KFF Reporters Track Opioid Settlement Cash and Raw-Milk Risks

KFF Health News reporters fanned out across national and local media to unpack several public health stories, with the most consequential being how states and counties are spending the more than $50 billion flowing from opioid settlements, according to KFF Health News. The reporting continues to probe whether that money reaches addiction treatment and prevention or gets diverted to unrelated budget holes, a question that has dogged the payouts since they began.

The journalists also addressed the marketing of raw milk and a related infant formula recall, warning that unpasteurized products carry infection risks that marketing claims tend to downplay. A separate segment examined the mounting health dangers of extreme heat, which strains emergency departments and hits vulnerable patients hardest.

Each thread points to the same underlying issue. Large sums of public money and high-stakes health choices frequently move with limited transparency, and independent reporting remains one of the few checks tracking where the dollars land and who gets hurt.