Health spending in the U.S. grew to $3.6 trillion in 2018, according to a new report from the federal government. The rate of growth — 4.6% — was up slightly from 2017’s 4.2%, despite the fact that nearly a million more Americans lacked insurance.
Meanwhile, Congress has less than two weeks to finish a year’s worth of work, including the spending bills required to keep the government running and promised legislation to address “surprise” medical bills and prescription drug prices.
This week’s panelists are Julie Rovner of Kaiser Health News, Kimberly Leonard of the Washington Examiner, Joanne Kenen of Politico and Mary Agnes Carey of Kaiser Health News.
Omega-3s have a variety of health benefits that consumers want. Consuming omega-3s is suggested to help fight against depression, anxiety, mental decline and heart disease as well as promote brain health during early child development. Expect several omega-3 enhanced beverages in 2020.
Part 2 of our series on pivotal moments in the lives of the 2020 Democratic presidential contenders. Michael Barbaro speaks with Bernie Sanders, the democratic socialist senator from Vermont.

After their life as research subjects, what happens to lab monkeys? Some are euthanized to complete the research, others switch to new research projects, and some retire from lab life. Should they retire in place—in the same lab under the care of the same custodians—or should they be sent to retirement home–like sanctuaries? Online News Editor David Grimm joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss recently penned legislation that
“Such wearable sweat sensors have the potential to rapidly, continuously, and noninvasively capture changes in health at molecular levels,” Gao says. “They could enable personalized monitoring, early diagnosis, and timely intervention.”
Gao’s work is focused on developing devices based on microfluidics, a name for technologies that manipulate tiny amounts of liquids, usually through channels less than a quarter of a millimeter in width. Microfluidics are ideal for an application of this sort because they minimize the influence of sweat evaporation and skin contamination on the sensing accuracy. As freshly supplied sweat flows through the microchannels, the device can make more accurate measurements of sweat and can capture temporal changes in concentrations.
Hear the latest science news, brought to you by Benjamin Thompson and Shamini Bundell. This week, exploring two very different issues surrounding genomic sequencing, and the latest results from NASA’s Parker Solar Probe.
Pet-supply stores had long withstood the threat posed by online shopping. That was until Chewy came along. WSJ’s Miriam Gottfried tells the story of how PetSmart responded to the new competition.
The TACT Pivotal study of MRI-guided TULSA for whole-gland ablation in men with localized prostate cancer met its primary PSA endpoint in 96% of patients, with low rates of severe toxicity and residual GG2 disease. MRI at 12mo detected residual disease with NPV of 93%.