Nothing melts our hearts like a health policy valentine. Readers made us swoon this season, writing poetic lines about prescription drug pricing, medical debt, primary care shortages, and more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here are some of our favorites, starting with the grand prize winner and first runner-up, whose entries were each turned into a cartoon by staff illustrator Oona Tempest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

1st Place<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Darling, this Valentine\u2019s Day,let\u2019s grab our passportsand fly away to someplace,where the same drugs cost a fractionof what they do in the States.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Jennifer Reck\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n
Runner-Up<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n
I saw the doctor for a check,I had a lump in my right breast.Two weeks for the answer.It wasn\u2019t cancer.So instead of death, I\u2019m in debt.\u2014 Sunshine Moore Anger<\/em><\/p>\n
Other Newsroom Favorites<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n
I was lost in the sadness\u00a0and shock of you leaving,\u00a0Tore my eyes away\u00a0from my Morning Briefing\u00a0How could you leave us,\u00a0Why would you stray?\u00a0When you are loved so dearly by the ACA?\u00a0But I realized too late,\u00a0\u2019Twas not to be,\u00a0My primary care no longer loved me\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Zac Aulson<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n
Parental love is beautiful\u00a0And guess what makes it stronger\u00a0A paid parental leave policy\u00a0To stay with baby longer\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Andrea Ferguson<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n
The paperwork flirts with my affections,\u00a0A dance of denials, full of rejections.\u00a0My heart yearns for you, my sweet medication, but insurance insists on prior authorization.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Sally Nix<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n
My love for you, darling, is blinding\u00a0Like a clinical trial pre-findings\u00a0But I fear we shall part\u00a0And I\u2019ll lose my heart\u00a0Because of Medicaid unwinding!\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2013 Kara Gavin<\/strong>\u00a0<\/p>\n
KFF Health News<\/a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF\u2014an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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Nothing melts our hearts like a health policy valentine. Readers made us swoon this season, writing poetic lines about prescription drug pricing, medical debt, primary care shortages, and more.\u00a0 Here are some of our favorites, starting with the grand prize winner and first runner-up, whose entries were each turned into a cartoon by staff illustrator […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2444,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2443","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2443"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2445,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443\/revisions\/2445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2444"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2443"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2443"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthynewsusa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2443"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}