Healthcare Systems & Policy

California and Michigan offer real-world laboratories for state policies that clamp down on vaccine exemptions, and the early results are very encouraging.

The historic defeat sent a signal to politicians that everyone needs health coverage, comprehensive benefits, and sick people can’t be left out.

In Bakersfield, Calif., researchers found 30-day readmission rates dropped significantly when pharmacists where given a larger role in caring for patients.

Why not allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices? Economists such as Neeraj Sood worry such a move would hamper crucial innovations over time. But not everyone agrees.

Should medical residents still be allowed to work 28-hour shifts? One doctor recounts her exhausting, nightmarish shift in the ER as an example of what can go wrong as the hours stretch on.

AP journalist Meghan Hoyer provides an updated dataset and guide to help reporters better understand the role played by Medicaid in their local California communities.

"Our health care system remains in a crisis," writes the CEO of Molina Healthcare. "Both the AHCA and the ACA only address the funding of health care and fail to tackle the troubling rate at which health care costs are rising."

"I’ve been startled to see the debate over the AHCA reignite a political philosophy and policy approach that seemed to be have been discredited — and be in sharp decline," writes former health care journalist Michael Millenson.

The media critic in Jost laments that "so much coverage is focused on politics within the Republican Party, to a much greater extent than on what the legislation would specifically do."

The trend towards putting responsibility for one’s health squarely on the shoulders of individuals lets the government off the hook for its part in looking after its citizens, argues sociologist Shelly Reuter.