David Williams

For mainstream folks who aren’t health wonks or political junkies, it can be perplexing to try to understand why House Republicans are so eager to fight the Affordable Care Act that they are willing to shut down the government.

For better or worse, war has provided the impetus for new medical technology. The latest wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have sent home many men and some women who suffered the loss of legs and arms.

Highmark Health Services, a big Blue Cross Blue Shield plan is rolling out its Care Cost Estimator, a transparency tool designed to get members to make cost-saving choices.

Polls show that few people understand health insurance or the Affordable Care Act. That's especially so for those who have the most to gain from Obamacare: people who are uninsured and haven't had health insurance for a while.

It's a little sad to come back from a break and see the same game going on with GOP attempts to stop Obamacare, using the threat of a government shutdown to do it.

The Affordable Care Act may help reduce tax evasion, especially in states that don't expand Medicaid eligibility.

A small but increasing number of doctors have stopped taking Medicare patients, according to new data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Reasons cited include low reimbursement rates, high paperwork burden, and pressure to adopt electronic medical records. And a few doctors are scrapping private insurance, too, for some of the same reasons.

The Leapfrog Group is riling up hospitals with a hidden surcharge calculator designed to show employers how much of their health care premium is devoted to paying for medical errors at the hospitals where their employees obtain care. The principle behind the calculator is that hospitals bury the costs of errors in their overall rates and that employers should at least understand what they're paying for.

It's not surprising that the average person is pretty confused about the Affordable Care Act. It's a complex piece of legislation that gets phased in gradually, and opponents have been attacking the law and intentionally confusing people while proponents have been less effective about getting the word out.

DealWell, a new company that offers online health care deals, is the subject of a story on KERA, the NPR station in Dallas. I'm quoted in the audio and text versions.