healthcarereform

Millions of Americans not only lost their jobs in the Great Recession, but also their health insurance, according to a new Commonwealth Fund report. Many are skipping health care or falling into debt to pay medical bills as a result.

Prescription-drug prices have been outpacing the growth in prices for other medical products and services, according to a study from the Government Accountability Office this week. Which drugs have seen the biggest hikes?

The recent pushback on health care reform appears to have boosted the stock prices of health insurance companies, which have outperformed major indexes by quite a margin so far this year. That's because Americans have been cutting back on doctor visits, keeping reimbursement costs low.

Americans' opinions on the divisive topic are all over the map. A new poll shows more than half of Americans now oppose the law, compared to only 41% who support it. Yet 62% -- including 38% of Republicans -- actually disapprove of defunding or changing parts of the law.

For the fifth time this year, Congress has voted to postpone steep Medicare pay cuts for doctors. The latest vote gives doctors a year's reprieve from the 25% pay cut, which some have said would keep them from accepting new Medicare patients.

As health-care costs skyrocket, the ranks of uninsured Americans are growing at their fastest rate ever. A new report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities finds that 50.7 million people, or 16.7% of the population, had no health coverage in 2009, up from 46.4 million, or 15.4%, in 2008.

Approximately 10% of those surveyed in a recent Gallup poll on healthcare say that government involvement is a problem, up from only 5% at the beginning of this year.

Uninsured Americans are making little progress in securing health coverage as insurance costs rise and fewer employers foot the bill for health insurance, Gallup said Tuesday.

Development of technologically advanced -- and expensive -- lifesaving treatments will continue to increase as the new health care reform law is phased in over the next few years.

The government today is often blamed for causing economic uncertainty, which some point to as the source of all the economy's woes. But there's a deeper issue in play than the fact that we have to guess what's coming next: The problem is the bias in our guesses.