Margot Sanger-Katz

Margot Sanger-Katz

Health Care Correspondent

Margot Sanger-Katz is the health care correspondent for National Journal. Previously, she spent two years as an editor at the Yale Alumni Magazine, writing about issues as diverse as mouse genetics and dinosaur digs. Margot was the health care reporter at the Concord Monitor, and an editor at Legal Affairs magazine. At the Monitor, she covered medicine and health care policy and the John McCain campaign during the 2008 presidential election. She has completed fellowships in health care policy and reporting, including the Knight Science Journalism Fellowship’s Medical Evidence Boot Camp, and is currently a Health System Performance Fellow with the Association of Health Care Journalists.

 

Margot Sanger-Katz's Latest Posts

Search for ‘Obamacare’ Funding Angers Lawmakers

By
With money and time running out to implement the president’s health care law, administration officials are looking for funding wherever they can find it—and angering members of Congress along the way. Read More »

We Still Don't Really Know How Much Health Care Costs

By
By releasing a big new spreadsheet Wednesday, the federal government just revealed the insane nature of health care pricing. What it didn’t do was give us information that truly explains actual health care costs. Read More »

Debt-Ceiling Fight May Flare This Week

By Billy House
House Republicans will push action on a bill signaling no retreat from their demand for spending cuts as a condition to any ceiling hike. Read More »

After the Obama Administration's Morning-After Pill Decision

By
President Obama has made a series of speeches in recent weeks, delighting scientists who work on controversial areas of research and advocates for reproductive and abortion rights. Read More »

The 'Obamacare' Rollout's 'Glitches and Bumps' Won't Doom Health Reform

By
Medicare Part D had them, too. Read More »

Immigration Debate May Grow More Complicated

By Billy House
With Congress focused on immigration reform this week, the national security aspects of the issue are moving to the forefront amid efforts by some conservatives to inject the Boston Marathon bombing suspects into that debate. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

The 'Obamacare' Rollout Will Be a Bureaucratic Nightmare

By
When the last major government insurance plan launched in 2006, it was a disaster. The president’s health law will be even worse.  Read More »
HEALTH CARE

No, Oncologists Are Not Going Broke

By Margot Sanger-Katz
Cancer doctors say the sequester forces them to turn away dying patients. Nonsense. Read More »

Clay Alspach, Chief Majority Health Counsel

By
When two veteran committee health staffers departed this year, Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., picked one of his own to promote. Clay Alspach, 35, has worked for the committee, or its members, for much of his professional life. Read More »

Karen Nelson, Deputy Minority Staff Director on Health, Full Committee

By
For more than 30 years, Karen Nelson has been the Democrats’ go-to health aide on Rep. Henry Waxman’s staff. Read More »

Health Care Interests Have Much to Monitor

By
Because entitlement reform could touch nearly every medical lobby, all will keep eyes and ears on the Energy and Commerce Committee’s doings. Read More »

No Big Bills, But Plenty of Action on Health Care

By
The Energy and Commerce Committee won’t be passing any blockbuster health care bills this session—much as some GOP members would still love to repeal the Affordable Care Act—but several smaller measures on the agenda are likel...

Read More »

Time Looks Right for Permanent ‘Doc Fix’

By
Since 1997, when Congress passed legislation with the dreaded “sustainable growth rate” formula, the problem of how to compensate doctors who treat Medicare patients has been a perennial issue before the House Energy and Commerc...

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Doctors Badly Want a Prescription for SGR

By
The sustainable growth rate formula that’s used for physician reimbursement under Medicare has been the top priority for doctors’ lobbies for years. The prospect of a permanent “doc fix” matters to them tremendously because ...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Why Those Wellness Programs Don't Work

By
Obama's workplace health incentive was supposed to save money and make you fit. Instead it penalizes the poor.  Read More »

Agenda Is Stacked for Return of Congress; Obama Will Pile on More With His Budget

By Billy House
The prospects for renewed talks on a long-term deficit-reduction deal reach a pivotal point this week with the release Wednesday of President Obama’s budget plan, which offers cuts to Social Security and Medicare in the hope of so...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Why the Obama Administration’s Novel Medicaid Idea Might Not Catch On

By
The promise of a private option for Medicaid expansion excited GOP politicians. But new rules are likely to dampen their enthusiasm. Read More »

Public Opinion Stays Static on Affordable Care Act

By
In the three years since the Affordable Care Act became law, it has become fodder for campaign ads and the subject of a high-profile Supreme Court challenge, while news analysts have endlessly debated and dissected it. None of that ...

