Patients' financial health put at risk by costs of some medical treatments

A New Jersey newspaper explores how medical costs put patients at financial risk. Also, the NewsHour explores the future of health care, offering alternative scenarios about how policy decisions, political outcomes and technology might play into an individual's health.

The (Hackensack, N.J.) Record: Medical Debts Put Patients At Risk Of Financial Collapse
Frances Giordano found out she had lung cancer in June. After that, the bad news just kept coming….The crisis in American health care is not limited to hospital emergency rooms where uninsured people wait for care. It also is found in a neat, three-bedroom house in Dumont, N.J., occupied by a widow who worked full time, raised two kids and likes to get her nails done occasionally (Washburn, 1/31).

NewsHour (Videos): Pick Your Future Health Care Adventure
Does all the health reform chatter have you ready to jump into a high risk pool or bend a cost curve of your own? Take a deep breath and try to look past it all: It's the future, 2025 to be specific, and your name is Mary. That's right, you're a 50-year-old, middle-income, single woman with diabetes. And your health has been impacted in dramatic ways by forces beyond your control. How? Well, in a new report, the aptly named Institute for Alternative Futures lays out four scenarios that could become realities for primary care by 2025. ... The various health policy decisions, technological advances and political outcomes that remain to be seen will determine the fate of your health care -- and health. Here, with the help of the officials behind the report, we launch you into four parallel health care worlds (Kane, 1/31).