Award-Winning Health Journalism

The Primary Care Divide

Mother and child at a doctor's visit. How people pay for care is changing. Representing direct primary care and concierge care

How direct and concierge care are reshaping American primary care  Fact checked by Shannon Sparks Millions of Americans struggle to afford, let alone access, healthcare. In Illinois, individual plans through Get Covered Illinois were 28.8% more expensive than last year, with unpredictable out-of-pocket costs that can run into the thousands — an average of $1,514  […]

Self-Paying Your Way to Better Healthcare

Health insurance rates continue to raise and many consumers are paying for high-deductible plans with lower premiums that actually cost more to use.

Even with the Affordable Care Act, millions are still uninsured, and health insurance rates continue to climb for millions more. In response, many consumers opt for high-deductible plans with lower premiums that actually cost more to use. In 2014, we saw the largest ever one-year enrollment increase in such high-deductible plans, from 18 percent to 23 […]