Read More »

Obamacare at Age 3: Still Too Young for Prognosis

By
Most major components of the Affordable Care Act don't go into effect until next year. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Chickening Out on Medicare

By
They agree the entitlement is in deep trouble. So why didn't pols cut as much as they could have? Read More »
HEALTH CARE

What Paul Ryan's New Budget Means for Health Care

By
No Medicare changes for 10 years. Big Medicaid cuts right away. And a kind-of-sort-of Obamacare repeal. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Why the Republican Plan to Reform Medicare Could Really Make It More Expensive

By
Republicans like Paul Ryan want more market competition in federal health care programs. Trouble is, those plans don't save money. Read More »
BUDGET

Why the Senate Democrats' Budget Will Be Vague

By and
The fewer specifics they offer, the less political ammunition there will be for the GOP to use against them. Read More »

House Budget Chairman's Track Record on Medicare Belies His Rhetoric

By
Paul Ryan's plans for current seniors in Medicare are not much different from President Obama's. Read More »

The Obama Administration's Super-Expensive, Legally Dubious Medicaid Plan

By
Arkansas is a test case for a new privatization plan that could win support from GOP politicians in other states. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Why Medical Providers Don't Mind the Sequester

By
A grand bargain to reduce the budget deficit would sting health care providers. The sequester, by contrast, won’t really hurt. Read More »

Florida Governor's Embrace of Medicaid Money Undercuts GOP Attacks on 'Obamacare'

By Beth Reinhard and
Republicans who seemed united against "Obamacare" just two years ago suddenly find some prominent party leaders taking a different tack. Read More »

Rick Scott's Medicaid Decision is a Big Win for the White House

By
Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s decision to expand his state’s Medicaid program is a huge political and practical win for the Obama White House. Read More »

New Language for Old Ideas in GOP Medicare Proposals

By
In the months leading up to last November’s elections, politicians were engaged in a linguistic war over how to describe Republican Medicare-reform plans. Read More »

Why Obama's Optimism on Health Costs Is Premature

By
The country has just experienced four straight years of slow health care growth, a trend with huge implications for the federal budget, wages, and many people’s out-of-pocket costs. But what’s causing the trend is unclear. Read More »

The Most Important Policies In President Obama's 2013 State of the Union Address

By National Journal Staff
Everything you need to know from 2013's State of the Union address, from health care and the budget to immigration and guns. Read More »

Prospects Improve for a Permanent Medicare 'Doc Fix'

By
The Congressional Budget Office just handed the doctors and lawmakers eager to fix a longstanding Medicare-physician pay problem a big gift. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Budget Office Predicts Rocky Start for Health Care Law

By
The Obama administration has been publicly upbeat about the coming rollout of its health care law, but the CBO takes a more pessimistic view. Read More »

You Can Thank the Health Care Industry for the Economic Recovery

By
Happy about the country’s shrinking unemployment rate? You have the health care industry to thank. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Health Care: Great for the Economy Today, Terrible Later

By
Hospitals like Pittsburgh’s UPMC created enough jobs to end the recession. If they keep it up, they’ll wreck the economy. Read More »
GUN CONTROL

Why Improving Mental Health Would Do Little to End Gun Violence

By
Screening gun purchasers for mental illness may not do much to reduce violent crimes. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Critics of Medicare Board Should Be Careful What They Wish For

By
What many critics don’t realize is that if the much-maligned Medicare cost-cutting board is not assembled, the law hands a lot of power to the secretary of Health and Human Services. Read More »

What Obama Wants and What Congress Will Give Him

By Stacy Kaper and
How the president's vision fits with what Congress is likely to do. Read More »
ANALYSIS: INFLUENCE

What Jim DeMint Wants to Do at Heritage

By
Will the Heritage Foundation be perceived any differently with the departing senator in the top job? Read More »
THE INHERITANCE: HEALTH CARE

'Obamacare' Is the Law of the Land, but 3 Enormous Challenges Loom

By
Government regulators, states, employers, and health care providers are rushing to get ready for the transformed health care system that is coming in 2014. They have long To Do lists. Read More »

Health Exchanges a Tough Sell With Many States

By
In hopes of encouraging reluctant states to embrace the new health care law, the Obama administration has extended its deadlines to commit to running new insurance marketplaces and has published answers to states' biggest questions....

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Republicans in Congress Make a Quick About-Face on Medicare

By
In just a few short weeks, the dominant Republican line on Medicare has shifted from attacking the Democrats for making cuts to the program to demanding a new round of cuts to reduce the federal deficit. Read More »
ANALYSIS: HEALTH CARE

Why a 'Grand Bargain' Wouldn't Target Medicaid

By
The Supreme Court has made Medicaid a much less appealing target for cuts in any deficit-reducing deal. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Obama Admin Fills in Health Law Details

By
The Obama administration filled in key details on how the health reform law will regulate insurance plans by issuing two long-awaited regulations on Tuesday. Read More »
BUDGET

Bold Medicare Reform May Require Going Beyond the CBO Score

By
The Congressional Budget Office isn’t always able to put a dollar figure on how much money Democrats’ ideas would save. As Washington negotiators work toward a debt-reduction deal, Democrats want reducing the cost of care to be ...

