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Americans are visiting their primary care physicians and hospitals less frequently, but they’re paying more for health care nevertheless. The number of visits to hospitals, emergency rooms and primary-care doctors has declined every year since 2012, according to new data from the Health Care Cost Institute, while the use of outpatient services and specialists has gone up. Regardless of how they access medical services, however, Americans are seeing higher prices, as the cost of care increased across every category of care. (Braverman, 11/22)

Early this year, a disabled former automobile body worker named Greg Vialpando explained to lawmakers in New Mexico how medical marijuana helped his chronic back pain. State legislators were considering a bill backed by workers’ compensation insurers that would have exempted them from paying for medical marijuana. But Mr. Vialpando and another patient described how smoking the drug let them escape years of stupor caused by powerful prescription narcotic drugs known as opioids. (Meier, 11/22)