Health overhaul explainers and answers

Aug 17 2009

News outlets provide explainers and answers to clarify major issues in health care reform.

NPR provides an interactive report on how a health care overhaul would affect different consumers such as the uninsured, employer insured and underinsured. It notes: "President Obama has challenged Congress to come up with a bill that provides quality, affordable health insurance to all Americans -- without adding to the deficit. See how key proposals would affect you" (Knox, 8/14).

Los Angeles Times reports: "a centerpiece of President Obama's healthcare agenda -- and of the bills being developed on Capitol Hill -- is extending insurance to all Americans." It then provides a question and answer section on "the basics about what health coverage looks like now and what may change" (Levey, 8/16).

In a separate story, NPR interviews Atul Gawande to examine his view on cutting health care costs: "Gawande, a surgeon, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and a staff writer for The New Yorker is among the experts the Obama administration is consulting about health care policy. Gawande and other physicians studied 74 communities across the country where health care quality is up while costs are down. He tells Guy Raz about the study" (8/15).