Health Care Costs

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen. Laurie Todd calls herself the “Insurance Warrior.” She helps people get their health insurance companies to pay for treatment and has written books sharing her knowledge. Hers is a wealth of knowledge that was hard-won. In 2005, Todd was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. Although […]

Caitlin Wells Salerno knew that some mammals — like the golden-mantled ground squirrels she studies in the Rocky Mountains — invest an insane amount of resources in their young. That didn’t prepare her for the resources the conservation biologist would owe after the birth of her second son. Wells Salerno went into labor on the […]

MODESTO, Calif. — Britta Foster and Minerva Tiznado are in different leagues as far as health care is concerned. Foster, who married into the family that owns the $2.5 billion Foster Farms chicken company, has Blue Shield coverage as well as a high-octane primary care plan that gives her 24/7 digital access to her doctor […]

For the past 18 months, while I was undergoing intensive physical therapy and many neurological tests after a complicated head injury, my friends would point to a silver lining: “Now you’ll be able to write about your own bills.” After all, I’d spent the past decade as a journalist covering the often-bankrupting cost of U.S. […]

MODESTO, California – Britta Foster y Minerva Tiznado están en ligas diferentes en lo que respecta a la atención sanitaria. Foster, que se casó con un miembro de la familia propietaria de la empresa avícola Foster Farms, con ingresos anuales de $2,500 millones, tiene cobertura de Blue Shield, así como un plan de atención primaria […]

GUNNISON, Colorado – Durante los últimos ocho años, mi esposa, Ky Hamilton, se ha sometido a una terapia hormonal que reafirma el género. Como mujer transgénero, se inyecta estrógeno líquido Depo-Estradiol en el muslo una vez a la semana. Este medicamento le ha permitido hacer una transición física a ser mujer, y cada vial, que […]

Can’t see the audio player? Click here to listen. After Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer got back surgery years ago, he kept a file folder labeled “Blue Shield Troubles.” When Pfeffer got an offer to collaborate with the polling company Gallup, he suggested a study on how much time Americans spend on the phone with their health […]

¿Qué pasa si se aprueba una ley pero nadie la hace cumplir? Eso es básicamente lo que ha ocurrido con una pequeña pero útil normativa sobre los hospitales y la asistencia financiera para cubrir facturas médicas. La Ley de Cuidado de Salud a Bajo Precio (ACA), también conocida como Obamacare, requiere que los hospitales sin […]

What if a law passed but no one enforced it? That’s essentially what has happened with one small but helpful rule about hospitals and financial assistance for medical bills. The Affordable Care Act, the health law also known as Obamacare, requires nonprofit hospitals to make financial assistance available to low-income patients and post those policies […]

Patients are months away from not having to worry about most surprise medical bills — those extra costs that can amount to hundreds or thousands of dollars when people are unknowingly treated by an out-of-network doctor or hospital. What’s not clear is whether the changes in law made by the No Surprises Act — which […]