Happy new year!  Here's hoping it's a healthy one--especially if you're among the 47 million Americans who don't have health insurance.  This topic has seldom been hotter, as presidential candidates on the campaign trail pitch various solutions.  But it's also a complex problem, and one that students need to know about; someday, they'll need to face the reality of finding health care coverage for themselves and their families, or the consequences of going without.  Our story highlights the urgency of the problem by telling the stories of two uninsured young people who had to cope with medical bills all by themselves.  The article also provides an explanation of what health insurance is and how it works, as well as the factors that cause people to lose (or never get) coverage and the potential solutions.  We hope this article will provide some hearty food for thought and provoke interesting classroom discussions -- let us know what you think!

Cordially,

Meredith Matthews

**Special feature: Are cases of drug-resistant infections like MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) popping up in your community? To help your students learn more about this growing health problem, Current Health 2 is making available an article on MRSA we published in December 2006. Click here to access it.