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Twenty minutes after I learned I had Type 1 diabetes — after narrowly avoiding a diabetic coma — a nurse pulled my parents away from my bedside and urged them to call our insurance company immediately. If they didn’t call right away, she warned, insurance would not cover the stay. At that moment — now 10 years ago — my parents had to choose whether to comfort their sick and frightened 14-year-old daughter, or spend hours on the phone with our insurer. Of course, they left me to make those calls, and my nightmarish relationship with the insurance industry began. (Rachel Madley, 9/17)

Americans spend more money on health care because prices are higher here than anywhere else in the world. Our system is fraught with waste, our providers (physicians and hospitals) are paid more; and goods like biopharmaceuticals and medical devices are more expensive. On average, U.S. hospital prices are 60 percent higher than countries in Europe and physicians make twice as much as their counterparts in other advanced countries. (Arielle Kane, 9/17)

Advocates of a single-payer system may have a hard time persuading workers that their wages would go up if their employer-based health care went away. Why it matters: “Medicare for All” would bring an enormous amount of change to the health system, and the disruption of employer-based insurance is already an important political flashpoint. "For a socialist, you've got a lot more confidence in corporate America than I do,” former Vice President Joe Biden said to Sen. Bernie Sanders at last week’s Democratic debate, in response to Sanders’ assurances that employers would raise wages if they were no longer paying for health benefits. (Drew Altman, 9/17)

Every day in communities in Texas and across the country, many people go without the health care that the rest of us take for granted. Individuals in low-income communities, often rural areas or inner cities, face numerous challenges to getting their needs met: longer wait times for appointments, farther distances to providers, difficulty understanding treatment plans for a variety of chronic conditions, and struggling to pay medical and pharmacy costs.In addition, as access to Medicaid and clinic appointments becomes more digitized, ethnic minority communities are often intimidated by expanded choices or skeptical about unfamiliar approaches and fail to connect with these resources. (Miyong Kim, 9/17)

On July 9, exactly two months ago, three federal judges sitting in a New Orleans courtroom heard a lawsuit seeking to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act. The case was brought by Texas and 17 other states, with the Trump administration lending its support. On the other side were 20 states led by a mix of Democrats and Republicans.  A victory for Texas and its partners would end the ACA’s ban on discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, a critically important safeguard for those of us with health problems. But other people are also at risk, including one group we cannot afford to fail — veterans in America. (Stan Dorn, 9/17)