Read More »

Sebelius Again Extends Deadline on Health Exchanges

By
On the eve of a big deadline for states, the Obama administration decided to give them another month to decide whether to build their own online health insurance markets or leave exchange-building to the federal government. Read More »

Senate Aide Wants to be a Millionaire

By
Chris Jacobs, a Republican Senate Joint Economic Committee staffer and prolific health care blogger is also a self-described “trivia hustler.” He just taped a Millionaire  episode, and won't say whether he won. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Floodgates Open on New Health Regs

By
After months of regulatory delays, the floodgates have apparently opened. The Health and Human Services Department delivered two major health reform rules to the Office of Management and Budget Friday, the first in an anticipated st...

Read More »
ELECTION 2012: ISSUES TO WATCH

The Issues: What to Expect in Obama's Second Term

By Jim Tankersley, , , Jim O'Sullivan, , Adam Mazmanian, and James Kitfield
National Journal looks at the litany of thorny problems that face Washington over the next two years and how President Obama and the new Congress might address them.  Read More »
ELECTION 2012: ISSUES TO WATCH

What to Expect on Health Care in Obama's Second Term

By
The Affordable Care act is still unpopular, its path to implementation still bumpy. But this much is now certain: It will remain the law of the land. Read More »
WHITE HOUSE

Obama Administration Sits on Key Regulations

By and
Obama administration agencies are sitting on a pile of major health, environmental, and financial regulations in an effort to avoid political attacks until after the election. Read More »
CAMPAIGN 2012

What Questions Are in Store for the Candidates Tonight?

By Katy O'Donnell, and
The 90-minute town-hall debate at Hofstra University Tuesday night will feature questions from uncommitted Nassau County, N.Y., voters selected by Gallup. Moderator Candy Crowley is tasked with selecting which of the 80 voters' ques...

Read More »
ANALYSIS: HEALTH CARE

What’s All the Fuss About Health Law's IPAB?

By
Republicans may not like the alternative to the Independent Payment Advisory Board: the secretary of Health and Human Services. Read More »
POLITICS

Get Ready for Fiscal Wonkery at the VP Debate

By Katy O'Donnell, and
The vice presidential debate on Thursday evening will feature candidates with very different policy portfolios. Read More »
ELECTION ANALYSIS

One Bright Spot for Obama in Debate: Medicare

By
In a tough debate for the president, Medicare may have been the high point. Read More »
POLITICS

Jobs and Deficit Likely to Dominate Debate

By and
A look at some of the key issues likely to come up in Wednesday evening's presidential debate. Read More »
CAMPAIGN 2012

Biden to Seniors: Romney Will Tax Your Social Security Benefits

By Rodney Hawkins
Vice President Joe Biden told senior citizens in Florida on Friday that Republican nominee Mitt Romney's economic plan could raise taxes on their Social Security benefits. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Will Health Rebate Checks Help Obama?

By
For many insured Americans, the first tangible benefit of President Obama's signature health care law recently landed in their inbox: a check from their insurance company. Read More »
ANALYSIS: HEALTH CARE

The Competition Cure-All

By
There’s not much evidence that competition slows down the growth rate of Medicare spending. Even the health care experts who are most enthusiastic about the Romney-Ryan approach say it would be a huge gamble.  Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Obama More Flexible on Medicare Than Rhetoric Suggests

By
In his convention speech in Charlotte, President Obama vowed to block the Republican Medicare reform plan because “no American should ever have to spend their golden years at the mercy of insurance companies.” Read More »
HEALTH CARE

States' Rule

By and Ryan Morris
A controversial new program being launched by the Obama administration would shift some of the country’s most poor and frail Medicaid beneficiaries into state-run private managed care plans. Read More »
CONVENTIONS 2012

Final Night: Fact Checking the Democratic Speakers

By Katy O'Donnell, and
On the final night of their convention in Charlotte, Democrats, including President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, criticized Republican nominee Mitt Romney over his policies on taxes, Medicare,  and national security wh...

Read More »
CONVENTIONS 2012

Pelosi: House Democrats Hoping for 27-Seat Gain

By
House Democrats hope to pick up a minimum of 27 seats to reclaim the majority, most of them in states that are not battlegrounds in the presidential election, Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said on Tuesday. Read More »

Axelrod: GOP Convention Didn't Make the Sale

By
Obama campaign senior strategist David Axelrod criticized the Republican convention for doing little “to advance the cause of Mitt Romney,” while saying that next week’s Democratic convention will be less about reintroducing t...

Read More »

10 Things You Need to Know About Medicare

By
The campaign conversation we're having now was accurately predicted last year by Rep.  Steve Israel  of New York chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: “Medicare, Medicare, Medicare.” With al...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

GOP Talking Point on Medicare Mistakenly Attributes Proposals to 'Clinton Commission'

By
Supporters of the Romney-Ryan presidential ticket have been talking a lot about the “Clinton commission” that endorsed the framework for Medicare reform that Romney now champions. Trouble is, it wasn’t really a commission init...

