The moderators kicked off the third Democratic debate Thursday with the topic of health care, teeing up another round of the ongoing "Medicare for All" debate.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders caught our attention by claiming that 50 million people lose their private insurance every year due to employment changes.

"George, you talked about, was it ...Read more

Recently, during a visit to her doctor's office in Sequim, Wash., Sue Christensen fell to her knees in the bathroom when her legs suddenly gave out.

The 74-year-old was in an accessible stall with her walker, an older model that doesn't have brakes. On her left side was a grab bar; there was nothing to hold onto on the right.

Christensen tried...Read more

ATLANTA -- On a recent sweltering August morning, Congresswoman Lucy McBath headlined a rally extolling the Affordable Care Act's protections for patients. But the freshman Democrat, who represents a fast-changing swath of Atlanta's northern suburbs, took care not to mention the 9-year-old law's name from the podium even once.

"Families should ...Read more

The day they found Lee Odgers, it was so hot that the wax candles inside her Northeast Philadelphia apartment had started to melt.

The 87-year-old woman had been dead for hours, too long for investigators to get an accurate reading of her body temperature at the time of her death. They could not list hyperthermia -- an abnormally high ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- Often, when she got high on meth, "Melanie," who suffers from schizophrenia, would strip naked and run screaming straight into San Francisco traffic. Invariably, police would bring her to the hospital, where she'd undergo treatment. There, her psychotic symptoms would quickly subside.

But by law, Melanie, who is homeless, couldn't...Read more

Need an excuse to squeeze in a midday snooze? Occasional napping could help you maintain a healthy heart, according to a new report.

Researchers from University Hospital of Lausanne, Switzerland, recently conducted a study, published in the Heart journal, to explore the association between napping and cardiovascular disease risk.

To do so, ...Read more

High blood pressure can lead to diabetes, heart disease and other illnesses. It can also cause cognitive decline, according to a new report.

Researchers from Columbia University recently conducted an observational study, presented at a recent American Heart Association session, to explore the association between brain health and hypertension.

...Read more

Is your teen at risk of suicide? While no teen is immune, there are factors that can make some adolescents more vulnerable than others. Understand how to tell if your teen might be suicidal and where to turn for help and treatment.

What makes teens vulnerable to suicide?

Many teens who attempt or die by suicide have a mental health condition. ...Read more

WASHINGTON -- The nation's poverty rate dropped further last year, but household income stalled, and the share of people without health insurance went up for the first time since the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2013, according to federal government data released Tuesday.

The Census Bureau found that the percent of U.S. residents who went...Read more

Histoplasmosis is an infection caused by a fungus or mold that often affects the lungs. In the U.S., it is most common in the Ohio and Mississippi river valley areas.

"This is a fungus that lives in the environment and is found in higher concentrations in areas where you have a lot of bird or bat droppings mixed into soil," says Dr. Nipunie ...Read more

As if migraines didn't already cause enough suffering, a new study has found that people who experience the debilitating headaches are at much higher risk for Alzheimer's disease.

The study from two Canadian universities -- the Universities of Waterloo and Manitoba -- found that migraine sufferers were three times more likely to have a general ...Read more

If you want to lower your risk of developing heart disease, you should consider ditching meat, according to a new report.

Researchers from the University of Oxford in England recently conducted a study, published in the British Medical Journal, to determine the association between vegetarianism and coronary heart disease.

To do so, they ...Read more

As voters fume about the high cost of health care, politicians have been targeting two well-deserved villains: pharmaceutical companies, whose prices have risen more than inflation, and insurers, who pay their executives millions in salaries while raising premiums and deductibles.

Although the Democratic presidential candidates have devoted ...Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- Federal prosecutors charged the Bay Area's largest home health care provider Thursday with paying doctors millions of dollars in kickbacks in a scheme to defraud the Medicare system.

Amity Home Health Care funneled $8 million in bribes -- in Warriors tickets, Louis Vuitton bags, and "literal envelopes of cash" -- to health care...Read more

While many Capitol Hill Republicans want to avoid a repeat of the Affordable Care Act repeal debate, President Donald Trump keeps promising a health plan that will be "phenomenal" and make the GOP "the party of health care."

Last month, Medicare chief Seema Verma said, "We're actively engaged in conversations" on what to do. Earlier in August, ...Read more

"Do you want numbing gel?" the dental technician asked me as she prepared to plunge into my mouth.

In the entire history of dentistry, from caveman days to now, who has ever said no to more painkiller? Smear that gel around like spackle! She did. And then ground and scraped. And scraped and ground, for a full hour and a half.

Ninety minutes ...Read more

Dear Mayo Clinic: It has been months since I had knee replacement surgery, but my knee is still hurting. Can anything be done at this point, or does the surgery just not eliminate pain in some patients?

A: Although it's uncommon, a small percentage of patients continue to have chronic knee pain after knee replacement surgery. But when that ...Read more