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Before Leaving The Hospital, Consult Your Checklist

Hospitalized patients are going home sooner and sicker than ever before. And without clear and comprehensive instructions about what to do after a hospital stay, they may wind up back in the hospital, or worse. That's where a checklist can help.

Helen Hobbs, 93, is one Oregonian who has taken advantage of a standardized form to legally record her wishes for end-of-life care.

Oregon Emphasizes Choices At The End Of Life

Oregon created a simple two-page form that has helped people exert control over their care at the end of life. A statewide database that contains the information is providing insight into what people prefer.

Toothache? The ER doctor will see you now.

Dental Visits To ERs Are On The Rise

More than 800,000 visits to hospital emergency rooms in 2009 were for toothaches and other avoidable dental ailments. In hard times, states often cut Medicaid's dental benefits, pushing low-income patients from the dentist's office to the emergency room.

Convenient Methods For Birth Control Take More Work For Payment

Insurers often don't cover condoms, contraceptive sponges and spermicides unless people get a prescription for them. And that requires thinking ahead.

Patients wait in line at Nuestra Clinica Del Valle in San Juan, Texas, in September 2012 file photo. A study released on Wednesday finds that immigrants, particularly noncitizens, heavily subsidize Medicare, and that policies that restrict immigration may deplete Medicare's financial resources.

Immigrants Subsidize, Rather Than Drain, Medicare

Immigrants contribute tens of billions of dollars a year more to Medicare than immigrant retirees use in medical services, an analysis finds. Restrictions on immigration could deplete Medicare's finances.

Part-Time Workers With Minimal Health Coverage Get New Options

Many health insurance policies for part-time workers will end next year and won't be renewed. Better quality choices will likely be on the menu for these workers, though they are also going to cost people more.

Martha Castro lives on the streets in Los Angeles' Skid Row neighborhood. She's still resistant to the idea that she can now get health coverage because of California's expansion of Medicaid.

Obamacare Brings Medicaid To Skid Row's 'Ugly Reality'

Among those who stand to benefit the most from the expansion of Medicaid are homeless adults. Many of these men and women are mentally ill or addicted to drugs and alcohol. Enrolling them can be difficult, but the benefits should be substantial.

Maria Webster joins others protesting Texas Gov. Rick Perry's stance against the Affordable Care Act in early 2013.

5 Things That Could Alter The Perception Of Obamacare

Insurance enrollment will be a key yardstick for assessing whether the Affordable Care Act is working. Almost as important as the total number of people who get coverage is whether a significant percentage of them are healthy.

Health insurance that lasts less than a year may look like a deal, but there could be hidden costs.

Short-Term Insurance Skirts Health Law To Cut Costs

Plans offering coverage that lasts 364 days can cost half as much as those that are in force for a year. But the savings may be illusory for people who need care for injuries or illnesses because the coverage can be skimpier.

President Obama laid out a plan Thursday to allow people who received insurance cancellation notices to keep their coverage, at least for a while.

Consumer Guide To Obama's Plan For Canceled Health Policies

The president offered a fix for people whose insurance coverage has been canceled because it didn't meet the minimum standards of the federal health law. But will insurers follow through? And even if they want to, will state regulators let them?

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