the tests to your mailbox. Anyone who did not order a batch of COVID-19 tests in September can secure up to eight of the tests this time around. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison, File)

More free COVID-19 tests from the government are available for home delivery through the mail

Americans can order four free COVID-19 tests again online. Anyone who did not order a batch of four COVID-19 tests in September can secure up to eight of them beginning Monday at covidtests.gov.

Children's Defense Fund program director Graciela Camarena poses for a photo in Pharr, Texas, Monday, Nov. 13, 2023. Graciela assists community members with filling out SNAP and Medicaid forms for their families as the state reviews Texans' eligibility. Some 1 million people have already lost Medicaid coverage. (AP Photo/Michael Gonzalez)

The Biden administration is slow to act as millions are booted off Medicaid, advocates say

Error-ridden state reviews have purged millions of the poorest Americans from the Medicaid program in recent months.

FILE - Doses of the anti-viral drug Paxlovid are displayed in New York, Aug. 1, 2022. The COVID-19 treatments millions of have taken for free from the federal government will enter the private market next week with a hefty price tag. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer is setting the price for a five-day treatment of Paxlovid at $1,390, but Americans can still access the pills at no cost, for now. Millions of free, taxpayer-funded courses of the pills will remain at pharmacies, hospitals and doctor’s offices across the country, U.S. Health and Human Services officials said Friday, Oct. 27, 2023. (AP Photo/Stephanie Nano, File)

COVID-19 treatments to enter the market with a hefty price tag

The COVID-19 treatments millions of have taken for free from the federal government will enter the private market next week with a hefty price tag.

Former President George W. Bush speaks during an event to mark the 20th anniversary year of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, Feb. 24, 2023. As billions of dollars for a global HIV/AIDS program credited with saving millions of lives remains in limbo, the George W. Bush Institute is urging the U.S. Congress to keep money flowing for it. In a letter sent to Congress on Oct. 25, the former Republican president's institute pleaded with Congress to keep funding PEPFAR. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)

Billions for life-saving AIDS program need to continue, George W. Bush Institute tells Congress

Billions of dollars for a global HIV/AIDS program that’s saved millions of lives are in limbo and now the George W. Bush Institute is urging the U.S.

President Joe Biden speaks during an event on prescription drug costs, in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

10 drugs targeted for Medicare price negotiations as Biden pitches cost reductions

President Joe Biden is touting his administration’s efforts to lower medical costs. Officials on Tuesday announced the first 10 drugs that would be targeted for Medicare price negotiations.

Medicaid plans to audit the prices of costliest drugs

The Biden administration says it is planning to conduct a yearly audit to verify the prices drug makers charge on a handful of the costliest prescriptions covered by Medicaid.

Jessica Bernardo poses for a photo at her home in the Dallas area, Thursday, May 18, 2023. More Texas women who were told they could not end pregnancies with fatal fetal anomalies or that endangered their health are challenging the state's restrictive abortion laws. (AP Photo/LM Otero)

More women sue Texas, asking court to put emergency block on state’s abortion law

More Texas women who were told they could not end pregnancies with fatal fetal anomalies or that endangered their health are challenging the state’s restrictive abortion laws.

Dr. Catherine Casto, right, talks with Catherine Burns, left, of Millsboro, Del., during a visit to a Chesapeake Health Care office in Salisbury, Md., Thursday, March 2, 2023. Burns has been seeing Dr. Casto for 25 years. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

Federal government’s $1 billion effort to recruit next generation of doctors at risk

Thousands of doctors and nurses signed on to work in the country’s most desperate regions during the COVID-19 pandemic in exchange for forgiveness of medical school debt.

FILE - Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy testifies before the Senate Finance Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, on Feb. 8, 2022, on youth mental health care. Widespread loneliness in the U.S. is posing health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic. About half of U.S. adults say they’ve experienced loneliness, Murthy said in a new, 81-page report from his office. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

Loneliness poses risks as deadly as smoking: surgeon general

The U.S. surgeon general says loneliness poses health risks as deadly as smoking up to 15 cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually. Dr.

FILE - Mylissa Farmer stands for a portrait at her home in Joplin, Mo., on Sept. 28, 2022. In early August, Farmer had to travel to Illinois to terminate her pregnancy when her water broke at 17 weeks and 5 days and put her life in danger. (Nathan Papes/The Springfield News-Leader via AP, File)

Feds: Hospitals that denied emergency abortion broke the law

A first-of-its-kind federal investigation has found two hospitals put a pregnant woman’s life in jeopardy and violated federal law by refusing to provide an emergency abortion when she experienced premature labor at 17 weeks.

