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Last week's Democratic presidential debates underscored health care as a defining policy division among the candidates. On one side, many of those who argue for radical change would tell you, are Democrats who want to preserve a status quo in which private companies suck profits out of sick and vulnerable people. Their alternative is killing off the insurance companies and providing universal, high-quality, government-controlled care. The description is simplistic. The Democratic field is unanimous in its desire to provide universal coverage; the candidates just disagree on how to get there. (8/4)

One afternoon about a year ago, just as the Senate began considering Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court, I logged on to Day Night Healthcare, an online pharmacy based in India, and ordered a pack of abortion pills. A few hours later, I got a call from a Day Night customer-service agent with a warning. If my credit-card company called to ask about the purchase, “tell them you approve the charge, but don’t say what it’s for,” the man advised. “If they ask, say it’s gym equipment, or something like that.” (Farhad Manjoo, 8/3)

Could an emerging technology reshape the battle lines in the abortion debate? Since Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, that fight has been defined by the interlocking, absolute values of choice and life: For some, a woman’s right to choose trumps any claim to a right to life by the fetus; for others, it’s the reverse. But what if we could separate those two — what if a woman’s choice to terminate a pregnancy no longer meant terminating the fetus itself? (Zoltan Istvan, 8/3)

The physician burnout crisis that has spilled into the public conversation might actually be a blessing in disguise. Patients are now hearing about the struggles their physicians face, but doctors have silently been battling burnout all along. Patients may not realize that physicians care deeply and that our system is harming them as well. Ideally this might provide an opportunity to drive a patient-provider relationship closer towards a partnership. (Lara K. Ronan, 8/3)

Sickle cell disease affects about 100,000 Americans, most of them African-Americans. There are few treatments for it, and experts say not enough is being done to prevent complications. Just recently, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services declined to put in quality measures that might help monitor care improvements. There is also a question about what role race and wealth play in how much attention and funding the disease receives. (Aaron E. Carroll, 8/5)

I glanced down and saw a pink rash on my upper left chest. At first, I thought it was insect bites — I had been walking outdoors more often once spring arrived. A few days later, the rash looked like small red pimples filled with liquid and had started to itch. I sprayed the rash with calamine, which felt soothing at first. But a few hours later, I felt I was being stung over and over again and I knew something was wrong. I made an appointment with my doctor for that afternoon. (Christine Lehmann, 8/3)

Early one Saturday, I headed to a “sugar detox” seminar at my gym. I didn’t expect it to be a hot ticket, but when I opened the classroom door every seat was taken. One was filled by “Grandma Teresa,” as she introduced herself, who had brought along her two granddaughters, ages 11 and 13, because “sugar is really bad and I want them to learn as much as they can when they are still young.” The other participants, all women from their 30s to 70s, said they wanted to curb their sugar intake for a variety of reasons — to ease a health struggle; to lose weight; or to reduce their risk of diabetes, heart disease, cancer and dementia. (Steven Petrow, 8/4)

During my training to become a primary care physician, the importance of preventive cancer screening was ingrained in me. The idea of catching cancer at an early stage so we can better treat it made intuitive sense. But as I’ve learned over the years, the simplicity of this concept can obscure its limitations and make it difficult to persuade older or sick individuals that screening can do them more harm than good. (Nancy L. Schoenborn, 8/5)

It’s Monday morning, and I’m the attending physician starting a week of inpatient hospital medicine. My patient list includes a man who at age 91 has outlived his siblings, his first and second wives and all of his peers. After seven decades of smoking, his lungs are failing; he carries a diagnosis of “severe emphysema.” The sign-out note from the previous doctor reads, “Daughter and son-in-law from out of town, we met multiple times last week to discuss goals of care.” (Amy Cowan, 8/4)

By pursuing “waivers” – flexibility in how Georgia administers Medicaid as well as the subsidies for care under the Affordable Care Act – he can make both programs work better and lower prices for Georgians. ...A waiver to help these Georgians could include a new state reinsurance program that subsidizes our sickest neighbors directly. (Kyle Wingfield, 8/3)