Author

Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News

Sarah Varney, Kaiser Health News

Sarah Varney is an enterprise reporter at Kaiser Health News with a special focus on racial and ethnic health disparities and the impacts of federal and state health laws on vulnerable populations, including children. Sarah is an accomplished journalist on multiple platforms, adapting her reporting and storytelling techniques for print, radio and TV. As a KHN correspondent, she regularly produces segments for PBS NewsHour. Her stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and KHN’s other print partners.

When does life begin? As state laws define it, science, politics, and religion clash

By: - September 14, 2022

This article originally appeared in Kaiser Health news. As life-preserving medical technology advanced in the second half of the 20th century, doctors and families were faced with a thorny decision, one with weighty legal and moral implications: How should we define when life ends? Cardiopulmonary bypass machines could keep the blood pumping and ventilators could […]

HIV preventive care is supposed to be free in the US. So, why are some patients still paying?

By: - March 28, 2022

Anthony Cantu, 31, counsels patients at a San Antonio health clinic about a daily pill shown to prevent HIV infection. Last summer, he started taking the medication himself, an approach called preexposure prophylaxis, better known as PrEP. The regimen requires laboratory tests every three months to ensure the powerful drug does not harm his kidneys […]