“Growth in U.S. health spending remains slow in 2010” was the headline of a news release on Jan. 9 by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Half the states last year made it easier for children and their parents to enroll in Medicaid by streamlining enrollment and using technology advances to verify citizenship requirements, according to a report released Wednesday.

A White House report Wednesday highlights positive remarks made by several Republican governors and state legislators about setting up health insurance exchanges in their states, a key element of the health care overhaul law.

This afternoon, in a hotel ballroom in Northern Florida, two dozen health policy wonks are quietly embarking on a momentous task: Determining what medical treatments are the most effective.

Programs designed to cut Medicare spending and improve the quality of healthcare have mostly failed, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

With each descent, Daysha Matthews grimaces.

President Obama, who took office pledging to put science ahead of politics, averted a skirmish with conservatives in the nation’s culture wars on Thursday by endorsing his health secretary’s decision to block over-the-counter sales of an after-sex contraceptive pill to girls under age 17.

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. clashed with congressional Republicans on Thursday, defending the Justice Department in the face of criticism of its “Fast and Furious” gun-trafficking sting and its refusal to turn over documents on the health-care law adopted last year.

Don Berwick, who left his job last week as head of the Medicare and Medicaid programs after sustained opposition from Senate Republicans who accused him of supporting rationing, struck back Wednesday with a blistering attack on his critics.

The House Republican payroll-tax-cut extension package proposes to pay for a two-year Medicare “doc fix” by repealing parts of the healthcare reform law and charging high-income seniors more for their Medicare coverage, according to a summary obtained by The Hill.

Rick Perry is hitting Newt Gingrich, Mitt Romney and President Obama on health care in his latest TV ad hitting the Iowa airwaves.

It's common knowledge that the United States spends more than any other country on health care but still ranks in the bottom half of industrialized countries in outcomes like life expectancy and infant mortality.

Hood Memorial Hospital is just the kind of health care facility where the federal government hopes to save money.

Nursing homes may not be able to weather the Medicare cuts that Congress is considering, according to a financial report the industry released Wednesday.

Women concerned about breast cancer should worry less about cellphones and hair dyes and worry more about weighing or drinking too much, exercising too little, using menopause hormones and getting too much radiation from medical tests.

You might find it hard to believe, but we Americans are, by and large, in better health today than we were 20 years ago.

With the economic downturn, programs to stomp out tobacco use before it becomes a habit have decreased funding and resources despite the industry’s multi-billion dollar Master Settlement Agreement promising states money for tobacco prevention.

In the debate over health reform, that’s a lot of crystal ball gazing over whether employees will continue to offer health insurance, or send their employees to the new health insurance marketplaces where many could purchase subsidized coverage.

With a presidential election and a Supreme Court ruling, 2012 will be the year that could determine whether the health reform law moves forward, is stripped of big pieces or gets (mostly) shut down.

Dr. Donald Berwick was already in Massachusetts when I spoke to him Sunday afternoon.

A surge in young nurses may ease forecasts of coming shortages as their baby-boomer coworkers retire.

One of my patients called me with a high fever, chills and dropping blood pressure.

There’s a lot of concern today that paying fees to medical providers for each service may lead to unnecessary care. But there’s no easy way to replace the massively complicated fee-for-service system.

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Mitt Romney has pledged to repeal President Obama's universal health care law if he is elected president.

The Obama administration is deciding whether U.S. children should be tested for an anthrax vaccine against a bioterrorism attack, officials say.

Signing up for health insurance during your company's annual enrollment period, which for many plans is right now, may feel like taking a nasty dose of medicine: You know it's good for you, but it sure doesn't go down easy.

Nearly 20 states or cities in the U.S. have considered or are considering the possibility of a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs), which I have supported for nearly two decades.

Being overweight as a teenager carries a greater risk of being an overweight adult, along with an increased risk of dying of heart disease.

The government's promise of lifetime health care for the military's men and women is suddenly a little less sacrosanct as Congress looks to slash trillion-dollar-plus deficits.

The law that many Americans had hoped would transform the nation’s dysfunctional system of long-term care for the swelling ranks of people with disabilities and dementia quietly died this month, a victim of its own weaknesses, a toxic political environment and President Obama’s re-election campaign focus on jobs.

When smokers light up they usually are forced to do so far from human contact.

Seems like forever that Consumer Reports has been telling people to haggle over the price of a microwave or a car.