Read More »
OBAMA VS. ROMNEY: ENTITLEMENTS

Obama vs. Romney: Entitlements--Graphic

By
A look at President Obama's and Mitt Romney's respective policy positions on entitlement programs, their records, and their key advisers. Read More »
ENTITLEMENTS

Obama vs. Romney--Entitlements: The Reckoning

By
The graying of the population presents some difficult math for entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. President Obama and Mitt Romney are both aware of the challenges, but they have very different solutions.  Read More »

10 Things You Need To Know About The Medicare Debate

By
The campaign conversation we're having now was accurately predicted last year by Rep. Steve Israel of New York   chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee: “Medicare, Medicare, Medicare.” With all the...

Read More »
ANALYSIS

Both Obama and Romney Medicare Plans Fail To Solve the Cost Problem

By
Fight as they may about whose plan will shore up Medicare’s fiscal future, neither President Obama nor Mitt Romney has a proposal to address Medicare’s real long-term cost problem. Read More »
CAMPAIGN 2012

Ryan Renounces Medicare Cuts That Were Part of His Budget

By
Rep. Paul Ryan , in a Fox News interview that aired on Tuesday evening, renounced $716 billion in cuts to Medicare that were part of his fiscal 2013 budget. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Obama and Romney on Medicare: The Basics

By
With Rep. Paul Ryan , R-Wis., tapped as running mate to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Medicare has emerged as a top issue in the campaign, with both sides saying their plan will preserve the program while cuts in t...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

'Medi-Scare' Attacks Now a Bipartisan Sport

By
After years of ceding the issue of Medicare's future to Democrats, Republicans have begun fighting back, emboldened by the unpopularity of President Obama’s health reform law among seniors and the rising prominence of the debat...

Read More »
CAMPAIGN 2012

Ryan Pick Brings Medicare to Center Stage

By
Scrutiny of Mitt Romney’s Medicare reform policies are sure to intensify with his choice of Rep.  Paul Ryan , R-Wisc., as his running mate. The two men agree on the key points. Still, there are some differences betw...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Widely Supported AIDS Programs Face Ax in Tough Budget Climate

By
A tight spending climate coupled with medical advances that have driven AIDS out of the headlines have global health experts and advocates concerned that both domestic and international programs targeting the disease could face shar...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Polls Agree: Americans Still Deeply Divided About Health Care Reform

By and Steven Shepard
The intensity of feeling on both sides of the health care law has grown in the aftermath of the Supreme Court's decision, even as the overall split remains basically unchanged, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducte...

Read More »
ANALYSIS: HEALTH

Ruling Could Leave Millions Uninsured

By
Depending on how states react to the high court’s ruling on Medicaid expansion, the decision could leave millions of poor people uninsured. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Regardless of Ruling, Gripes Are Guaranteed

By
Today is the day when the Supreme Court will make a lot of people unhappy. Read More »
ANALYSIS

Health Care Ruling Won't Stop All of Industry's Changes

By
Whatever the Supreme Court does on Thursday, there’s no time machine for the health care system. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

What's the Supreme Court Doing This Week? Proofreading, Mostly

By
The much-anticipated Supreme Court ruling on challenges to the health care law did not come on Monday. But the wait doesn't mean any last-minute maneuvering is going on. More likely, it's proofreading. Read More »
NEED TO KNOW: HEALTH

Unprepared for High Court Fallout

By and Meghan McCarthy
Congress will have its work cut out if the Supreme Court strikes down the 2010 health care law, but members have done little planning for this scenario. Read More »
ANALYSIS: HEALTH

The (Fiscal) Case for Death

By
Over the long run, effective preventive health policy could cost the federal government more than it saves. Read More »
OBAMA VS ROMNEY: ENTITLEMENTS

The Reckoning: GRAPHIC

By
A side-by-side comparison of the presidential candidiates' positions on entitlements. Read More »
OBAMA VS. ROMNEY: ENTITLEMENTS

The Reckoning Looms

By
The graying of the population presents some difficult math for entitlement programs such as Medicare and Social Security. President Obama and Mitt Romney are both aware of the challenges, but they have very different solutions. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Obama Legal Argument Poses Dangers, Experts Say

By and Meghan McCarthy
Insurance companies, hospitals, and health-policy watchers are wringing their hands about what will happen if the Supreme Court takes down the individual mandate at the heart of the 2010 health reform law. But it turns out that a di...

