Any journalist covering health should have a basic understanding of financing – howMedicare works and where Medicaid comes in as the big funder of long-term care. Understand what people die of in a technologically advanced society with a good public health system. The three main trajectories are cancer, major organ disease and Alzheimer’s disease. How do those differ from one another and how are they similar? What is good palliative care for someone with COPD or a stroke? It’s not the same as someone who has cancer.