Health Insurance Cost

Medicaid opposition underscores states' healthcare disparities

2013-05-18 22:06:00

WASHINGTON — Republican opposition in many statehouses to expanding Medicaid next year under President Obama's healthcare law — opposition that could leave millions of the nation's poorest residents without insurance coverage — will...

Hundreds oppose China refinery project in mostly peaceful protests

2013-05-16 10:24:00

BEIJING -- Surrounded and pushed back by police, hundreds of people shouted and marched again in the southern China city of Kunming to protest the construction of a petrochemical plant. It was the second time this month that demonstrators gathered in...

Doctoring in a family way

2013-05-15 00:00:00

Jennifer was one of my first patients as a new doctor, and she came to see me about an unintended pregnancy. A single mom to a rambunctious 5-year-old girl, Jennifer was struggling economically and battling depression. We talked about the options...

Choi and O'Farrell in contentious battle for council seat

2013-05-14 22:57:00

Mitch O'Farrell is probably the only candidate running for Los Angeles City Council who can do a backward handspring, no problem. Before taking a job a decade ago as a field deputy in the office of Councilman Eric Garcetti, O'Farrell, 52, spent years as a...

Gov. Jerry Brown unveils cautious budget for deficit-free state

2013-05-14 20:38:00

SACRAMENTO — California may finally be free of deficits, but Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled a cautious budget Tuesday, saying the state's financial condition remains treacherously unstable. Brown put lawmakers on notice that he had no desire to ratchet...

Jonathan Fielding, the public's MD

2013-05-15 00:00:00

If you've got your health, the cliche goes, you've got just about everything. If you've got public health duties, you're responsible for just about everything from mosquitoes (West Nile carriers) to hygiene (wash your hands for as long as it takes to sing...

Is $1,721.75 the bill you'd expect for treating a cut?

2013-05-10 00:00:00

It was your basic, run-of-the-mill accident. Kim Haselhoff's 9-year-old son got nipped in the finger by one of the family dogs. It didn't seem too serious, but there was a bit of blood. Unfortunately, the pediatrician's office had just closed, and the...

Hospital prices diverge wildly, U.S. data show

2013-05-08 18:33:00

New Medicare data reveal wildly varying charges among the nation's hospitals for 100 of the most common in-patient treatments and procedures, calling into question medical billing practices just as U.S. officials try to rein in rising costs. The...

For Wal-Mart, should healthcare be a cost of doing business?

2013-05-09 16:48:00

Big employers beware -- some California lawmakers want to pressure you to extend health insurance to virtually everyone who lands on your payroll, even part-timers who work less than two hours a day. That's one of the effects that a bill by...

Absenteeism costs U.S. business $84 billion a year, report says

2013-05-08 09:04:00

Employee absenteeism due to poor health costs U.S. businesses an estimated $84 billion a year in lost productivity, according to a new study. The annual cost ranges from $24.2 billion in professional fields to $160 million among agricultural workers,...

Poll: The feds' selective scrutiny of tax-exempt 'patriots'

2013-05-10 12:49:00

Vindicating the complaints of some "tea party" activists, a top IRS official admitted Friday that the agency had singled out such groups for scrutiny in the months leading up to the 2012 election. The revelation (accompanied by an apology from Lois...

Letters: Healthcare and acts of God

2013-05-12 00:00:00

Re "Medical rates range off the chart," May 9 Our political leaders regularly lament the notion that ever-rising healthcare costs will eventually bankrupt our country. The question is why they treat this problem as if it were an act of God, totally...

Ross Winklbauer, a local USW sub-district director greets members of the United Steel Workers Local 1343 in South Milwaukee after they rejected a proposed six-year contract with Caterpillar Inc. that would freeze wages, increase health care costs and give senior employees fewer protections.

2013-04-30 00:00:00

U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, seen here at a City Club of Chicago event Monday, told the Tribune editorial board that he's told governors not to expect a high reimbursement rate for health care.

2013-04-22 00:00:00

Gov. Jerry Brown is shown during an appearance in China. In January, he declared the prison crisis over and requested an end to court oversight of inmate healthcare, which costs the state roughly $1 billion yearly.

2013-04-12 00:00:00