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Charles Ornstein

Charles Ornstein

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Charles Ornstein, in collaboration with Tracy Weber, was a lead reporter on a series of articles in the Los Angeles Times titled "The Troubles at King/Drew" hospital that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service, the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award and the Sigma Delta Chi Award for public service in 2005. His ProPublica series, with Tracy Weber, "When Caregivers Harm: California's Unwatched Nurses" was a finalist for a 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

Ornstein reported for the Times starting in 2001, in the last five years largely in partnership with Weber. Earlier, Ornstein spent five years as a reporter for the Dallas Morning News. He is a past president of the Association of Health Care Journalists and a former Kaiser Family Foundation media fellow.

Articles

Why Health Insurance Cancellations Shouldn’t Be a Surprise

Yesterday, 2:40 p.m.

A former federal health official says consumers in the individual health-care market deserved more of a heads-up about what was coming under Obamacare.

Can a Reprieve and a Lawsuit Reverse Health Insurance Cancellations?

Yesterday, 9:25 a.m.

While California's insurance commissioner forces a three-month delay for 115,000 cancellations, Obama administration says consumers are being “migrated” to better policies.

Why Healthcare.gov Broke: Two Competing Story Lines

Nov. 4, 10:31 a.m.

Inside the Obama administration, political considerations slowed development of the health care exchanges. Or was it a blanket of Republican opposition around the country?

A Month in to Healthcare.gov, Real-Life Winners and Losers

Nov. 1, 8:26 a.m.

Today marks one month since the disastrous start of Healthcare.gov, and we take a look at whose winning and losing in real life because of it.

Health Policy Canceled? What We Know and Don’t Know

Oct. 31, 10:27 a.m.

Hundreds of thousands of individual policyholders, at minimum, will have to find new plans as insurers respond to new coverage requirements under Obamacare. But is that necessarily bad?

Health-Care Rollout: The View From Kansas

Oct. 30, 9:59 a.m.

Q&A with Sandy Praeger, a Republican insurance commissioner in a state that’s refused to go along with the Affordable Care Act.

Sebelius Testifies: Four Things to Know About Today’s Obamacare Hearing

Oct. 30, 8 a.m.

Among the proferred questions for HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius: Why has no one been fired?

The Affordable Care Act’s Most Important Date: Not What You Think

Oct. 29, 11:04 a.m.

Forgotten amid the controversial health exchange rollout: The deep impact of last year’s Supreme Court ruling letting states opt out of expanding Medicaid.

Today’s Obamacare Hearing: What You Need To Know

Oct. 29, 9:31 a.m.

A House committee focuses on what went wrong with the Healthcare.gov rollout and why. Here’s the backstory.

Should Hospital Ratings Be Embraced — or Despised?

Oct. 28, 11:20 a.m.

Can patients trust the many websites that rate hospitals? ProPublica’s Charles Ornstein talks to health-care reporters and editors to find out.

What’s Wrong With Healthcare.gov’s Price Estimator

Oct. 25, 11:57 a.m.

Healthcare.gov’s Users Speak Out: ‘Clean This Mess Up’

Oct. 24, 9:43 a.m.

Health and Human Services asked for comments about its website. It got them by the hundreds. Consumers and insurance agents say they were stymied, and one applicant said he and his wife were wrongly listed as incarcerated — then denied.

Is Healthcare.gov the Future? We Ask a Health Futurist

Oct. 23, 12:08 p.m.

“The metaphor is the Wright Brothers, not the Indianapolis 500,” says Ian Morrison. “Let’s just get this sucker up in the air before we declare that flying is a bad idea.”

How the New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza Became a Mistaken Poster Boy for Obamacare

Oct. 22, 8:52 a.m.

“It was the Twitter equivalent of blurbing a book using the one positive line from a review that actually trashed the book,” the Washington correspondent says.

A Tale of Two Obamacares: Which Is Right?

Oct. 21, 11:08 a.m.

Critics of the Affordable Care Act rollout say its technology problems are overwhelming. Defenders point to the states, where the health insurance marketplaces seem to be working.

Is Healthcare.gov Turning the Corner? Not So Fast

Oct. 21, 10:08 a.m.

Beyond problems consumers have had logging in to the new federal insurance marketplace website, insurers report major problems with the back-end system for actually enrolling people.

Huge Differences by Region in Prescribing to Elderly, Study Finds

Oct. 16, 3:46 p.m.

Researchers find that a higher proportion of seniors are prescribed antidepressants, dementia drugs and other medications in some parts of the country than others.

Here’s Why Healthcare.gov Broke Down

Oct. 16, 9:15 a.m.

Federal officials have pointed to overwhelming demand to explain the site's problems. But web developers, other experts and journalists have uncovered more fundamental issues with the design and functioning of the site.

Health Care Sign-Ups: This Is What Transparency Looks Like

Oct. 14, 11:21 a.m.

How many people have enrolled in health plans using the new federal exchange? Er, nobody seems to have a clue.

How the Feds Could Fix Their Glitchy Health Care Exchange

Oct. 11, 10:39 a.m.

It’s simple: Make the enrollment software work like Medicare Part D.
Charles Ornstein

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