healthcare

Choosing where to raise your kids can be a deeply personal decision, but some things are universally desired, like good schools, health care and recreation. 24/7 Wall St. looked at these factors and more to identify the 10 best U.S. cities in which to raise a family.

Health spending stabilized as a share of the nation's economy in 2010 after two back-to-back years of historically low growth, the government reported Monday. Experts debated whether it's a fleeting consequence of the sluggish economy, or a real sign that cost controls by private employers and government at all levels are starting to work.

Every January, we plan to make changes, and we often don't succeed. Let's make this New Year's different: Here are seven fairly simple resolutions recommended by the financial experts for getting you on a firmer fiscal footing in 2012.

The woes Social Security faces have generated plenty of worried talk lately, but even if nothing changes, it'll be solvent until 2036. But Medicare, the other major government program that retirees rely on, is on course for financial disaster years sooner. That program, of course, is Medicare, and the funding situation for the portion of its benefits that retirees receive looks even scarier than Social Security's prospects right now.

When it comes to health care, it sometimes feels like nothing is simple. And that can be a real problem: According to a recent survey, some health care basics are going right over the heads of the majority of Americans.

Nearly everyone is feeling the pain of high health care costs. Between 2003 and 2010, the cost employers paid for family coverage rose 50% and employees' share of the tab increased 63%. That's money siphoned away from the rest of the economy.

A rocky economy could adversely affect newborns, according to new research published in the journal Epidemiology. And the impacts on their health and well-being could last a lifetime.

If you're very sick and not very wealthy in America, your best move may be to flee the country -- because you'd be better off in any other first world nation. Otherwise, expect to pay through the nose and possibly wind up deep in debt, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund.

Cold and flu season is upon us. Americans spend $400 million on prescription drugs to relieve the symptoms, according to one study, and some of them spend too much. DailyFinance's Laura Rowley looks at what not to do when filling a prescription.

Taxes. We resent paying them, yet, for the most part, they fund things we'd rather not do without. But exactly how much of our money is going to each service? The White House has made it easy to answer that question. So here's a receipt for where your tax dollars are spent.