It’s an interesting time to be a health reporter. The House of Representatives passed a health care bill Saturday and now the ball is in the Senate’s court.

I’ve been able to explore political reporting by writing some health-focused articles that also deal with the economy and health care reform.

I wrote a couple of stories for the Truth in conjunction with MSNBC’s theGrio.com in September, focusing on how the economy is taking a toll on the health of the black community and beyond.

One story led with a woman who was selling her possessions in order to afford to pay her mounting medical bills. She was behind on her mortgage payment and had just gotten her lights turned back on with some money from her weekly garage sales.

The story generated a firestorm of comments on theGrio.com’s web site, and lots on ours, too. Although the story didn’t explicitly mention proposed health care reform that was before Congress at the time, the comments quickly turned political. And heated.

In other words, they reflected the ongoing debate of 2009.