Read More »
POLITICS

Voters Care More About Health Care in This Election -- Sort Of

By
In this election, health has become something of a proxy issue for voters’ larger views about the appropriate role of the federal government. For opponents, it’s a symbol of government overreach; for supporters, it’s a sign of...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Report: States Banding Together To Build Health Insurance Exchanges

By
Led by a California nonprofit, a group of 17 states has been collaborating for more than a year to develop tools for the insurance marketplaces the 2010 health care reform law says they must launch in 2014, the Washington Post reports . Read More »
NEED TO KNOW: HEALTH

How the (Legal) Sausage Is Made

By
A look at how the Supreme Court goes about making important decisions, in advance of its ruling on the fate of the 2010 health care reform law.  Read More »
CONGRESS

Poll: No Blame if Court Nixes Health Care Law

By
Even though President Obama fought for passage of the landmark 2010 health care law, very small minorities say their attitudes about him would change one way or the other should the Supreme Court strike down the law that is so often...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Report: Even When Free, Many Seniors Skip Checkups

By
Even though Medicare now offers a free "welcome to Medicare" checkup for seniors who enter the program, about one in eight still wait two years or longer to seek a physical, a study in Health Affairs finds. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Report: Price Variation Makes Purchase of Health Care Confusing

By
A new story from Consumer Reports highlights how extreme price variation and sketchy transparency can mean that even insured patients often end up on the hook for huge, unanticipated bills. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Women Fear Efforts to Control Reproductive Rights: Poll

By
About three in 10 American women believe there is a "wide-scale effort to limit women's reproductive health choices and services," according to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Read More »
RESTORATION CALLS

Why Americans Still Trust Their Doctors

By
Mary Morse-Dwelley trusted her doctor. And that trust seems to have been rewarded. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

The Supreme Court Rumor Mill: Frenzied, and Wrong

By and Meghan McCarthy
Rumors were flying around the Capitol this week that the Supreme Court would decide the health care cases on Thursday. They were wrong.   Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Report: Most Individual Health Plans Cover Less Than Health Care Law Requires

By
Most individual polices currently on the market could not be sold on state exchanges in 2014, a new report concludes. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Nanny State Works, When It Comes to Injuries

By
If you want to reduce fatal injuries, the nanny state works, concludes a new report from the Trust for America’s Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Read More »

What Can Congress Learn from the FDA User Fee Bills?

By Margot Sanger-Katz
Unlike so much else in the 112th Congress, the package of legislation to authorize Food and Drug Administration user fee agreements is humming along. At a House markup last week, Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., was one of many members ...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

GAO Takes Another Stab at Spurned HHS Budget Cuts

By
The Government Accountability Office took another stab at some spurned Department of Health and Human Services budget savings ideas on Wednesday in testimony at a House subcommittee hearing. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Hospitals Using New Strategies to Lock in High Prices

By
Hospitals are using sophisticated strategies to increase their ability to demand high prices from insurers, a new study in Health Affairs suggests. Read More »
HEALTH

Nothing to Smile About

By
Dental diseases are arguably the largest unmet health need in the United States. The worst-off victims are the poor, the young, and those in rural America. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

CDC: Fewer Teens Having Sex, More Using Contraception

By
Fewer teen girls are having sex, and more of those who do are using contraception, according to a new government survey. The study found that more than half of teen girls between 15 and 19 have never had sex. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Usual Suspects Not to Blame for High Health Costs, Report Says

By
The staggering $8,000 per person that the United States spends on health care can't be explained by our aging population, our overuse of doctors and hospitals, our wealth, or our rates of smoking, according to a new report. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Report: Premature Birth Rates High in U.S.

By
A new study of premature birth rates around the world finds that early deliveries are common in the United States -- caused by a combination of factors ranging from high obesity rates to fertility treatments that result in multiple ...

Read More »
NEED TO KNOW: HEALTH

A Medicare Mystery

By
Something weird is happening. Medicare is growing much more slowly than anyone expected, and nobody knows why. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

$1 Billion Refund Coming From Insurers

By and Meghan McCarthy
Health insurers will have to pay more than 1 billion in refunds to customers this summer because they have exceeded overhead and profit limits imposed by the Affordable Care Act, a new report estimates. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Poll Finds Americans Still Divided on Health Care Law

By
Even after oral arguments at the Supreme Court put the 2010 health care law on front pages for a week, public opinion on the law has not budged, according to the latest monthly installment in the Kaiser Family Foundation’s Healt...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

No Change in Medicare Solvency Date, Trustees Say

By Meghan McCarthy and
The Medicare Trust Fund will run out of money in 2024, the federal government told Congress on Monday in its annual  Medicare Trustees report . "Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund will have resources sufficient to cove...

