Reporting on health care’s toughest choices.
‘It Sucks’: Spiking Health Insurance Costs Hit Small Businesses
An employer in Chicago describes how another year of rising premiums forced her to consider dropping her workers’ insurance.
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Inside the Urgent Care Boom
Our friends at The Pulse from WHYY explore the economics behind the rise of urgent care and how it’s changing American medicine.
‘We Can’t Afford All These Humans’: A Doctor’s Take on AI in Health Care
We talk with physician and writer Bob Wachter about why he’s cautiously optimistic that artificial intelligence will usher in a ‘golden age’ of medicine — and the questions he still has about these powerful new tools.
Immigration Enforcement’s Twin Threats to Health Care
Patients are afraid to show up to medical appointments, while workers are being detained, deported or losing their visa statuses.
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Health Care Affordability
Will Trump’s Prescription Drug Deals Really Lower Prices?
Facing unprecedented pressure from the Trump administration, some of the world’s top drugmakers promise to cut prices. But experts say the savings might not be what they seem.
This Budget Cut Would Save Medicare Patients Money. But Can Rural Hospitals Afford It?
Medicare often pays clinics owned by hospitals at least double the amount it pays independent clinics for the exact same medical care. Ending that practice would save money for taxpayers and patients, but critics say…
Everyone’s Mad at Health Insurers, But ‘There’s Plenty of Blame to Go Around’
The murder of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO has put health insurance companies in the spotlight. But insurers are just one piece of America’s broken and expensive health care system.
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The Tradeoffs podcast tells intellectually engaging, emotionally resonant stories about the complicated, costly and often counterintuitive world of health care. Listen and subscribe on your podcast platform of choice.
ACA Subsidies
What Happens if Obamacare Subsidies Shrink?
Excerpts of a live conversation with two top health economists about how extra federal support has helped millions of Americans access health insurance, and what would happen if that aid went away.
Watch: Obamacare Subsidies at a Crossroads
Experts discuss what the loss of Obamacare subsidies means to patients and costs within the ACA insurance marketplace.
Obamacare Premiums Are About to Soar. How’d We Get Here?
Federal subsidies for Affordable Care Act health plans are set to shrink next year. Many shoppers are expected to be priced out, leaving those who stay with higher premiums. The dynamic that threatens to leave…
Vaccines
As States and CDC Split on Vaccines, What’s Next?
Half of states have rejected federal vaccine guidance on childhood vaccines after controversial changes by the CDC. Public health experts say the split is sowing confusion and increasing the risk of outbreaks.
Fighting Measles and Anti-Vax Views in West Texas
Katherine Wells, the public health director in Lubbock, Texas, describes her fight to stop the largest measles outbreak since 2000 despite a chaotic reorganization of federal health agencies.
Watch Tradeoffs and Penn Experts Discuss New Rules for Vaccine Approvals
Penn experts warn that a new HHS vaccine policy mandating placebo trials is unethical, misleading, and could undermine public health and vaccine confidence.
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A Better Way to Care for Older Adults with Opioid Addiction
How one addiction clinic in Baltimore has found success combining addiction care with support for the many other health problems older Americans often face.
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