Health care

A ballot initiative could raise the tax rate on a pack of smokes in Missouri, which is 8x lower than the national average.

Every little thing your doctor does has a special code attached, with a dollar sign. Codes were supposed to make things simpler. Instead, they've touched off an expensive arms race between doctors, hospitals and insurers.

A podcast highlighting some of our best stories from the past week: The robots in our lives (and how they might eat our jobs) and what matters in the health care debate.

Arguments for and against the legality of the Affordable Care Act wrapped up yesterday in the Supreme Court, and today, in our weekly Attitude Check, we look at how the average American feels about the law.

What are the most important election issues you're thinking about this year? Singer-songwriter Brad Hoshaw gives his answers in verse.

The markets have a lot to reflect on this morning, from the pending Supreme Court decision to the latest Case-Shiller Index.

However the Supreme Court decides its ruling will push health-care reform to the top of the campaign debate. Health reform won't go away. The costs of the system are too high. The fiscal, economic and household pressures remain too great. Back to the future won't work.

The court's grounds will be clogged with a colorful mix of characters: activists, lawyers, journalists and oh, tourists.

Doctor and commentator John Schumann says it's a medical urban legend.

In an exclusive interview with Marketplace, President Obama said he would have loved more cooperation from Congress on the health care law, and had started out with a plan Republicans at one time supported. "Over time," he said, "people will say this was the right thing to do."