Selena Simmons-Duffin
Selena Simmons-Duffin reports on health policy for NPR.
She has worked at NPR for ten years as a show editor and producer, with one stopover at WAMU in 2017 as part of a staff exchange. For four months, she reported local Washington, DC, health stories, including a secretive maternity ward closure and a gesundheit machine.
Before coming to All Things Considered in 2016, Simmons-Duffin spent six years on Morning Edition working shifts at all hours and directing the show. She also drove the full length of the U.S.-Mexico border in 2014 for the "Borderland" series.
She won a Gracie Award in 2015 for creating a video called "Talking While Female," and a 2014 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for producing a series on why you should love your microbes.
Simmons-Duffin attended Stanford University, where she majored in English. She took time off from college to do HIV/AIDS-related work in East Africa. She started out in radio at Stanford's radio station, KZSU, and went on to study documentary radio at the Salt Institute, before coming to NPR as an intern in 2009.
She lives in Washington, DC, with her spouse and kids.
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During open enrollment for Obamacare, a record number of people signed up for private health insurance. Now the Biden administration has to pivot to helping people who are at risk of losing Medicaid. -
Nearly 16 million people have already signed up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act. There are still three more days to sign up. (Story aired on ATC on Jan. 12, 2023.)
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Public health officials want more Americans to get the latest COVID vaccine booster. Only 35% of people over 65 have gotten the shot, though 75% of COVID deaths are among people in this age group.
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Kristen Petranek has a history of miscarriages – and she has diabetes, which makes pregnancy risky. She fears that if something goes wrong, her state's law may inhibit doctors from helping her.
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In states with abortion bans, doctors may hesitate to provide abortion care in a medical emergency. Some ethicists argue doctors should practice civil disobedience and put patients' lives first.
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Doctors in states with abortion bans can face prison time and lose their licenses if they violate the laws. Some are calling on doctors to openly defy the bans.
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State law at the time prohibited abortion after around 6 weeks. Legal experts say this kind of law leaves doctors uncertain of what's legal and can put patients in dangerous situations.
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About halfway into her pregnancy, Karla found out her fetus had a severe genetic anomaly. As she grappled with an uncertain prognosis, she was up against North Carolina's 20-week abortion limit.
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A new report assessed the impact of laws in the 15 states that have banned or heavily restricted abortion since June 24.
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Child poverty is at a historic low, according to Census bureau data, and the rate of those without health insurance dropped in 2021. But the good news may be short-lived, as policy measures expire.
