Spire Healthcare reports profit and revenue jump as its work for NHS increases

Private hospital group also benefited from higher take-up of private health insurance among working-age people

Plan to end exorbitant ‘surprise’ ambulance bills heads to Congress

Committee to recommend patients should pay no more than $100 or 10% of a bill, depending on which is less

Delays, denials, debt and the growing privatization of Medicare

Medicare Advantage enrollees report treatment denials and delays in payment, leading to harmful outcomes in healthcare

Florida ‘callously’ strips healthcare from thousands of children despite new law

Governor Ron DeSantis’s challenging of a ‘continuous eligibility’ rule has booted over 22,500 children off insurance since January

‘No one’s being honest about it’: how NHS crisis forces patients to go private

Long waiting lists are creating a boom in the medical insurance market, leading to fears of a long-term change in attitudes to the health service

Forgiving medical debt after it is sent to collections has fewer benefits – study

Experts partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a medical non-profit that buys and forgives debt, found it had little effect on people’s credit scores and mental health

Lower-income US women more likely to miss key breast cancer test, study finds

Isolation and lack of health insurance also correlate to reduced mammogram rates for breast cancer

The Guardian view on the privatisation of health: outsourcing will not save the NHS

Editorial: Buying care from the private sector brings short-term relief, but it won’t solve the problem of underfunding

Aviva’s profits rise as demand for UK private health insurance booms

Fears over NHS waiting lists contribute to 41% increase in sales of policies, contributing to £1.5bn operating profit

Doctors fighting US opioid epidemic say insurance barrier impedes treatment

Prior authorization requires permission to be sought before prescribing critical drugs, which could cost lives, doctors say