April Dembosky
April Dembosky is the health reporter for The California Report and KQED News. She covers health policy and public health, and has reported extensively on the economics of health care, the roll-out of the Affordable Care Act in California, mental health and end-of-life issues. Her work is regularly rebroadcast on NPR and has been recognized with awards from the Society for Professional Journalists (for sports reporting), and the Association of Health Care Journalists (for a story about pediatric hospice). Her hour-long radio documentary about home funeralswon the Best New Artist award from the Third Coast International Audio Festival in 2009. April occasionally moonlights on the arts beat, covering music and dance. Her story about the first symphony orchestra at Burning Man won the award for Best Use of Sound from the Public Radio News Directors Inc. Before joining KQED in 2013, April covered technology and Silicon Valley for The Financial Times, and freelanced for Marketplace and The New York Times. She is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism and Smith College.
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The health law just needs a tuneup, says the CEO of Molina Healthcare, which operates in 12 states and Puerto Rico. The California-based insurer has seen profits, while Humana and Aetna struggled. -
The VA is now training counselors in how to better understand and bring up guns and gun safety without alienating clients who are combat veterans. -
California made a huge effort to enroll people in Medi-Cal under the Affordable Care Act. Two-thirds of those people are minorities. If Trump dismantles Obamacare, the change could hit them hard. -
Some networks of hospitals, doctors and medical services are now so dominant in their region that they can hike their prices and force patients to waive the right to sue when things go wrong. -
In California, voters will weigh in on whether adult film performers should be required to use condoms on porn sets. The measure is backed by a controversial figure in gay activism: Michael Weinstein. -
When New York increased its cigarette tax, smoking rates declined. California's proposed increase of $2 a pack may, too, say researchers. The higher the tax, the more likely people are to quit. -
Recent health laws were supposed to give people easier access to mental health care. But some adults who have anxiety or depression and need help are still having a tough time lining up treatment. -
Why is it so hard to connect people with therapists? Insurance bureaucracy cuts both ways, it turns out. Patients have trouble finding therapists in networks. And therapists have trouble joining them. -
Therapists are in such demand they can bypass insurance companies, so the wealthy are more likely to get treated. A historian explains how this came to be the norm in the U.S. health care system. -
After a teenager attempted suicide, her parents searched in vain for therapists who would take their insurance and were accepting new patients. The family paid for therapy with credit cards instead.
