First place: Katie Landeck, The News Herald, Panama City, Florida

About this entry: Katie’s entries on the health beat all focus on obstacles to care: lack of transportation, access to healthy food and the health coverage gap, which featured profiles, extensive interviews and medical records reviews of six local residents struggling to find and afford quality health care.

Read online: Florida’s health coverage gap leaves Bay County uninsured with few options

Great job looking at health care from the angle of the patient or regular person, not the provider or system. Use of “real people” made these issue more real. Plus, good and clear explanations of the health care system.

Second place: Bill Hand, Sun Journal, New Bern, North Carolina
Third place: Danielle Portteus, The Monroe News, Monroe, Michigan