Read More »
RESTORATION CALLS: INSTITUTIONS

Why We Trust Doctors

By
For some reason, even as Americans’ mistrust of bedrock social institutions grows, they’ve retained their faith in physicians. Why doctors fare better than others.  Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Health Spending Slows, Survey Finds

By
Health care prices rose 1.8 percent in February, the lowest rate of inflation since 1998, the Altarum Institute reported on Thursday. And the health care sector gained 26,000 new jobs in March. Health care jobs make up more than...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

FDA Asks Meat Producers, Nicely, to Reduce Antibiotic Use

By
The Food and Drug Administration is asking meat producers to reduce their routine use of antibiotics in livestock raised for food, citing concerns that overuse will reduce the effectiveness in the drugs for humans. Read More »
SUPREME COURT

Justice Thomas Comments on Health Care Case

By
Clarence Thomas, the Supreme Court justice famous for almost never asking questions at oral arguments, defended his desire to stay mum during the recent marathon health care arguments, the Associated Press reports. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Supreme Court Winds Up Health Care Oral Arguments

By
The Supreme Court went into overtime as it finished up three days of oral arguments on the 2010 health reform law on Wednesday. Justices repeatedly interrupted attorneys trying to make the case for and against the 26 states challeng...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Justices Signal Distaste for Cutting Up Health Reform Law

By and
Supreme Court justices suggested on Wednesday morning that they are in no mood to do intricate surgery on the 2010 health reform law, even if the individual mandate is struck down, with liberal justices saying Congress should come b...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Justice Kennedy Tough on the Insurance Mandate

By
“Can you create commerce in order to regulate it?” Justice Anthony Kennedy asked in his opening question on Tuesday as the Supreme Court examines whether the health care law’s individual mandate is constitutional. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Justices Focus on Congress’s Taxation Powers

By
On Monday, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli told the Supreme Court that the penalty to be imposed on Americans who do not buy health insurance is not a tax. On Tuesday, he will tell the justices that it is. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

The Health Care Case's Legal Maze

By
When the Supreme Court hears arguments Monday in the big health care cases, it will be considering much more than a simple yes-or-no question about whether the 2010 health care reform law is constitutional or not. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Report: 49 States Are Implementing Health Care Reform

By
Twenty-six states may be expressing their opposition to parts of the 2010 health care reform law at the Supreme Court next week, but a new report suggests that, back home, most are also taking some steps to implement it. Read More »
NEED TO KNOW: HEALTH

In Praise of Maryland's Hospital Price-Fixing

By
The state is running a 40-year experiment in controlling prices at health centers—with impressive results. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

New Cervical Cancer Screening Guidelines Call for Fewer Pap Tests

By
Women no longer need an annual Pap test for cervical cancer, a new set of guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Health Services Task Force has concluded. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Politics Drives People's Supreme Court Predictions, Poll Finds

By
When Americans think about the big health care case before the Supreme Court, their predictions tend to track closely with their own political beliefs, according to a new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Big Variations Found in Health Care Quality, Community to Community

By
Health care reform may be coming to the whole country, but our health care system is still very local, the Commonwealth Fund found in a report that looks at health and health care in regions around the country. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Abortion-Rights Supporters, Losing in State Legislatures, Retaliate With Jokes

By
A bill giving sperm special status and another requiring men to undergo invasive exams before they can get Viagra are among some of the tongue-in-cheek pushback measures being offered up this year by legislators backing abortion rig...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Poll: Democrats Hold Edge on Contraception Debate, Medicare

By
Though the public remains skeptical of the health care law, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey suggests that Democrats hold a political advantage in the live policy debates surrounding the issue. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

House Judiciary Hearing Takes on Contraception Mandate

By
The House Judiciary Committee is the latest to hold a hearing on the contentious debate about an Obama administration mandate that religiously affiliated organizations, like all other employers, cover contraception in their emp...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Groups Oppose Blunt's Contraceptive Amendment

By Maggie Fox and
Pediatricians, labor unions, charities that fight birth defects, and other groups came out in unsurprising opposition on Monday to an amendment proposed by Sen.  Roy Blunt , R-Mo., that would allow employers to exclude any insu...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

'Women Are Energized,' Witness Tells Contraception Hearing

By
Georgetown law student Sandra Fluke, barred  last week   by Rep.  Darrell Issa , R-Calif., on contraception and religion that featured a shouting match, got her moment in the sun on Thursday at a hearing r...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Supreme Court Still Considering Whether To Take Gene Patenting Case

By and Meghan McCarthy
The Supreme Court has delayed a decision on whether to hear a case that could affect the entire biotech industry -- one asking whether Myriad can own the patents on two breast cancer genes. Read More »
SUNDAY SHOWS

Ryan: 'Too Late' for New GOP Contenders

By
Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said it would be unwise for anyone new to enter the Republican primary, even if Mitt Romney were to lose the primary in Michigan at the end of the month. Read More »
SUNDAY SHOWS

Van Hollen Says Santorum Comment a 'New Low'

By
Rick Santorum’s assertion on Saturday that President Obama is advancing a “phony theology” represents a “new low in American politics,” said Rep. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md, on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday. Read More »
SUNDAY SHOWS

Dempsey: No Immediate Intervention in Syria

By
It’s not in America’s interest to intervene in Syria right now, Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said on Sunday on CNN. Read More »
SUNDAY SHOWS

Cantor Defends Payroll Tax Holiday

By
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., defended support among House Republicans for an almost $100 billion payroll tax holiday extension last week, even though the measure was not offset by spending cuts. “At the end of the da...

