Kate Wells
Michigan Correspondent, KFF Health NewsKate Wells is the Michigan correspondent for KFF Health News. She reports on public health and health policy, with a focus on how national systems and decisions play out in people’s daily lives.
Before joining KFF, Wells spent more than a decade at Michigan Public, where her reporting covered everything from abortion access to vaccine hesitancy, bird flu, and the COVID-19 pandemic. She co-hosted and co-reported the NPR and Michigan Public podcast series Believed, based on her two years spent covering the Larry Nassar case. Her work has earned a Peabody Award, the Livingston Award for Young Journalists, and recognition as a finalist for the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in audio reporting.
Wells began her career at New Hampshire Public Radio and Iowa Public Radio and has reported extensively for NPR. She lives with her family in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
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When the only clinic that offered abortions in Michigan's rural Upper Peninsula closed, an urgent care decided to step in to fill the gap. Now, others are considering similar moves as brick-and-mortar clinics close in blue states. -
More than a dozen states, including Michigan, have sued the Trump administration over a federal declaration that would end funding for healthcare providers who offer gender-affirming care. -
When the last clinic offering abortion in the Upper Peninsula closed, a local urgent care started offering abortion pills to help fill the gap. Now it could be a national model for a new kind of abortion access. -
Hundreds of Michigan municipalities are eligible for nearly $25 million from drug manufacturers. But they have to apply before October 8. -
Some 14,500 Medicaid patients in Michigan must now pay out-of-pocket or go elsewhere for services like cancer screenings and birth control. "For so many, they're just not going to get the care that they need," one provider said. -
Not having this year’s COVID shot actually qualifies you to get the shot, the state’s chief medical executive announced Friday, because the state considers being unvaccinated an “underlying condition.” -
Other states have issued orders authorizing the shots for virtually anyone who wants them, or requiring state insurers to cover the vaccine. Michigan's approach is "more measured," officials say. -
New research by the organizers of Rx Kids, a universal cash aid program for new moms and babies in Flint, found families in the program were less likely to be evicted or report postpartum depression. -
Some 14,000 Michigan patients who rely on Medicaid will be affected, Planned Parenthood of Michigan said Friday. -
The laws allow concerned family members, healthcare providers, and law enforcement to seek a court order temporarily barring someone from possessing guns, if they believe they're an imminent threat.
