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…

If there were a way to save $207.4 million, avoid 30,000 unnecessary hospitalizations and more than 2,000 premature deaths, we’d jump at it, right?
That’s what Missouri would gain if its health system performed as well as the systems in Vermont,…

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…

President Barack Obama will try to retake the initiative on health care reform this evening with a nationally televised address to Congress. Conventional wisdom holds that it will be among the most important speeches of his political career.
That’s entirely backward.
Whatever…

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…

Thousands of angry protesters turned out at town hall meetings in Hillsboro, Cape Girardeau and across the country this week. They had come to pledge their unstinting support for the world’s 37th best-performing health care system.
The protesters vowed to protect a…

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…

President Barack Obama will talk about health care reform in a nationally televised press conference tonight and at a town hall-style meeting in Cleveland on Thursday.
His speech comes as a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll shows declining confidence in Mr.…

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…

People buy health insurance so they won’t be bankrupted by unexpected illness. But for increasing numbers of Americans, that’s not how things are working out.
A new national survey estimates that 62 percent of all personal bankruptcies in 2007 — nearly…

About 75 percent of Americans who work part-time can’t get health insurance through their jobs. Missouri lawmakers are part of the fortunate 25 percent. The part-time lawmakers, whose five-month legislative session ended Friday, not only can buy coverage for themselves —…

Copies of the trustees

This week, Social Security and Medicare trustees reported on financial problems facing their programs (as they do every year).
There are no similar summaries for the nation’s private health and retirement plans. What would it look like if there…

President Barack Obama speaks at a White House meeting with health groups Monday.

Promises to cut health costs in the future are a bit like protestations of love in the back seat of a parked car: No matter how heart-felt they…

American taxpayers already have spent more than $2 trillion bailing out banks and insurance companies. Can we afford to reform health care, too?
It’s an understandable question, one that will be at center stage today when the White House hosts a…

If $4.3 billion of federal money falls into the hands of Missouri legislators, will they be smart enough to take full advantage of it?
The answer, unfortunately, may be no. Even after hearing details of the unexpected windfall in federal stimulus money —…

Competition makes some companies trim costs, others cut prices. Then there’s the strategy allegedly adopted by Solvay Pharmaceuticals: Pay off your competitors.
Solvay makes a prescription drug called AndroGel, a synthetic form of testosterone. It’s used by men with cancer, HIV or…

The state of Missouri has two words for Medicaid patients who need to use a bedpan, commode chair or urinal: Ask first.
Indelicate though it sounds, the equipment necessary for elderly and disabled people to relieve themselves now is subject to…