Posted 1:43 p.m. Tues., 03.16.10 - Mental illness affects one in every five families, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, St. Louis chapter, and four of the leading 10 causes of disability are mental illnesses. Yet, with proper treatment, many mentally ill people can live full lives. The Beacon introduces a trio of successful people with mental illness, including Arlen Chaleff (right), all of whom have channeled their challenges into helping others. Part one of three parts. 

Posted 7:40 a.m. Tues., 03.16.10 - Throughout the national health-care debate, Republicans have focused on two issues -- tort reform and allowing the sale of insurance policies across state lines -- as ways to tamp down health-care costs. Addressing malpractice awards and limits on selling insurance, the party has said repeatedly, would fix much of what's ailing the system. But studies say the potential savings would be a small percentage of health-care costs. (Photo from sxc.hu)

Updated 5:05 p.m. Wed., 03.10.10 - President Barack Obama told a friendly crowd at St. Charles High School today that he can help pay for his health-care reforms, following the example of Harry S Truman, by finding waste and fraud in government spending. (Photo by Bill Greenblatt | UPI)

Posted 11:15 a.m. Tues., 03.10.10 - President Barack Obama will be in St. Charles on Wednesday, trying to drum up support for health-care reform. The Beacon asked a number of local people what they would tell Obama about health care if they had the opportunity. Here are their responses.

Posted 12:10 p.m. Fri., 03.05.10 - A Missouri House budget appropriations committee has stripped all state funding from community health centers. That reducation of 5-15 percent of the health centers' total budgets, coming when high unemployment has increased the demands for their services, would mean layoffs and less care. (Photo from sxc.hu)

Posted 4:40 p.m. Thurs., 03.04.10 - Why is a reform of the U.S. health-care system needed? Health and Human Secretary Kathleen Sebelius says people being priced out of buying insurance is one reason. She also called on insurance companies to voluntarily post their data online, covering such issues as their profits, their payouts in claims and their losses.

Updated 9:35 a.m. Fri., 02.26.10 - Democrats and Republicans spent Thursday in an unprecedented, high-stakes meeting to try to reach consensus on health reform. While they met, some Missourians cheered -- and booed -- them on. Taking the long view, some academics point out that most health-care reform in the past 25 years has been passed by the reconciliation process.

Updated 2:43 p.m. Wed., 02.17.10 - St. Charles County ranks second in healthy residents in Missouri, behind Platte County, according to a first of a kind study rating the overall health of counties in all 50 states. Neither the city of St. Louis or St. Clair County in Illinois did well in the just-released study.