Money on Health Care

Ben Franklin, to put it simply, did it all: he was a founding father, inventor, diplomat, scientist, satirist, author, statesman, and so on. So is it any surprise that he had a stake in the history of health care? Gregory Warner explains.

The annual physical examination is often the reason why many of us see a doctor on a regular basis. It's something that we do half as a check-up and half as a comfort ritual. But how did this habit begin? Gregory Warner checks in to find out.

With all the talk and debate over health care, it can become difficult to think about it simply. So here's a try: think about its beginning, all the way back. Gregory Warner takes us back to 1700s, and to a young, hard-working fellow named Philip Syng Physick.

Thanks to the Internet, many more people can become informed about medical conditions and treatments. So where does that leave the doctor? Dr. Dennis Novack teaches first-year residents in Philadelphia, and we checked in at a class to find out how they're preparing for the informed patient.

Being pregnant provides for a whole other spectrum in the health care world: is there such a thing as overtreatment, or is being preventive more important? Even as an informed patient -- as health reporter Kerry Grens was -- the line can be difficult to draw.

Confusion about health care is nothing new, but now there is a growing industry trying to ease that confusion. Reporter Joel Rose has a profile of one such person.

It can become expensive for a company to provide health insurance for unhealthy workers. So in efforts to keep employees healthy -- and cheap -- some are providing some extra incentives.

With the health care reform in the U.S., the topic of how much we should pay for health insurance has become a big debate. Tess Vigeland sits down with health economist Mark Pauly to go through the numbers of health care and what it all means.

Over the last decade, the emphasis of the decision-making in retirement plans has shifted from employers and 401(k)s to individuals. Could -- or should -- the same happen for health care?