As the federal government prepares to expand health care coverage to more Americans, Arizona may be looking to drastically cut back on its Medicaid program to help solve state budget problems.

The U.S. Senate healthcare bill is expected to provide medical coverage for as many as 1 million uninsured Arizonans, but it would leave the state scrambling to come up with an estimated $3.8 billion to pay for it.

Hospital care suffers because overworked nurses are assigned too many patients and are unable to voice their concerns out of fear of reprisals from administrators, members of a nurses union said Dec. 8. About 300 nurses from across the country demonstrated outside the offices of the Arizona Hospital and Healthcare Association, a group that advocates for hospitals and health care systems, in support of legislation that would, among other things, cap nurse-to-patient ratios.

If you think the flu season is fast approaching, think again - health authorities say it never really left. Active cases of swine flu are popping up in virtually every Arizona county, which is especially unusual during the state's hot summer months.

A four-year battle for Sen. Carolyn Allen came to end with a stroke of the governor's pen. Gov. Jan Brewer on July 13 signed S1018, which raises the burden of proof for medical malpractice lawsuits against emergency room physicians. Allen, a Scottsdale Republican, had tried unsuccessfully for years to get the measure passed, only to see it fail to reach the governor's desk.

Just days after the release of a memo outlining a campaign to generate public support for Gov. Jan Brewer's budget proposal - and, potentially, to target legislators who oppose it - the group behind the strategy scrapped the plan, at least for the time being.

The actual cut to Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System will be more than double than what appears in print if lawmakers approve the fiscal 2010 budget plan without including a routine funding adjustment to cover inflation in health care costs.