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With health care an election-year priority, a major doctors’ organization on Monday called for sweeping government action to guarantee coverage for all, reduce costs and improve the basic well-being of Americans. Declaring that the U.S. health care system "is ill and needs a bold new prescription,” the American College of Physicians endorsed either of the two general approaches being debated by Democratic presidential candidates: a government-run “single-payer” system that would cover everyone, or a new “public option” government plan that would offer comprehensive coverage to compete with private insurance. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/20)

Conservative groups are gearing up for battle with GOP leaders over bipartisan health care legislation that lawmakers view as one of the few election-year bills that has a shot at making it to President Trump’s desk.A broad swath of free-market conservative groups is mobilizing to oppose a measure that would ban the so-called “surprise” medical bills patients sometimes receive from hospitals and providers when their services aren’t covered by insurance. The strategy, in part, is to link the bipartisan proposal to “Medicare for All,” the single-payer health care plan backed by some progressive presidential candidates like Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). (Hellmann and Easley, 1/19)

Until science beats death, disease and disability, the health care industry would seem a wonderful investment. Yet in 2019, it fell a bit behind the broader stock market. Mutual funds and exchange-traded funds focused on health care returned 29 percent in 2019, according to Morningstar. That would have been laudable in most years, but it lagged the S&P 500 stock index, which returned 31.49 percent, including dividends. (Gray, 1/17)

When Heather Woock was in her late 20s, she started researching her family history. As part of the project she spit into a tube and sent it to Ancestry, a consumer DNA testing service. Then in 2017, she started getting messages about the results from people who said they could be half-siblings. "I immediately called my mom and said, 'Mom, is it possible that I have random siblings out there somewhere?'" Woock says. She remembers her mom responded, "No, why? That's ridiculous." (Bavis and Harper, 1/20)

Thousands of St. Louis-area families were freed from a major financial burden thanks to a charitable effort that is increasingly popular among churches and other organizations trying to help the needy — eliminating medical debt. Money raised at more than a dozen United Church of Christ congregations and a donation from the St. Louis-based Deaconess Foundation wiped away nearly $13 million in medical debt for 11,108 families in St. Louis city and county. United Church of Christ officials and civic leaders announced details Saturday. The church was also sending letters this weekend to those whose debt was wiped out. (Salter, 1/18)

For years, the urgent care industry has grown rapidly, with walk-in clinics popping up across Massachusetts to treat patients with colds, infections, cuts, sprains, and other common ailments.Yet the industry remains largely unregulated. Urgent care has become a common term in health care — but it has no state definition in Massachusetts, making these centers difficult if not impossible to monitor, according to state officials. Now policy makers appear poised to impose new requirements on urgent care centers, but they’re facing resistance from industry executives. (Dayal McCluskey, 1/20)

The horns of Stevie Wonder’s “Sir Duke” blast out of speakers. Patient art hangs on the wall. Scrabble, Boggle and other board games sit on a bookshelf. The “waiting room” of the Oak Street Health clinic in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood on the city’s South Side looks more like a community center than a doctor’s office, and that’s how patients treat it. On a recent afternoon, conversations between caregivers and patients span Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish and English. Some are using a row of computers to stay atop their daily tasks. Others huddle around a table like friends having lunch. (Kacik, 1/18)