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January 9, 2013 Americans are sicker and die sooner than their counterparts in comparable nations. No single cause can account for the difference, but improving medical care will only help so much, as disparities can be traced to dietary choices, drugs and alcohol, guns, and even cars.

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January 8, 2013 Vaccination is still the best way to avoid getting sick, but it's not 100 percent protective. Some people may get infected with a strain of flu that isn't covered by this year's vaccine. For others, the shots just don't work.

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January 7, 2013 Economists have calculated that spending on health care continued to increase slowly in 2011, at a rate similar to the two previous years. Researchers point to the stagnant economy for holding back health inflation.

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January 4, 2013 Health care has been a major focus in recent budget battles. New legislation provides a temporary fix in payments for doctors, but it will be paid for by a decade of cuts to hospitals. And a program for long-term-care insurance won't ever get off the ground.

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January 3, 2013 KHNUtah's unorthodox health insurance exchange got conditional approval from the Obama administration. Six other states with more conventional approaches to running health insurance marketplaces also received provisional OKs.

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January 3, 2013 Too many women who don't need regular Pap tests are still getting them. Other women who could benefit from the tests aren't getting them, often those are women without health insurance.

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January 2, 2013 The California congressman lost his seat this fall. Stark has been part of almost every piece of health legislation enacted while he was in office. The 113th Congress will be the first one in 40 years to convene without him as a member.

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January 1, 2013 In October 2013, open enrollment begins, when people can start signing up for their 2014 coverage through the new state-run health exchanges. But most of the changes in 2013 are tax increases and cuts in tax deductions to pay for the 2014 changes.

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December 26, 2012 The obesity rate in preschoolers dropped a fraction of a point between 2010 and 2003, a federal study found. Although the change was small, it may signal that the obesity epidemic has peaked.

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December 21, 2012 Big insurance companies are opening their own doctors' offices and clinics — a strategy that has previously met with mixed results.

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December 21, 2012 KHNThe nation's biggest insurer is starting to dole out bonuses and penalties to nearly 3,000 hospitals as it ties almost $1 billion in payments to the quality of care provided to patients.

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December 20, 2012 KHNOne section of the health law says its wellness programs can't require participants to give information about guns in their homes. But public health scholars criticize the measure because they say it keeps doctors and nurses from doing their jobs.

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