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The Upshot

In the Emergency Room at OSF Saint Francis Medical Center in Peoria, Ill. The growth of health care spending has slowed in recent years, but it's less clear if the trend will continue.

The Health-Cost Slowdown Isn’t Just About the Economy

By DAVID LEONHARDT

The medical system really is changing, which is why cost growth has been slow. But the changes aren’t guaranteed to continue.

Jean Yang in November at the center monitoring the Massachusetts Health Connector website.

Officials Say Price Comparison Is Crucial to Choosing Health Plans

By ROBERT PEAR

Officials said that millions of people with health insurance purchased in the federal marketplace would need to switch plans to avoid increases in premiums or reductions in subsidies.

Health Spending Rises Only Modestly

Drug companies are required to present the risks of taking medicine during pregnancy and while breast-feeding with more consistent explanation of dangers.

F.D.A. Revamps System Explaining the Risks of Medicines During Pregnancy

By SABRINA TAVERNISE

The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday replaced a system that officials described as confusing and outdated with a clearer, more consistent explanation of dangers.

Health Spending Rises Only Modestly

By ROBERT PEAR

The data for 2013 did not show, however, whether cost controls in the Affordable Care Act or the aftereffects of the recession were responsible for the slowdown.

The Upshot

Good News Inside the Health Spending Numbers

By MARGOT SANGER-KATZ

A government report contains evidence that the U.S. health care system may be changing in ways that could make it more affordable in the years to come.

The Upshot

Underinsurance Remains Big Problem Under Obama Health Law

By AARON E. CARROLL

The point of having insurance is to be able to get care when you need it, without a financial burden, but it hasn’t always worked out that way.

Personal Health

Prescribing Vegetables, Not Pills

By JANE E. BRODY

Instead of drugs or admonishments to lose weight, which typically fall on deaf ears, some doctors are providing families with a “prescription” to eat fruits and vegetables.

“While shaving I think of Ebola, while eating I think of Ebola,” said President Alpha Condé of Guinea. The response of nearby nations helped galvanize Mr. Condé.

Ebola Now Preoccupies Once-Skeptical Leader in Guinea

By ADAM NOSSITER

President Alpha Condé, whose bureaucracy once played down the Ebola epidemic to avoid scaring investors, has become aggressively involved in the fight.

Sierra Leone to Eclipse Liberia in Ebola Cases

By RICK GLADSTONE

The World Health Organization reported more than 600 new cases of Ebola in the week that ended Sunday, more than half of them in Sierra Leone.

Think Like a Doctor: A Hideous Sore Solved

December 5, 2014

After a Cancer Diagnosis, Learning to Let Go

December 4, 2014

GlaxoSmithKline Leads In Getting Drugs to Poor

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Early editions of the Access to Medicine Index focused on infectious and tropical diseases, but the list has been refined to include access to drugs to mental illnesses.

Two customers sharing a hookah at the Mocha Hookah bar in Brooklyn Heights.

Hookah, as Health Risk, Still Qualifies as Smoking

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

With its mix of tobacco and other flavorings through a water pipe, it may smell and taste better, but a study finds it far from harmless.

Global Health

Snakes Leave Identity Within Their Fang Marks

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

DNA information can show what kind of antivenin to use, or if one is even needed.

Global Health

A Rare Form of Malaria Is Spreading in Malaysia

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

In part of Borneo, a parasite called Plasmodium knowlesi causes severe malaria three times as often as Plasmodium falciparum, which has long been considered the deadliest form of the disease, new research suggests.