Health Insurance and Costs

The ACA expanded insurance coverage, but many children throughout the country are still not receiving important health care benefits. The extent of the coverage exclusions varies widely depending upon which state a child calls home.

As the pool of uninsured shrinks, public hospital systems must increasingly compete for newly insured patients. “We're forcing public hospitals to compete in one of the most competitive industries that has ever existed in the economy,” said one county health director.

After months of reporting on immigrants' experiences in enrolling for health coverage, reporter Momo Chang still didn't have the long cover story she'd envisioned. But she stayed flexible and ended up with a compact news story that focused on a single facet of immigrant enrollment.

Millions of Californians still don't have health insurance. Undocumented people don't qualify for Obamacare benefits, and many others still find coverage too expensive. Leaburn Alexander, a 53-year-old night janitor at a hotel near San Francisco International Airport, is among the latter.

With millions of their patients newly insured because of health care reform, community health centers, once viewed as providers of last resort, are remaking themselves as providers of choice.

An ocean view and a smoothie bar do not have any bearing on the quality of health care being delivered by doctors, nurses, and hospital staff. Wouldn’t it be nice if there were a simple way to compare hospitals?

What’s the price of a human life? In this part of our series “At the Crossroads: The Rise of Hepatitis C and The Fight To Stop It,” we'll tell you what value health economists put on human life.

With Obamacare's second season of open enrollment underway, advocates remain focused on signing up the remaining uninsured. In California, the uninsured rate is projected to drop to 6 percent by 2019. But getting it much lower will require creative new strategies.

Is Obamacare really at risk now that Republicans have taken the Senate? The core of the law will likely survive, thanks to the presidential veto power. Still, sections of it could be pruned away by the legislature. Here are a few possibilities the media has highlighted.

Health care super-users are often chronically ill, alone and with limited incomes. They typically need the medical skills of a trained health-care professional, but also the listening, counseling and support offered by social workers and clergy.