The U.S. maternal mortality rate nearly doubled between 2018 and 2021, with COVID-19 as a “contributing factor” in more than 30% of maternal deaths, according to a new report. The report also says medical debt amounts to $88 billion nationwide.

Illinois is one of the few states that provides Medicaid-style health care benefits to undocumented immigrants, but that coverage is proving costly and the state is scaling back. It’s causing a political rift.

Adults ages 19 to 64 in the U.S. should be screened for anxiety disorders, according to a new recommendation from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of independent medical experts whose recommendations help guide doctors’ decisions and influence insurance plans.

Historically, the medical mistreatment of people of color has resulted in the mistrust of a system that saves lives. With health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney disease on the rise within Black and Brown communities, physicians are working to restore trust.

As part of the city’s response, police stations have become makeshift shelters for new migrants before they transition into long-term housing. Recently, a volunteer team of medical students has begun making the rounds at those police stations to assist with refugees’ health needs. 

People with chronic conditions can find themselves trapped in a costly, self-perpetuating emergency room cycle. A pilot program connects Chicago Fire Department paramedics with patients who need help managing chronic conditions at home.

By 2019, the life expectancy gap between the U.S. and the highest-performing nation had grown to more than six years. The COVID-19 pandemic widened that gap even more, as the U.S. had more deaths from the virus than any other country and has been slower to recover.

RSV fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall and winter, and the virus struck earlier than usual and especially hard in the U.S. this past year.

One roadblock to the passage of a state budget this week has been a set of programs in which Illinois provides health care coverage to green-card holders and undocumented residents.

Federal health advisers said a decades-old birth control pill should be sold without a prescription, paving the way for a likely U.S. approval of the first over-the-counter contraceptive medication. Currently, a prescription is required in the U.S.

Saint Anthony Hospital has been a Chicago fixture on the Southwest Side for more than a century. Residents and local leaders say it’s time to upgrade the hospital facility but that they keep getting overlooked.

During the pandemic, the number of low-income and disabled people who received government-backed health care grew in Illinois, and across the country, because at the height of COVID Congress made it illegal for states to kick anyone off Medicaid.

In recent months, unexpected demand spikes, manufacturing problems and tight ingredient supplies have contributed to shortages that stress patients, parents and doctors.

Emergency measures designed to ensure people didn’t lose their health care during the COVID-19 pandemic are now being phased out.

Emergency measures designed to ensure people didn’t lose their health care during the COVID-19 pandemic are now being phased out. People must once again prove their eligibility for the government=-backed insurance program.

Hundreds of women travel each week to the southern tip of Illinois to secure an abortion, something that is no longer available to millions living in a 1,800 mile stretch of 11 Southern states that have mostly banned pregnancy terminations.