Health Care

A clear and persistent legacy of the Great Recession is the country’s high national unemployment rate, which has hovered at 9 percent or greater since May 2009. It has been less clear, however, how the economic downturn has impacted the collective wealth of U.S. households.

The issue: Some of America’s most politically sensitive issues concern our health: abortion, stem cell research, firearm safety and contraception, for example. In many cases, Democrats and Republicans split on these questions down party lines. So do doctors, according to a new study, depending on their political affiliation. These biases may be influencing how doctors treat patients.

Women in the United States are often financially vulnerable after divorce. At risk are material assets, liquid assets and insurance benefits.

Among the most consequential — and controversial — roll-call votes that members of Congress cast during President Obama’s first term were those on cap-and-trade legislation, the economic stimulus and, of course, health care reform. How these votes subsequently affected legislators who ran for reelection in 2010 is of acute interest both to political scientists who study the interplay between votes and election consequences, and to campaign observers who are assessing the reverberations of these votes.

America’s national health care expenditures grew 4% to $2.5 trillion in 2009 — $8,086 per person — and accounted for 17.6% of GDP, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Many communities remain under-insured and under-treated within the current system, potentially adding significantly to overall costs.

The dramatic variation of health care costs across the United States was one of the important factors behind the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by President Obama in 2010. Moreover, research programs such as the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care project have documented how higher costs do not necessarily result in better patient outcomes.