St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editors Desk column [St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Sept. 28--October brings alive some divergent topics, including evolving changes in national health care reform, Cardinals baseball playoffs and the onset of the National Hockey League season.

This Sunday, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch offers two excellent special sections that provide deep information for consumers trying to make sense of changes that affect millions of Americans and another one for those who have longed for action on the ice.

For St. Louis Blues diehards, they hope that some new faces on an already gritty team playing under a new divisional alignment will vault them toward the team's first Stanley Cup championship.

And October in St. Louis means postseason baseball for the Cardinals. As tradition, the Post-Dispatch will supply the most comprehensive and informed coverage of the Cardinals' playoff run for every step of their journey. In print, online or social media, the Post-Dispatch stable of writers, columnists and photographers is unrivaled.

But first, health care reform.

Ongoing passionate debates in Congress about "Obamacare" and the Tuesday start date for some people to sign up for health insurance exchanges have thrust the concept of health care reform into America's living rooms.

But the Post-Dispatch has been steeped in covering health care reform long before this fall.

A great team has collaborated to produce the 12-page guide "Navigating Health Care" in this Sunday edition and to launch a special website, MoHealthReport.com, which showcases our staff coverage, online blogs, columns, editorials, commentary and national health care stories all aggregated into one easily accessible site.

Health care-related coverage also is assembled each Monday through Friday under a free email newsletter, which readers can subscribe to at MoHealthReport.com. It focuses on distilling complex topics and insights into news developments as they unfold.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act, aka "Obamacare," rolls out fully next year, but changes and impact to consumers nationwide are well under way.

The team of Post-Dispatch writers includes Virginia Young, the Capitol bureau chief in Jefferson City; Jim Doyle, the health care industry reporter on the Business staff; Metro Desk medical and health reporter Blythe Bernhard; Jim Gallagher, a Business reporter and columnist; Walker Moskop, a Metro reporter and data specialist; and Tara Kulash, a reporter and blogger for MoHealthReport.com.

MoHealthReport.com offers an array of information from latest headlines, blogs, videos, articles from Kaiser Health News, commentaries and letters from readers. The site also posts news via Twitter (@MoHealthReport) and added a database on ratings for Missouri hospitals last week.

Young is writing regularly under her Capitol Perspectives blog on topics such as whether the Missouri Legislature would vote to expand Medicaid or participate in a state-operated health care exchange. Missouri voted against Medicaid expansion and a state exchange, which meant the federal government is operating Missouri's health care exchange.

Doyle has reported a series of in-depth articles under the title "Health Care: Changes and Choices," which has chronicled how the new law is affecting patients, health care providers and insurance companies in our region.

Deputy Managing Editor Adam Goodman, Business Editor Roland Klose and Projects/Health Editor Jean Buchanan are overseeing the daily health coverage and new health care website.

The Post-Dispatch is one of five U.S. news organizations partnering with Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent program of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, which is a nonprofit policy research and communication organization that promotes more and better news coverage of health care issues.

Kaiser provided the Post-Dispatch with a grant that will enable our newsroom to hire two interns to help us focus on added health care coverage. The other partner news organizations are the Miami Herald, the Seattle Times, the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Chicago Tribune and the Texas Tribune.

BLUES SPECIAL SECTION

This edition also includes a special 14-page St. Louis Blues preview section: "WANTED SCORING"

While many around the league believe the Blues might have the strongest defense in the NHL, the team needs more scoring to reach its potential. Who will score those goals? Our writers explore coach Ken Hitchcock's offensive philosophy and provide an NHL scout's take on the Blues' forwards who need to make it happen.

In addition, the Post-Dispatch staff takes a broader look at the league with its new Western and Eastern conference alignments and how that will create a new system for qualifying for the playoffs. Plus, capsules on every NHL team.

The puck drops for the Blues' home opener Thursday night against the Nashville Predators at Scottrade Center.

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