The Kaiser Family Foundation, a Menlo Park-based nonprofit, said Wednesday it plans to start an independent news service to report on the U.S. health-care system and “the increasingly urgent political and policy debates surrounding it,” according to the San Francisco Business Times.

The free news service will “provide in-depth coverage and news at a time when cash-strapped news organizations are being forced to scale back their efforts in this crucial area.”

KFF said the new service will be based at its Washington, D.C., office and will be headed by two veteran health-care journalists:

• Laurie McGinley, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter and editor who previously was the Wall Street Journal’s deputy bureau chief for global economics and its national health-care policy correspondent, and

• Peggy Girshman, an Emmy-winning editor and producer who previously was managing editor at National Public Radio and an executive editor at Congressional Quarterly.

According to the Business Times, KFF will enter into partnerships with news organizations to jointly produce and publish articles, and will provide free content for syndication to news organizations in the U.S. and elsewhere.