Dan Callahan

It began with a little black spot on Dan Callahan’s lower lip. He didn’t think it was anything to worry about. His doctor thought it was cancer.
The doctor was right.
It was neurotropic melanoma, a very rare — and very…

Protesters demand health reform at a rally outside Blue Cross headquarters in Los Angles last month.

Nothing about health care reform has inspired more overheated rhetoric than the so-called public option.
Opponents say it would unleash a government juggernaut against which no…

President Barack Obama speaks after last week's historic Senate health reform vote.

Forget all the angry shouting about socialized medicine and government take-overs. Health care reform is really all about markets, competition and choice.
That’s probably not what you’ve heard. But as…

Tim Blacke

When doctors found a tumor in Tim Blacke’s brain, health insurance was the last thing he worried about. That was his first mistake.
For nearly two decades, he’d worked for internationally known evangelical minister Josh McDowell. During that time, Mr.…

During a visit to an Alton hospital in 2005, former Gov. Rod Blagojevich signs a bill to cap pain-and-suffering awards in medical malpractice cases.

Plenty of reasons exist to support medical malpractice reform. Doing it to slow the dizzying growth in…

Extreme Truthiness, Health Care Edition: Comedian Stephen Colbert.

An interesting e-mail about health care reform has been making the rounds over the past few weeks. It doesn’t provide any great insight into the bill it purports to analyze, H.R. 3200, or contain…

Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky was on a roll.
“Nothing makes me more angry … than the suggestion that America does not already have the finest health care in the world,” the Senate minority leader said Monday at a forum in…

Betty Feliciano had classic symptoms of heart disease: swollen ankles, shortness of breath and fatigue. Doctors at the Crider Health Center in St. Charles ordered a cardiac stress test.
Ms. Feliciano didn’t get it. “I knew I needed” it, she said.…

Critics are questioning whether health care reform will force middle-class families out of the insurance plans that currently cover them. The better question is whether the insurance plans that currently cover them —  or, more precisely, the price of that…

When it comes to health care reform, most people are on the side of the angels — as long it doesn’t cost too much. But let’s be blunt here: What’s in it for us?
More than you probably think.
The United States…

Post-Dispatch file photo.

What’s the difference between a senior citizen in St. Louis and another in Kansas City? About $700, as far as Medicare is concerned.
In 2006, Medicare spent an average of $702 more per patient in St. Louis than it…

Post-Dispatch file photo.

By any standard, American health care is the world’s most expensive.
• We spend twice as much per person as the average of other large developed nations — $6,714 in 2006, compared to $3,414. In 2008, per person spending is…

Ronald Reagan spoke out against the evils of socialized medicine as part of an American Medical Association campaign against Medicare in 1961.

Does President Barack Obama support “socialized medicine?”
That’s the mantra of some conservative commentators. Rush Limbaugh has mouthed it. So…

A young reporter once set out to explain the American health care system to his editor.
After many minutes of earnest conversation, the editor smiled brightly. “I get it now,” he said. “It makes perfect sense.”
“Well then, I must have left…