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Americans are being failed by their government. As it stands, Congress will go home for the holidays without rescuing millions of people whose health insurance premiums will double or more next year. This will mean agonizing dilemmas over already stretched family budgets. Or even decisions not to have any health insurance at all. (Stephen Collinson, 12/11)

The goal of public health is no longer to protect babies from disease, but to protect them from vaccines. (Leana S. Wen, 12/11)

Anyone who has visited a chain retail pharmacy knows that we are understaffed. It becomes obvious as patients stand in a long line, watching one of the few technicians waiting for the pharmacist to finish verifying an order before they can help the next customer. (Chris Eggeman, 12/12)

There is plenty of bad news about health care these days — insurance companies refusing to pay for necessary care, astronomical drug prices, and hospital staff shortages — but there are still some reasons for hope. I first wrote about nurse staffing problems in The New York Times in 2010. Then, new research revealed a scary fact: When nurses are overworked, more patients die. (Theresa Brown, 12/12)

A relatively mundane middle-aged rite of passage — shingles vaccination — might offer an added benefit: protection against, or even the slowing of the progression of, dementia. (Lisa Jarvis, 12/11)