FILE - A sign points visitors toward the financial services department at a hospital, Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. More than a half million of the poorest Americans would be left without health insurance under legislation passed by House Republicans that would require people to work in exchange for health care coverage through Medicaid. The bill is unlikely to become law, though, with Democrats strongly opposing the idea. (AP Photo/David Goldman, File)

What GOP’s plan for Medicaid work requirements would mean

More than half a million of the poorest Americans would be left without health insurance under legislation passed by House Republicans that would require people to work in exchange for health care coverage through Medicaid.

Alicia Celaya, David Cardenas and their son Adrian, 3, are shown at their home, Thursday, April 27, 2023, in Phoenix. Celaya and her family will lose their medicaid coverage later this year, a result of a year-long nationwide review of the 84 million Medicaid enrollees that will require states to remove people whose incomes are now too high for the program. Advocacy groups say beneficiaries are finding the process confusing and at times riddled with errors, leaving some of the country's poorest people suddenly without health insurance and unable to pay for necessary medical care. (AP Photo/Matt York)

Kicked off Medicaid: Millions at risk as states trim rolls

Some Medicaid recipients tell The Associated Press errors and confusion are leading to them being kicked off the federally and state-funded health coverage program.

FILE - This June 21, 2013, file photo, shows the seal affixed to the front of the Department of Veterans Affairs building in Washington. The federal government wrote duplicate checks to doctors who provided care for veterans, costing taxpayers $128 million in extra payments over the last five years, according to a new watchdog report out this week. In nearly 300,000 cases, private doctors were paid twice – once by the Veterans Health Administration and another time by Medicare – for the same care provided to veterans from 2017 to 2021, the Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General found in its report. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

Feds wrote $128M in duplicate checks to docs, report finds

The federal government wrote duplicate checks to doctors who provided care for veterans, costing taxpayers as much as $128 million in extra payments, according to a new watchdog report out this week.

FILE -President Joe Biden speaks about his administration's plans to protect Social Security and Medicare and lower healthcare costs, Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023, at the University of Tampa in Tampa, Fla. Biden is set to announce that his administration is expanding eligibility for Medicare and the Affordable Care Act’s exchanges to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children. That's according to two people familiar with the matter who discussed it on condition of anonymity before an announcement on Thursday, April 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Biden says he’s expanding some migrants’ health care access

President Joe Biden says his administration is expanding eligibility for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges to hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.

Dr. Colleen McNicholas, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region and Southwest Missouri, stands inside a recovery area inside Planned Parenthood Friday, March 10, 2023, in Fairview Heights, Ill. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Abortion providers scramble as courts restrict pills

Doctors, clinics and telehealth providers across the country are scrambling to figure out how they will continue to provide the most common type of abortion after a federal appeals court imposed new restrictions on a key abortion medication.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a meeting with a task force on reproductive health care access, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Wednesday, April 12, 2023, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

White House wants rule to protect abortion patients’ records

The White House has proposed a federal rule to limit how law enforcement and state officials collect medical records if they investigate women who flee their home states to seek abortions elsewhere.

FILE - A Social Security card is displayed on Oct. 12, 2021, in Tigard, Ore. Most U.S. adults are opposed to proposals that would cut into Medicare or Social Security benefits, and a majority support raising taxes on the nation's highest earners to keep Medicare running as is. The new findings, revealed in a March poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, come as both safety net programs are poised to run out of enough cash to pay out full benefits within the next decade. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Most oppose Social Security, Medicare cuts: AP-NORC poll

Americans are deeply opposed to cutting into Medicare or Social Security benefits, and most support raising taxes on the nation’s highest earners to keep Medicare running as is.

FILE - President Joe Biden speaks about his administration's plans to protect Social Security and Medicare and lower healthcare costs, Feb. 9, 2023, at the University of Tampa in Tampa, Fla. Social Security and Medicare, the financial safety nets millions of older Americans rely on and millions of young people are counting on, will run short on funds to pay full benefits within the next decade, a new annual report released Friday warns. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky, File)

Medicare, Social Security could fall short over next decade

An annual report on Social Security and Medicare says the financial safety nets millions of older Americans rely on and millions more young people are counting on will run short on funds to pay full benefits within the next decade.