The Health Care Blog

Let’s Not Lose Sight of the Goals

By BILL KRAMER I love Daniel Schorr. I’ve never met him in person, but I love his voice and his insights about politics on NPR’s Weekend Edition. But this morning I was disappointed. After listening to his comments on the...
October 4, 2009 in Obama, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (10)

Will Victory on Health Care Reform Mean Defeat for the Democrats?

By JOE FLOWER Being a futurist is not really about making predictions, but people ask for them anyway. So here is one: The way things are trending right now, Obama and the Democrats will succeed in getting a reform bill...
September 27, 2009 in Democratic Party, Obama, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (48)

Obama’s Medicare Half-Truth

By AUSTIN FRAKT Obama was called a liar during his recent address to a joint session of Congress. Actually, he was not fully truthful about the implications of cuts to Medicare. Obama repeated that his health reform plan includes payment...
September 20, 2009 in Economics, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Obama, The Speech | Permalink | Comments (43)

The Speech: Could this have been what he planned all along?

By BOB WACHTER White House Photo A conventional look at The Speech: Obama over-learned the lessons of Hillary-care; he gave Congress too long a leash; he lost control of the message; the wacko’s attacked with a barrage of Socialist/Nazi/Plug-Pulling-on-Grandma-isms; not...
September 11, 2009 in Bob Wachter, Obama, Reform, The Speech | Permalink | Comments (17)

Video: Obama addresses Congress on Health reform

TRANSCRIPT: Full text of Obama speech AUDIO: via NPR POLITICO: Opponent's "You Lie!" outburst may have unified Democrats. REBUTTAL: Rep. Charles Boustany (R-LA)
September 10, 2009 in Obama, The Speech | Permalink | Comments (17)

Economist: "A huge step forward. With one exception ..."

A thumbs up: "Cleverly borrowing good ideas from both sides of the party divide, his proposals at least look like a plausible basis for agreement. The plan obliges everyone to take out health insurance while creating a tapering subsidy for...
September 10, 2009 in Obama, Reform, The Speech | Permalink | Comments (39)

What Obama Must Demand from Congress on Health Care

By ROBERT M. REICH Congress returns this week to one of the fiercest and most important debates in recent memory -- whether and to what extent the nation will provide health care to all Americans, and how we will reign...
September 8, 2009 in Congress, Obama, Public Option | Permalink | Comments (22)

Op-Ed: Sustainable Healthcare Reform

By LAWRENCE W. ARRINGTON President Obama made a risky wager when he decided to let Congress take the lead on crafting health care legislation, rather than presenting his own reform package. Congress is not known for taking bold, decisive leadership...
July 29, 2009 in Congress, Obama, Policy, Policy/Politics, Public Option, Reform | Permalink | Comments (12)

Health Reform and Obama's Leadership

By RAHUL PARIKH By all accounts this is crunch time for President Obama on health care reform, and things couldn’t be more tenuous. In the past several weeks, we’ve seen unified Republican opposition to his ideas, a revolt against reform...
July 26, 2009 in Congress, Obama, Policy/Politics, Rahul Parikh | Permalink | Comments (13)

And in reply to the ABC Obamamercial...

By Matthew Holt Stephen Colbert’s Republican Health Care Infomercial. Quite wonderful. Can’t get it to embed but here’s the link
June 26, 2009 in Media, Obama, Policy/Politics, Television | Permalink | Comments (1)

Health Care Leaders Say Obama Overstated Their Promise to Control Costs

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI That was the headline in Thursday's New York Times regarding Monday's promise by health care stakeholders to reduce spending by $2 trillion. A couple of snipets from the Times article: Hospitals and insurance companies said Thursday that...
May 18, 2009 in Economics, Obama | Permalink | Comments (13)

The Obama Health care Budget

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI Pieces of the health care portion of the Obama budget are leaking out. Based upon published reports, the Obama “down payment on health care reform” will include: $634 billion to help pay for health care reform over...
February 28, 2009 in Obama | Permalink | Comments (61)

Open Wide: Here comes the change you thought would never happen

By Jeff Goldsmith The morning after the election, I posted a speculative blog in Health Affairs on three possible scenarios for President-elect Obama’s implementing health reform: folding it into a bold, ambitious emergency legislative package (Complete the New Deal), carving...
November 25, 2008 in Economics, Election 08, Jeff Goldsmith, Marketplace, Obama, Obama administration, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (22)

President Obama: A victory for health care?

By THCB Staff Now that the results are in and the United States has officially elected Barack Obama as its next president, what does that mean to you and what will that mean for health care in America? After nearly...
November 4, 2008 in Election 08, Obama, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (44)

If you can stay awake, the candidates' health plans explained

By Sarah Arnquist The New England Journal of Medicine and Harvard University teamed up to bring you this compelling, hour-long nail-biter of Gail Wilensky and David Cutler discussing their respective candidates' health plans. I wonder if the NEJM has had...
September 25, 2008 in Election 08, McCain, Obama, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

When is the same spending more spending?

By Matthew Holt When it's routed through the government because their spending is done with mythically different dollars than private spending. Or at least it is in the bizzaro world of free-marketeer policy analysts. Let me explain… A couple of...
September 16, 2008 in Economics, Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Obama, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

Remember pensions? The big differences between Obama & McCain's health care plans

By Robert Laszewski This election is different than any other on the issue of health care because both candidates are giving us serious blueprints to reorganize America's health care system and those blueprints are very very different. As voters, you...
September 11, 2008 in Election 08, McCain, Obama, Policy/Politics, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (8)

The problems with high-risk pools

By Robert Laszewski What do we do with people who are uninsurable because they have a pre-existing medical condition? That is a particularly important question as both McCain and Obama propose reforming American health care by building on the private...
August 1, 2008 in Election 08, Mandates, Marketplace, McCain, Obama, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (5)

Comparative what? Translating policy lingo into something meaningful

By Sarah Arnquist Barack Obama's health reform proposal includes creating a center for comparative effectiveness research. John McCain also has expressed support for this research. And the American College of Physicians would like patients and doctors to use comparative effectiveness...
July 11, 2008 in Economics, McCain, Obama, Policy, Sarah Arnquist | Permalink | Comments (12)

Obama's health plan may promise less but accomplish more

By Diana Dutton & Hal Holman Hal Holman is a professor of Medicine at Stanford University, and Diana Dutton is a research fellow at the London School of Economics and a former director of health services research at Stanford. The...
June 4, 2008 in Election 08, Hillary Clinton, Obama, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (11)

Against Obama, polls show McCain lags on health care

By Robert Laszewski The latest Washington Post-ABC News poll on health care should give John McCain reason to be concerned. The early May poll asked voters, "Regardless of whom you may support, whom do you trust more to handle health...
May 21, 2008 in Election 08, McCain, Obama, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Presidential candidates' health plans

By THCB Staff As a service to our readers, we've compiled all the presidential candidates' health plans in one place for you to easily access. Soon, we'll have a section of the TCHB devoted to the presidential race and health...
May 12, 2008 in Election 08, Hillary Clinton, McCain, Obama, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (6)

A Detailed Analysis of Barack Obama's Health Care Reform Plan

Thanks to a very high Google ranking this has been the most popular ever post on THCB. And it's an excellent analysis by Robert Laszewski. who writes The Health Policy and Marketplace Blog. However, it was written during the Democratic...
March 21, 2008 in Obama, Policy/Politics, Reform, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (71)