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Although surprise billing has been the subject of vigorous debate in federal and state legislatures, work to resolve the issue on the federal level reached an impasse when the House passed a spending package that did not include anticipated surprise bill legislation. Surprise bills are those sent to consumers from out-of-network providers for emergency services or for nonemergency services unexpectedly rendered by an out-of-network provider, typically at an in-network facility. (Robin Gelburd, 1/15)

Of all the annoying arguments trotted out against legal abortion, the most irksome of them is the claim that women need to be protected from themselves, that they will act rashly to terminate unwanted pregnancies and then spend the the rest of their lives regretting it. Such nonsense has even found its way into Supreme Court decisions on abortion. In 2007, in a decision upholding a law banning so-called partial-birth abortions, Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote that “some women come to regret their choice to abort the infant life they once created and sustained,” despite the fact, as even he acknowledged, that the court found “no reliable data to measure the phenomenon.” (Robin Abcarian, 1/15)

There’s a dangerous talking point being repeated in the Democratic primary for president that could affect the survival of millions of people, and the finances of even more. This is partly my fault. When the candidates discuss health care, you’re bound to hear some of them talk about consumer “choice.” If the nation adopts systemic health reform, this idea goes, it would restrict the ability of Americans to choose their plans or doctors, or have a say in their care. (Wendell Potter, 1/14)

In the lead-up to Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential debate, much of the back and forth on health care in the Democratic primary boils down to one theme: How can the country provide low-cost, high-quality health care to all Americans as quickly as possible? (Vin Gupta, 1/14)

Besides gifted caregivers to treat my concussion, partially collapsed lung, and fractured ribs and shoulder socket, I had good health insurance, abetted by the driver’s motor vehicle insurance. A bewildering barrage of medical bills flooded the mail for which we wrote checks that insurance reimbursed: almost $1,300 for the radiologist, $230 for the ambulance, $800 to the hospital. Just the hospital’s share of a three-day stay exceeded $20,000; other sums were four-figures staggering.Just how staggering is the subject of a new survey by a global health insurance group that should trigger a five-alarm response by voters and leaders. (Rich Barlow, 1/14)

Cheryl overdosed on heroin — or so she’d hoped — the night before. But that’s not the reason she’s in the emergency department late the next day with me sitting at her gurney, confused. She woke up this morning so upset to be alive she kicked a wall at the homeless shelter and broke her toe. But that’s not why she’s in the ED, either. (Jay Baruch, 1/15)

Last November, the U.S. House of Representatives took a vote that received little notice amid the din of politics in Washington, D.C., but nonetheless represented a historic event for America's embattled healthcare workforce. Nurses, doctors, social workers and others have been a relentless force in the movement to seek protection from the epidemic of workplace violence in healthcare settings. Thanks to them, the House passed H.R. 1309, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act, in a bipartisan vote of 251-198. (Rep. Joe Courtney, 1/14)

For the past five years or so, I have been an interested observer of a vast unnamed secret club: a large number of women in their 30s who are pregnant, or trying to get pregnant, but don’t want anyone to know. These women take a sudden interest in drinking “gin and tonics” at the bar, when everyone knows Manhattans are their drink. They have innovative new diets to announce in response to dinner party invitations (“I’m going vegan for January”). (Betsy Cooper, 1/14)

My brother, Jamie, has a profound learning disability. Despite being close to nonverbal, he demonstrates charisma, a sharp sense of humor and emotional sensitivity. In the Op-Doc above, “Music and Clowns,” I team up with my parents to discuss what it is like caring for someone with Down syndrome. We piece together fragments of insight to gain a sense of his inner life, but our differing perspectives reveal as much about our own subjectivity as they do Jamie’s. (Alex Widdowson, 1/14)

The new decade opened with some intriguing news: the journal Nature reported that artificial intelligence was better at identifying breast cancers on mammograms than radiologists. Researchers at Google Health teamed up with academic medical centers in the United States and Britain to train an AI system using tens of thousands of mammograms. But even the best artificial intelligence system can’t fix the uncertainties surrounding early cancer diagnosis. (Adewole S. Adamson and H. Gilbert Welch, 1/12)