This column explores how health reform is changing the ways in which we pay for and deliver health care in the U.S. It also highlights the ways in which our current system is falling short on measures of coverage, access and affordability. On any given week, that could mean a look at how Republican plans to repeal Obamacare could reshape the individual insurance market, how the safety net system is adapting to new financial pressures, or how the trend of doctors and hospitals merging into ever-larger entities is driving up costs. We also explore health care costs and whether the Affordable Care Act or its successor plans can live up to the promise to rein them in. Throughout, we keep watch on how the goals of health reform intersect with the shaping power of markets and human behavior. Contributors include veteran health journalist Trudy Lieberman and independent health journalist Kellie Schmitt, with occasional contributions from independent journalists such as Susan Abram and Sara Stewart.
Proponents of Medicaid work requirements think it would flush freeloaders out of the system. And yet the reality is that most people on Medicaid already work.
Growth in health care employment will fluctuate but the long-range trend is decidedly upward, as these seven signs suggest.
While ACA repeal efforts have stalled, the individual mandate is gone and Medicaid work requirements are proliferating. Two expert observers weigh in on states' growing role in shaping health policy.
One of the busiest free clinics in the state of North Carolina closed its doors in 2016. A reporter decided to find out what that meant for the health of the county's disproportionately poor residents.
Susan Moore has colon cancer. She couldn’t afford transportation to dialysis three times a week. Until recently, she wanted to die. Her story struck reporter Tracie Potts especially hard.
After the state expanded Medicaid under the ACA, Washington state health officials noticed that people who were focused on survival were letting their health needs fall by the wayside.
"The reality is that many medical students, residents and trainee physicians are illiterate in the basics of public health and health policy," says Dr. Rusha Modi.
On Jan. 1, Californians in the state's Medicaid dental program will once again have full dental coverage. But the program's low rates mean many dentists won't see them.
The use of crowdfunding to cover medical costs has grown rapidly in recent years. The trend provides insights into gaps in health coverage, but also poses some problems health reporters should keep in mind.
Experts increasingly point to the high cost of care in America — not necessarily the overuse of care — as the chronic illness of the U.S. system. Here's one model for reporting on the story in your local market.
