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Previous research has found that patients with online access to their doctors made fewer trips to the doctor's office. But a large, just-published study shows just the opposite: Patients who can email their physicians may schedule more visits.

As the White House and Congress debate taxes and entitlement reform, an influential liberal think tank is offering what appears to be an olive branch: a plan to squeeze savings out of Medicare — long a target of GOP cuts — that Democrats can support.

The number of elderly relative to working-age people will double in the next 50 years. But not for the reason I thought.

Renee Montagne and Steve Inskeep talk about the election with liberal columnist Jonathan Chait of New York Magazine and conservative columnist Jonah Goldberg of National Review Online. Chait has said Republicans lost not just an election but a four-year gamble.

The Obama administration's health law envisions reductions in some Medicare spending. And some of the money saved on Medicare will help pay for other parts of the law. But those changes are unconnected with doctors in some areas not being willing to accept Medicare patients.

Voters at a recent rally for Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney cited not just disagreement, but outright fear of the new health care law.“I…

Fact checkers have raised some flags about some of the claims the candidates made regarding Medicare. Ryan tried to insist that his Medicare plan is bipartisan, while Biden at one point may have confused Medicare with Medicaid.

Why is insurance employer-based? What kind of health care options would young women face under a President Romney? NPR's health policy correspondent breaks down the issues you want to know about leading up to the election.

When a relative signs up for Medicare, it is often perplexing — and unnerving — for the rest of the family who may have grown used to cushy employer-sponsored coverage.

Just before new penalties kicked in for hospitals that readmit too many Medicare patients, the government discovered that the data it used to were out of date. The changes from the error are tiny, amounting on average to a fraction of a percent for most of the affected hospitals.