The most recent episode or Radiolab is about how two parents, Kelley Benham and Tom French, faced the difficult question of what they were going to do when they learned that their daughter was going to be born at 23 weeks and 6 days—roughly half term. Benham wrote her incredible story in December for the Tampa Bay Times, which was published in three parts.

Jaime Rosenthal, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, called more than 100 hospitals in every state last summer, seeking prices for a hip replacement for a 62-year-old grandmother who was uninsured but had the means to pay herself.

The quotes she received might surprise even hardened health care economists: only about half of the hospitals, including top-ranked orthopedic centers and community hospitals, could provide any sort of price estimate, despite repeated calls. Those that could gave quotes that varied by a factor of more than 10, from $11,100 to $125,798.

One of the many problems with our health care system is that hospitals often have different ideas of what procedures should cost, and for some procedures, “quality” data doesn’t accompany “price” data, so it isn’t clear, for example, if paying for a “Mercedes” hip transplant is better off in the long-term than cheaper options. One good thing about this study was that top-ranked hospitals in the country often offered some the lowest prices for procedures, which: my mama told me, you better shop around, etc.

Photo: Cindy Funk

What I'd like to know from such a study is: If annual checkups don't actually help patients live longer, what do they cost the health care system?

This is the story of what happens when there are billions of dollars wrapped up in a prosaic piece of technology that at its core is closer to your kid’s science-fair entry than the Human Genome Project, one that despite all the commercial success and some 4 million or so patients still has its share of doubters in the medical community. It’s a story about luck and timing and the squeezing of the health care dollar. It is about betrayal and wrangling over patents. And mostly it is about invention, the tenuous and uncertain act of breathing life into an idea that may or may not have been yours all along.

Fortune Magazine’s story about how a simple medical device that closes wounds made millions for its inventors ($250 million in royalty fees), for Wake Forest University (which split the royalty fees after applying for a patent on the inventors’ behalf), and for the device’s marketers (KCI, which licensed the patents from Wake Forest University), and the patent battles that came soon after, really demonstrates some of the greed involved in the American health care system. It’s something to read if your cable goes out.

When I first bought my own insurance in '05 it was actually pretty good—my premiums were about $144 per month, low co-pays, a $500 reasonable deductible and coverage for things like massages, chiropractor adjustments and physical therapy. However prices increased sharply every year after that, and by the end, I was paying $244 with a $5,000 deductible.

Michael Dempster broke his back one night when he sleepwalked out a window. To get on his girlfriend's health care plan, the couple decided to commit to a domestic partnership. This is his story.

Ezra Klein has a piece looking at how the Affordable Care Act will affect businesses with more than 50 employees, which is basically: They don’t need to offer their employees health care, but if their employees apply for federal subsidies and buy coverage themselves, the employer must pay a small fraction of the cost (“a penalty equal to about 1/8th the cost of the average employer-provided health-insurance plan“).

Papa John’s isn’t happy about this because it’ll raise the cost of doing business. They’ve warned that they’ll have to raise the price of their pizzas by “11 to 14 cents per pie.” Which, I think people would be willing to pay! Or at least, I’d be willing to pay that knowing that the extra 14 cents is helping to give those pie makers some benefits.

Photo: mrsdkrebs

"An inexpensive drug that can prevent some life-threatening heart rhythm problems is unavailable in most places, according to a new survey of doctors in 131 countries."

>Our pals at LearnVest have a really nice piece by a woman diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and how the disease is bankrupting her family.

On Sept. 22, I collided with a bat while riding my bike near Montauk, N.Y. a little after 7 p.m. I'm talking about the winged mammal (I’ve had to specify this often. Is hooliganism on the rise?). It passed over my left hand and slapped my bare skin, just above my tank top’s neckline, and whipped around, likely stunned, or pinned by wind before falling to the pavement. So far, the cost of this incident totals over $16,600. Bills are still coming in.