Keep Smoking, and Watch Your Insurance Premiums Rise

Smoking: Smokers are finding that their employers are making them pay more for health insurance, both for their higher health costs and as an incentive to quit, Reed Abelson reports for the New York Times.

Rural Health: Health clinics and hospitals in rural areas could be particularly hard hit by cuts to rural health financial assistance proposed by the Congressional deficit reduction "supercommittee," David Gorn reports for California Healthline.

Environmental Health: The people of Hayden, Ariz. have for years been beset by health problems amid illegal air pollution from a local copper smelter, while federal and state regulators failed to act, Jim Morris and Emma Schwartz report in an ambitious investigation for iWatchNews.org (Center for Public Integrity).

Fertility: Birth rates among teens and young adult women continue to fall to their lowest levels since the 1940s, and health experts say the poor economy is playing a role in that decline, Mike Stobbe reports for the Associated Press.

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