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.
-
NewsIn 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. -
NewsWhen 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. -
NewsWhy 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. -
NewsTherapists 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. -
NewsSeconal used to cost less than $200 a bottle. After Valeant Pharmaceuticals bought the medication, the cost rose to $3,000. Advocates for aid in dying say that's a burden for the terminally ill. -
"We're talking about gloves, full body cover and goggles," says a porn industry executive of the California proposal to require condom use on the set. Proponents say it's about workplace safety. -
The federal health law is putting farmers in a tough spot. Many contractors supplying workers have to offer health coverage. Insurance is costly, and contractors worry about immigration fallout. -
Many in the agriculture industry in California are worried about an Obamacare requirement that employers offer workers health insurance in companies of 50 or more people.