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SUNDAY SHOWS

Gingrich Says He Won't Drop Out

By
On the eve of the Florida primary last month, Newt Gingrich called on Rick Santorum to drop out of the race and consolidate the conservative vote. Now that Santorum is surging and Gingrich is trailing, Gingrich said on Sunday tha...

Read More »
COVER STORY

How the Health Law Could Raise Prices

By
The health care reform law, which was designed to lower costs, could end up raising them instead. The law is triggering a wave of hospital mergers and acquisitions, and decades of data show that hospital consolidations almost always...

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HEALTH CARE

Health Law Would Not Implode Without Mandate, RAND Study Finds

By
If the Supreme Court knocked out the health care reform law’s individual mandate, but preserved everything else, the sky would not fall, according to a new analysis from RAND Health. Read More »
BUDGET

FDA Inspectors Will Be Moving to China

By
If it gets the funding it wants, the Food and Drug Administration will be spending $10 million next year to expand its inspection operations in China. Read More »
BUDGET

HEALTH CARE: Dollars for FDA, Cuts for CDC in President's Budget

By
Medical research would get about the same funding as last year under President Obama's 2013 budget proposal. But the Food and Drug Administration, tasked with taking on new food-safety responsibilities and about to receive increased...

Read More »
WHITE HOUSE

White House Plan Requires Insurers to Pay for Contraception

By Meghan McCarthy
The White House did a quick about-face on Friday after a firestorm of controversy over birth control regulations, publishing a requirement that insurance companies pick up the tab for women's contraceptives if religious employers ob...

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WHITE HOUSE

Women's Groups On Board With White House Contraception Plan

By
The Obama administration held onto the support of women's groups on Friday with its plan to accommodate religious charities concerned about a requirement they cover contraception in their health plans. Read More »
HEALTH

Tanning Salons Lie to Teens, Congressional Report Finds

By
A secret-shopper study by House Democratic staffers found that tanning-salon employees routinely lied about the risks of indoor tanning, and frequently provided misleading information suggesting that tanning had health benefits...

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HEALTH CARE

Hospital Infection Rates Now on Medicare Website

By
Patients concerned about their risk of getting sick during a hospital stay can now compare the rates of patients getting one deadly type of infection online. Read More »
HEALTHCARE

'Doc Fix' Just Got More Expensive

By and Meghan McCarthy
Permanent repeal of the flawed Medicare payment formula known as the Sustainable Growth Rate just got a lot more expensive.   Read More »

What Would Republican Replacement Look Like?

By Margot Sanger-Katz
Much of the talk from Republican lawmakers on health care reform has focused on efforts to repeal the 2010 health care reform law. But this year, they are talking about what could replace it if they accomplished that goal. Last week...

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HEALTH CARE

Physicians Oppose Budget Cuts

By
Internal medicine physicians issued a detailed report on Thursday registering concerns about the political climate for health care. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Republican Candidates Get Lucky on Health Insurance

By and Meghan McCarthy
The candidates for the GOP persidential nomination all promise to repeal President Obama's signature health reform law, which they call a government takeover. But each one of them benefits from government plans or regulations when i...

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HEALTH CARE

U.S. Makes Its Case for Health Care Law

By
The Obama administration kicked off the Supreme Court case on health care reform by submitting a 130-page brief on Friday defending the 2010 law's most controversial feature -- its requirement that individuals buy health insurance. Read More »
NEED TO KNOW: HEALTH

Can the Ryan-Wyden Plan Tame Medicare?

By
Paul Ryan and Ron Wyden think their bipartisan strategy can control costs. Don’t count on it. Read More »
Q&A

Chuck Grassley: Supreme Court, Open Up!

By
Long an advocate of transparency, the GOP senator from Iowa looks to bring sunshine to courtrooms, including the one across from the Capitol. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Ryan, Wyden Lay Out Medicare Reform Plan

By and
Rep. Paul Ryan , R-Wis., and Sen. Ron Wyden , D-Ore., laid out a bipartisan plan for Medicare reform on Thursday that would give seniors a choice of using their premium dollars to purchase private plans, or stay in ...

