Kate Pickert

Kate Pickert is a staff writer for TIME. She writes about health care and previously worked for New York magazine. She is a graduate of the University at Buffalo and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.

Articles from Contributor

The Unsustainable U.S. Health Care System

Here’s a newsflash for those fretting that Democratic health reform will lead to a “government takeover of the health care system” – the feds will account for more than half of all U.S. health spending by 2012 even if nothing changes. According to a report out today from economists at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, …

Great Political Television

President Obama just spoke before the House Republican caucus and then took questions from members – live. It was amazing television – watchable, interesting, feisty and even a little dramatic. I was reminded of the campaign when, in a single speech in Philadelphia, Obama neutralized the Jeremiah Wright issue that could have sunk his …

The Democrats’ Communication Problem

Democrats are still smarting from Scott Brown’s upset victory in Massachusetts last week. Health reform seemed inevitable and then, suddenly, it wasn’t. As Karen pointed out, Democratic lawmakers are still searching for a path forward that might include reconciliation. They may succeed, but certainly not because the American people …

UPDATE: Health Reform and the States

As Karen noted earlier today, she and I have a story in this week’s magazine about how much states will be on the hook if and when federal health reform passes.

The impetus for the story was, in part, the growing number of governors across the country publicly slamming the idea of expanding insurance coverage to millions of …

A Christmas Gift for the Insurers?

I’m a little late on this, but had to share the latest evidence that investors in private health insurance companies feel they prevailed in their lobbying efforts over the Democratic health care bill. Here’s what happened after the Senate voted to break the Republican filibuster on Monday, according to the AP:

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