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To Boost Bottom Lines, Single-Payer May Be Just What These Restaurateurs Ordered
By Shefali Luthra
Small-business owners, frustrated by the byzantine health system, are warming to the idea of a “Medicare for All,” government-run system, even if it increases their taxes. But they have questions.

Surge In Enrollment As Californians Avoid Penalty, Receive State Aid
By Rachel Bluth and Samantha Young
Although a new state tax penalty and state financial aid motivated people to sign up for health insurance this year, Covered California is reopening enrollment for those who said they weren’t aware of them.

Newsom Touts California’s ‘Public Option.’ Wait — What Public Option?
By Ana B. Ibarra
Gov. Gavin Newsom says the state already has a public option: Covered California, the state health insurance exchange. While there is no single definition of a public option, some health care experts say that’s a stretch.

Despite New Doubts, ‘Hotspotting’ Help For Heavy Health Care Users Marches On
By Anna Almendrala and Phil Galewitz
A high-profile effort in Camden, New Jersey, to reduce health spending by identifying high-cost patients and giving them more coordinated and preventive medical care has been copied around the country. Many of those groups are pushing forward with the efforts, despite a recent critical study of the Camden initiative.

Le cobran $41,212 por sacarle el apéndice
By Julie Appleby
Nadie le dijo que el hospital estaba fuera de la red del plan médico que tenía a través de su trabajo. En cualquier caso, no hubiera podido irse a otro lugar. Su apéndice estaba a punto de reventar.

Listen: Colorado Ski Area Opts For Novel Effort To Stop Avalanche Of Health Costs
KHN’s Julie Rovner joins WAMU’s “1A” on Wednesday to discuss an innovative plan by Summit County, Colorado, to directly negotiate with doctors and hospitals to lower health costs.

Appendicitis Is Painful — Add A $41,212 Surgery Bill To The Misery
By Julie Appleby
A young man averted medical disaster after a friend took him to the nearest hospital just before his appendix burst. But more than a year later, he’s still facing a $28,000 balance bill for his out-of-network surgery.

Beyond Burnout: Docs Decry ‘Moral Injury’ From Financial Pressures Of Health Care
By Melissa Bailey
Doctors and other clinicians say they're enduring moral injury because the business of health care interferes with patient care.

Una buena rehabilitación es difícil de encontrar
By Bernard J. Wolfson
Una búsqueda en internet no siempre es la mejor forma de encontrar un centro de rehabilitación para adicciones confiable. Aquí recursos para elegir bien y ayudar al ser querido.

Good Rehab Is Hard To Find
By Bernard J. Wolfson
Helping a loved one overcome addiction isn’t easy. Start by listening to people who have been through it. They can help find effective treatment and avoid unethical or incompetent operators.

Trump On ‘Medicare for All’ And The Costs Of Extending Health Care To Undocumented Immigrants 
By Shefali Luthra
In his Feb. 4 State of the Union address, President Donald Trump said the cost of extending health care to people regardless of their citizenship status would "bankrupt" the U.S.

Patients Caught In Crossfire Between Giant Hospital Chain, Large Insurer
By Brian Krans
Insurance giant Cigna and San Francisco-based Dignity Health have failed to ink a 2020 contract, leaving nearly 17,000 patients in California and Nevada scrambling to find new health care providers. Meanwhile, Dignity faces financial and legal challenges while it strives to implement its merger with Catholic Health Initiatives, which created one of the nation’s largest Catholic hospital systems.

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Fact-Checking President Trump’s State Of The Union
President Donald Trump spent a good deal of time on health issues in his State of the Union address, but not everything he said checks out. Meanwhile, Iowa Democrats heading into the caucuses said health is their top issue, but it’s hard to see how that played out in their actual choices. Margot Sanger-Katz of The New York Times, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner and Alice Miranda Ollstein of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss this and more. Also, Rovner interviews KHN’s Julie Appleby and NPR’s Selena Simmons-Duffin about the latest “Bill of the Month” feature.

Patients Stuck With Bills After Insurers Don’t Pay As Promised
By Lauren Weber
Insurance companies often require patients to have medical procedures, devices, tests and even some medicines preapproved to ensure the insurers are willing to cover the costs. But that doesn’t guarantee they’ll end up paying. Some patients are getting stuck with unexpected bills after the medical service has been provided.

Feds Slow Down But Don’t Stop Georgia’s Contentious Effort To Ditch ACA Marketplace
By Steven Findlay
The state proposes to jettison the federal insurance exchange and instead send people buying individual coverage to private companies to choose coverage. It would also cap how much money is spent on premium subsidies, which could mean some consumers would be put on a wait list if they needed financial help buying a plan.

Women Shouldn’t Get A Bill For An IUD … But Sometimes They Do
By Shefali Luthra
The Affordable Care Act requires that insurers cover birth control with no out-of-pocket costs, but the enforcement mechanism is weak and a pending court case could add further complications.

Better Than Other Plans Or Better Than Nothing? Trump’s Claim About ‘Affordable’ Options
By Julie Appleby
Caveat emptor. Some of these health insurance plans might prove helpful for some people, but making that determination is not easy.

One Defensive Strategy Against Surprise Medical Bills: Set Your Own Terms
By Julie Appleby
By writing in payment limits when signing hospital forms, patients might have leverage in negotiations over disputes that arise from surprise medical bills.

KHN’s ‘What The Health?’: Live from D.C. With Rep. Donna Shalala
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget includes billions of dollars in health spending cuts, Congress gets back to work on surprise medical bills, and health care remains a top issue for the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.), a former Health and Human Services secretary, joins the panel at a special taping before a live audience in Washington, D.C. Paige Winfield Cunningham of The Washington Post, Rebecca Adams of CQ Roll Call and Joanne Kenen of Politico join KHN’s Julie Rovner to discuss these issues and more.

‘An Arm And A Leg’: What We’ve Learned And What’s Ahead For The Show
By Dan Weissmann
For this bonus episode of “An Arm and a Leg,” Dan Weissmann gives up the host’s chair and answers questions from reporter and colleague Sally Herships.

Analysis: Who Profits From Steep Medical Bills? The People Tasked With Fixing Them.
By Elisabeth Rosenthal
Surprise bills are just the latest weapons in a decades-long war among health care industry players over who gets to keep the fortunes generated each year from patient illness: $3.6 trillion in 2018. The practice is an outrage, yet no one in the health care sector wants to unilaterally make the type of big concessions that would change things.

Would ‘Medicare For All’ Cost More Than U.S. Budget? Biden Says So. Math Says No.
By Shefali Luthra
Biden’s statement misses the mark because of messy math.