“The health beat at KQED is wide ranging. I am the only health reporter at the station and am tasked with covering policy, public health, the business of health care, and consumer features. This year, I focused most of my work on health care economics, and the impact of the Affordable Care Act on businesses, consumers, and even workers’ unions. These four stories represent the range of topics and styles I covered throughout the year: *”Check Your Blood Pressure, (Unwittingly) Sell Your Contact Information” exposed privacy violations of a company that operates health kiosks at local supermarkets, and served as a warning to consumers who did not realize that the kiosk company was selling their personal data to health insurers. Cautionary tales like this take on great importance with the roll out of the Affordable Care Act, as more insurers are looking for ways to market to consumers directly. *”Missteps in Covered California’s Marketing Campaign to Latinos” outlined the mistakes of California’s health insurance marketplace in trying to enroll a critically important demographic into coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Latinos are younger and healthier than the general population, so government officials are depending on their enrollment to keep costs down for everybody. *”Saline Shortage Plagues Hospitals” explains the complicated process of IV drug production, and dissects the many factors that led to the shortage of such a basic, simple medical supply, from FDA regulation to weather. *”Kaiser, Nurses Union Brace for Upcoming Contract Battle” was the first of many stories analyzing health care worker union tactics and the changing economic position of the hospitals where they work. This piece correctly predicted a contentious, ongoing union fight that has so far resulted in two strikes involving 18,000 nurses. Follow up pieces have deconstructed the motivations and tactics on both sides, including how the California and National nurses’ unions used the Ebola scare in the the US to advance its goals in contract bargaining.”
