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Hillary Clinton supports adding a public option to the Affordable Care Act -- that is, a government-run insurance program to compete with private health insurance. ... This position makes a lot of practical sense, as the New Republic’s Brian Beutler has been pointing out. The Congressional Budget Office has scored a public option as deficit-reducing, which means Democrats wouldn’t have to raise taxes or cut spending to pay for it. ... But it’s one thing for Democrats to support a policy. It’s quite another for it to be the kind of high priority they would fight for. (Jonathan Bernstein, 8/15)

There are a lot of people in the U.S. who dream of single-payer health care. And what a dream it is! Government as the only entity paying for care, able to drive down costs while ensuring universal coverage. There are not a lot such dreamers who think that the transition to such a system is imminent here. Republicans don’t even like Obamacare, a comparatively moderate program. There seems little hope that they will vote for single payer anytime soon … and even if Democrats somehow manage to get control of White House, the House of Representatives and 60 votes in the Senate, swing-state senators with a nervous eye on their next election are unlikely to support such an ambitious shift to the left. What do to, then, if you’re an advocate for single payer? Well, take your campaign to the state level. (Megan McArdle, 8/15)

When I started out as a doctor in 1999, the Institute of Medicine published a blockbuster report that declared that up to 98,000 people were dying in United States hospitals each year as a result of preventable medical errors. Just a few months ago, a study in the BMJ declared that number has now risen to more than 250,000, making preventable medical errors in hospitals the third-largest cause of death in the country in 2013. ... Although medical errors should concern us all, these statistics are more controversial than you might think. (Aaron E. Carroll, 8/15)

In a vacation season when many of us want a break from alarming news, the world seems not to be cooperating. And that includes the health care industry. (A shame, that: "Health" and "care" could be such soothing words.) We hear that we should be alarmed about proposed rate hikes in the subsidized Health Insurance Marketplace created by the Affordable Care Act ("ObamaCare"). But before we freak out, let's take a deep collective breath and remember a couple of things. (Ken Janda, 8/15)

Denis Robinson wasn’t bothered in the least that he was billed nearly $100,000 by Providence Tarzana Medical Center for the recent removal of his gallbladder.“What do I care?” he said. “I have Medicare Plan F, the Cadillac of Medicare plans. They covered every dime.” Actually, Robinson, 69, should care a great deal. Medicare is a taxpayer-funded system, so any claim submitted by a doctor or hospital affects the financial integrity of the entire program. The fact that Medicare paid less than $4,000 for a $97,000 claim — we’ll get back to that in a moment. (David Lazarus, 8/16)

Companion diagnostics is gaining currency as novel drugs are being paired up with tests that determine which patients will have a higher chance of responding to that drug. But 15 years after the human genome project has been completed, the progress of precision medicine appears to be woefully slow, at least according to Nicholas Dracopoli, vice president and head of Oncology Biomarkers at Janssen Research & Development, part of Johnson & Johnson. Others believe precision medicine and companion diagnostics have a chicken and egg problem. (Arundhati Parmar, 8/15)

Have you ever seen a baby born with microcephaly? If you have, you know it is impossible to not weep at the tiny, misshapen head. To hold such a baby is heartbreaking; chances he or she will grow up are slim. If you have not seen such a condition, I hope you never will. Clearly, few members of Congress know what this is all about. Otherwise, how could they have possibly gone on vacation without appropriating the funds begged for by those at the Centers for Disease Control? (Ann McFeatters, 8/15)

As part of a research project, I'm in Brazil this summer hearing the experiences of women and health care providers about their perceptions of the risk of Zika infection and potential changes in reproductive behavior. Our findings suggest that, while incredibly concerned about Zika, wealthier women ... feel in control of preventing the virus by using repellent, netting their homes and postponing pregnancy. Poorer women have a more fatalistic attitude about getting infected with Zika and even about getting pregnant. Poorer women also feel that they can't protect themselves as well as wealthy women can because they lack the means to do so (money to buy repellents and mosquito nets), and they recognize their living conditions make them more vulnerable to mosquito bites (particularly through exposure to open sewage and stagnant water.) (Leticia J. Marteleto, 8/15)

In my experience, physicians who expect medical students and other trainees to do a good job involve us in patient care and make us a valuable part of the team. As a result, we feel useful, push ourselves to excel, and learn more in the process. Those who expect shoddy work limit our role and then conclude we had little to contribute. These encounters have far less educational value. (Akhilesh Pathipati, 8/15)