Jun 03 Watch 7:30 Should you be prepared for health care sticker shock? By PBS News Hour Under the Affordable Care Act, the expected health care price spikes for coming year range from 20 to 85 percent. Those who are covered by their employers are also paying more out of pocket. What’s behind the increases? Gwen Ifill… Continue watching
May 01 Medicare reveals how much it spends on prescription drugs for Americans By Jordan Rau, Kaiser Health News The data show that 14 drugs cost the federal government and Medicare beneficiaries more than $1 billion each, accounting for nearly a quarter of Medicare prescription drug spending in 2013. Most of those drugs are used to treat chronic conditions… Continue reading
Feb 14 Challengers' legal rights unlikely to effect health lawsuit By Mark Sherman, Associated Press Despite questions about four challengers' legal right to bring their lawsuit, the Supreme Court probably will not be deterred from deciding whether millions of people covered by the health care overhaul are eligible for the subsidies that make their insurance… Continue reading
Jun 30 Many hospitals struggle to understand their own cost data By Julie Appleby, Kaiser Health News “To think that health care is this ‘ginormous’ business that doesn’t understand costs is mind-blowing,” said Vivian Lee, senior vice president for health sciences at the University of Utah, an academic medical center with four hospitals and 1,330 physicians. In… Continue reading
Feb 07 Why do Americans spend so much on pharmaceuticals? By Valerie Paris, OECD The United States spends more on pharmaceuticals every year than any other country. OECD's Valerie Paris explains the some of the reasons behind this statistic. Continue reading
Feb 05 Watch Health Care Spending Continued Climb in 2009 Health care spending grew to 17 percent of the U.S. economy last year. Betty Ann Bowser examines the impact of the figures amid questions on the future of a legislative reform push. Continue watching
Nov 16 Report: House Bill Would Increase Health Care Costs The health care reform bill that passed the House last week would increase U.S. health care costs by $289 billion over the next decade, according to a government report released this weekend. Continue reading
Jul 22 Obama Makes Fresh Appeal on Health Care at Prime-time News Conference By PBS News Hour President Obama sought to rally support for a health care overhaul during a news conference Wednesday as Congress struggles for agreement on a reform plan. Following is full text of the president's opening remarks. Continue reading
Jul 11 Watch Doctors Seek to Improve End-of-life Care for Cancer Patients Recent studies have indicated that barely a third of patients report having substantive conversations with their oncologists about end-of-life care, a statistic some physicians are looking to change. Health correspondent Betty Ann Bowser reports. Continue watching