H. Gilbert Welch: The increase in fetal monitoring is part of the explanation for why the beginning of life now involves major surgery one-third of the time. And there is even more medical care at the end of life. Both trends drive up costs. Full story »

William F. Pewen: As health policy adviser to a Republican senator, I saw firsthand how a failure to recognize the magnitude of the task, and a toxic political environment, undermined the effort to achieve health care reform. Full story »

Once viewed as riskier than neck-artery surgery, it may now expand a patient's choices  Full story »

Thursday's session at the Blair House should move Congress in the direction of partial health care reform, at least. Full story »

The salmonella outbreak shows holes that need plugging in our food safety system  Full story »

Greg Macpherson: Extending access to quality, affordable health care doesn't call for removing employers from the system. Instead their participation should be expanded.  Full story »

Signs of life from those in a vegetative state deepen the complications associated with best care and also withdrawal of life support Full story »

We're not prepared yet to conclude that voters in Multnomah County should approve a cigarette tax increase to raise millions of dollars a year to help pay for local health and human services programs. We are already convinced, though, that Multnomah County and its voters should have the right to make that decision.  Full story »

Kevin McEvoy and William M. Bennett: Insurance companies have a financial incentive to deny patients a kidney transplant because the alternative, dialysis, is paid for by Medicare. Full story »

The damage is done, but still it is significant that a British medical journal, The Lancet, this week formally retracted a 1998 research paper that claimed to show evidence that vaccines could cause autism.  Full story »

We'd much rather see Oregon in court defending its decision to pull Neil Beagley out of that house and take him for medical evaluation than to watch yet another criminal prosecution of faith-healing parents who allowed their son to die.  Full story »

Tuesday's vote in Massachusetts was a lot of things: a cry for change from an anxious, angry electorate, a repudiation of President Barack Obama and one-party Democratic control and the culmination of a smart, strong campaign by Republican Scott Brown. But it was not a referendum on health care reform.  Full story »

Brett Hamilton By investing in tobacco-control measures that have a proven impact on decreasing the smoking rate, Oregon could spread its health care dollars further. Full story »

Susan Reimer Michelle Obama's vegetable patch captured imaginations and changed how many think about food and our stewardship of the planet.  Full story »

The health-care bill now cascading through the Senate shows us important things about politics and governance in the United States. The first and most vital is that our democracy is capable of conjuring genuine change -- change that will improve the lives of millions of Americans -- out of political division, confusion and discord. Full story »