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HEALTH CARE

Study: To Reduce Readmission, Reduce Hospitalizations

By
If you want to keep patients from returning to the hospital, you should aim to keep them out in the first place, a new study suggests. Read More »
ECONOMY

QUICK TAKE - U.S. Mint Halts Presidential Coin Program

By
President Garfield's face may be the last one on a circulating $1 coin for a while. On Tuesday, the Treasury Department announced it will stop circulating new presidential coins. Read More »
NEED TO KNOW: HEALTH

Heart Palpitations Over Medicare

By
The program's reimbursement formulas affect physician behavior. Just look at what’s happening to cardiologists. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Report Finds Many Ways to Reduce Breast-Cancer Risk

By
Women looking to reduce their risk of developing breast cancer should avoid radiation from abdominal CT scans, certain hormone replacement drugs, and weight gain after menopause, the Institute of Medicine reported on Wednesday. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

QUICK TAKE: Florida Health Care Plaintiff Files for Bankruptcy -- Report

By
A Florida businesswoman at the heart of the Supreme Court case challenging last year's health care reform law has lost her business and filed for personal bankruptcy, The Wall Street Journal reports. Read More »
NEED TO KNOW: HEALTH

Lipitor Fights Back

By
Pfizer’s strategy to fend off competition from generics may be paving a path for the pharmaceutical industry. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

For Health Care, Americans Pay More and Get Less

By
The U.S. vastly outspends other countries on health care but still ranks low when it comes to the health status of its residents, according to a report comparing developed countries. Read More »
HEALTH

Pizza Wins Food Fight in Congress

By
With a pair of votes on Thursday, Congress officially preserved pizza’s status as a vegetable -- at least for another year. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Doctors Value Quality, Not Quantity, at Life's End, Poll Shows

By
Virtually all doctors believe it's more important to alleviate suffering when someone is dying than to extend their life a little bit, according to  a poll  released by National Journal on Tuesday. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Supreme Court to Take Health Care Case

By
The Supreme Court said on Monday that it would consider challenges to last year's health care reform law, setting up a major ruling on the Obama administration's signature legislative achievement just months before the 2012 election...

Read More »
NEED TO KNOW: HEALTH

For Romney, Fixing Medicare Harder Than It Looks

By
Could the current system survive the candidate’s attempt to improve it? Read More »
HEALTH

Study Faults Soft-Drink Industry for Excessive Marketing to Children

By
A study on the marketing of sugary drinks to children shows that the beverage industry can’t be trusted to regulate the marketing of its own products, the authors say. Read More »
Q&A

Montana's Health Care System: Don't Call It Canadian

By
Gov. Brian Schweitzer says his overhaul would cover about a quarter of the state. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Vaccination Numbers Slip Amid Broader Improvements in Care Quality

By
Parents' worries about a link between autism and vaccines are driving down childhood vaccination rates, despite study after study disproving such a connection, according to a  report  published on Thursday. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

PSA Test Report Shows Difficulty of Weighing Evidence

By
The evidence has long been shaky on the benefits of the PSA screening test for prostate cancer, so it should have been little surprise when the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, a group of primary care doctors that advises the De...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Essential Health Benefits Should Consider Cost, Institute Says

By
The only way to build a set of insurance requirements that are comprehensive and affordable is to start with a cost target, an advisory panel told the Department of Health and Human services in a highly anticipated report on what be...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Health Insurance Regulations Should Be Specific, Report Suggests

By
Simply providing a broad list of services that must be covered by an insurance company can lead to wide variations in interpretations, a study in Colorado has found. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

'Bad' Hospitals May Just Have Worse Patients—Survey

By
Medicare policies designed to pay less to poorly performing hospitals could hit institutions that serve a disproportionate number of black and poor patients, a new analysis shows. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Supreme Court to Tackle California Medicaid Quandary

By
The Supreme Court opens its 2011-2012 term Monday with a case that could have broad implications for the Medicaid program, pitting hospitals and doctors against the state and federal government. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Senate Passes Autism Bill

By
A law to reauthorize a spate of autism-related research and screening programs passed the Senate on Monday night by unanimous consent, ending concerns that programs might expire at the end of the month. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Children's Hospitals a Growth Industry, Kaiser Reports

By
At a time of cutbacks, reporters at Kaiser Health News have found a big growth industry in health care: children’s hospitals. According to a story published Monday, children’s hospitals have seen their revenues rise and thei...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

D.C. Circuit Hears Fourth Big Health Care Case

By
A conservative panel of appellate judges looked inclined to uphold the Obama administration’s health care reform law during oral arguments on the latest legal challenge to the law. Read More »
HEALTH CARE

A Million Young Adults Go on Parents' Insurance

By Margot Sanger-Katz
About 1 million young adults have signed up for health insurance this year thanks to a provision in last year’s health care reform law that allows them to stay on their parents’ insurance until they turn 26, the Obama administra...

Read More »
HEALTH CARE

Bush's Legacy -- Women's Health?

By
In his first big initiative since leaving the White House, former President George W. Bush announced the launch of a major public health project on Tuesday, one focused on providing cancer screening and treatment for women in the de...

Read More »
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