Today, as part of "North Carolina Voices: Diagnosing Health Care" we begin a series of reports looking at the rise of diabetes and its impact on the state. Our stories focus on northeastern North Carolina where diabetes is taking a particularly harsh toll. We begin in Northampton County, east of Interstate 95 near the Virginia border. Northampton is one of the poorest counties in the state. If you live here, you are almost twice as likely to develop diabetes than if you live in an urban area and you’re more likely to die from it. Emily Hanford prepared this report.

Standard-issue Western health care isn’t delivering what some people want or need. They're looking for more than just another pill or procedure and piecing together medical care from several different traditions. Or, they’re bringing traditions with them from other countries. Melinda Penkava has this story for our series "North Carolina Voices: Diagnosing Health Care."

If you don’t have health insurance, there are places you can go to get health care. Community clinics, local health departments, state funded health centers … they often provide low-cost or even free care. But they mostly focus on the basics. What if you have a heart problem and need to see a cardiologist? Or you need an orthopedic surgeon or an endocrinologist? These kinds of specialists are expensive, and there is typically no low-cost option for people who don’t have insurance. Ten years ago, doctors in Buncombe County wanted to do something about that. And the program they created, Project Access, is now a model for other programs nationwide. Dave DeWitt reports for our series "North Carolina Voices: Diagnosing Health Care."

There are a lot of ways to get health information… from the doctor, the Internet, books, patient handouts, friends and family. But how do you know what information is best for you? Wading through and understanding it, contradictions and all, is a function of health literacy - the ability to understand and follow the doctor’s advice. Without that, even patients with good medical insurance can lose out.  Rose Hoban reports for our series "North Carolina Voices: Diagnosing Health Care."

The United States is the only major industrialized nation that does not provide healthcare for everyone.  47 million Americans have no insurance to help pay for trips to the doctor, medicine, or emergency surgery.  People can purchase health insurance on their own, but it's usually expensive, and a lot of people who are uninsured say they can't afford it.  So they hope they don't get sick; seek charity or low cost care when they do; and even make big life decisions based on their insurance needs.  Karen Michel reports for our series "North Carolina Voices:  Diagnosing Health Care."

Ask just about anyone in the health care debate what the biggest problem is, and you’ll hear the same two words – the uninsured. One out of six North Carolinians has no health insurance- that’s more than 1.4 million people. And they’re putting a strain on the entire healthcare system. Some states are taking bold steps to reform the insurance system. But North Carolina is not among them. We asked our State Capitol Reporter Laura Leslie to find out why for our series "North Carolina Voices: Diagnosing Health Care."

Many workers at the Smithfield hog processing plant in Tar Heel North Carolina continue to speak-out about what they call "bad" work conditions. But yesterday instead of just speaking-out – hundreds of workers walked out.