The Health Care Blog

So will the public option hurt hospitals? Not in the Ozarks

By Matthew Holt I've had this sitting in my inbox a while, but I thought that with the Senate bill out it was time to have a bit of weekend fun with it. The topic is the fear that a...
November 20, 2009 in Health Plans, Hospitals, Matthew Holt, Policy/Politics, Public Option | Permalink | Comments (5)

"The possible" vs "what we want," resumed

By Matthew Holt Not so long ago (actually less than 2 weeks), there was quite the spat on THCB between the Four Horseman (Klepper, Kibbe, Lazewski & Enthoven) and Maggie Mahar. Essentially it came down to this question: Is there...
November 17, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Medicare, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Dave Durenberger on Lieberman

By Matthew Holt Former Minnesota Senator Dave Durenberger, a thinking centrist Republican (remember them?) puts out an occasional newsletter full of gems. This is today’s zinger: The Senate has a better bill than the House, but it also has a...
November 11, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Modest step in the reform journey shows the idiocy of our political system

By Matthew Holt It does seem to take a health care bill to remind us all how incredibly screwed up the political process is in these here United States. The Medicare Modernization Act was railroaded through by Tom Delay and...
November 8, 2009 in Congress, Democratic Party, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (14)

Time to put aside the intellectual disputes for now

By Matthew Holt It’s always fun to see my friends beating each other up in public....and if you read down in the comments on the post published yesterday you’ll see a significant dispute between Maggie Mahar and the Klepper/Kibbe/Lazsweski/Enthoven team...
October 31, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, Maggie Mahar, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Public Option, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (79)

Saving Health Care, Saving America

By BRIAN KLEPPER, DAVID C. KIBBE, ROBERT LASZEWSKI and ALAIN ENTHOVEN So far, Congress' response to the health care crisis has been alarmingly disappointing in three ways. First, by willingly accepting enormous sums from health care special interests, our representatives...
October 30, 2009 in Brian Klepper, Corruption, Current Affairs, David Kibbe, Marketplace, Policy, Policy/Politics, primary care, Reform, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (46)

What's got lost in the public option kerfuffle

By Matthew Holt Not so long ago, July this year in fact, PhRMA boss and former Dem Blue Dog & Republican Billy Tauzin told the Aspen Health Forum that a straw poll of Democrats at dinner with him in DC...
October 27, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (10)

Protest Music at AHIP meeting

By Matthew Holt This is much more fun and better sung than traditional protests! And given that AHIP would benefit from a public option, I suspect Karen Ignagni hired them. It looks like it happened in the closing session of...
October 24, 2009 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (9)

The Republican health care argument

By Matthew Holt Just in case you thought we’d gone soft by featuring Sarah Palin, here’s what Tom Toles thinks (from the WaPo)
October 21, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (6)

Change The Rules and Get Your Labs

By Phil Marshall In 1999 Caresoft developed a consumer web portal called the Daily Apple. The Daily Apple wasn’t all that unique or different than other health portals, until in May of 2000 they began helping consumers download their lab...
October 19, 2009 in Consumers, Electronic Medical Records, Health 2.0, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (4)

Why AHIP needs the public option

By Matthew Holt It’s been a fun week. After years of THCB explaining that neither could AHIP do genuine research nor could its venerable President open her mouth without lying, the rest of the world has caught on. I won’t...
October 16, 2009 in Charlie Baker, Health Plans, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (37)

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)

Olberman, hysterical hypocrisy expose

By Matthew Holt A really fun piece from Keith Olbermann as he shows how the entire Gang of Six and more voted for fully socialized flood insurance and yet seem to have a problem with an independent government run public...
October 4, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (11)

Can Social Media Save Healthcare Reform?

By Daniel Palestrant Daniel Palestrant is the Founder & CEO of Sermo, the largest online physician community, and a friend of THCB’s from the Health 2.0 world. Lately Dan has been seen on cable TV representing the 110K+ Sermo members...
October 1, 2009 in Physicians, Policy/Politics, Reform, Sermo, Technology | Permalink | Comments (40)

I was largely in favor of Swiss-style health care...

By Matthew Holt until I found out that the people who the NY Times says are really in favor of it are Bill O'Reilly and Regina Herzlinger… Actually I’m kidding. I knew Regi says she likes it, and Maggie Mahar...
October 1, 2009 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

Morons like us

By Matthew Holt I still read the articles every day that Google and the rest of my searches spit into my inbox. But as the sausage gets made I despair for the country. Not so long ago the NY Times...
September 29, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (27)

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)

Yet another reason to abolish the Senate

By Matthew Holt Ezra Klein, feeling a little soft, interviews Kent Conrad—he of the co-op feed stores for health care idea. My take on the interview is that I seriously believe Conrad's entire knowledge of health care comes from his...
September 26, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (11)

Aneesh Chopra, talks Health 2.0

By Matthew Holt Aneesh Chopra is the Obama Administration's Chief Technology Officer. He'll be giving keynote speech at the Health 2.0 Conference in San Francisco, Oct 6-7.
September 23, 2009 in Health 2.0, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

A little ain't enough, or is it?

By Matthew Holt I've been so buried in the run up to Health 2.0 that I haven’t had a chance to add to the deluge of electrons about the bills in Congress, Obama’s speech, the several hundred amendments to Baucus’...
September 20, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Protest songs in health care?

By Matthew Holt A health care reform protest video that rocks! (Hat-tip to ePatientDave)
September 13, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (9)

Healthcare Reform: Strangled In Its Bed

By JOE FLOWER Follow the bouncing ball here: Health care was a mess, cost way too much, sick people getting dropped by insurance companies and left to die and bankrupted and all that. The obvious solution: Go to a single-payer...
September 8, 2009 in Congress, Health Plans, Policy/Politics, Public Option, Reform | Permalink | Comments (3)

Interview: TR Reid on healthcare reform around the world

By Matthew Holt TR Reid is a former foreign correspondent with the Washington Post. He spent two years (partly funded by the Kaiser Family Foundation) looking at health care systems across the world and has been featured heavily in many...
September 8, 2009 in International, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (8)

Expect to hear a whole lot about this...

By Matthew Holt Seniors care about death panels (apparently) but they usually really care about drug prices and costs. Part of the political rationale for the Republicans passing Medicare drug coverage in 2003 was to deny the Democrats the ability...
August 30, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Medicare, Medicare Advantage, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (10)

We'll be back here in 2016, unless

By Matthew Holt I've been meaning for a while to put up a common sense post that points out that if we don't do reform now, we’ll end up with cost at close to $30K per family as opposed to...
August 28, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (36)

"Money driven medicine" on PBS tonight

By Matthew Holt Tonight the documentary based on Maggie Mahar's book Money-Driven Medicine is on Bill Moyers’ show on PBS. Meanwhile if you haven’t seen this clip of Oklahoma Republican Senator Tom Coburn seriously suggesting to a completely desperate woman...
August 28, 2009 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (15)

Barney Frank deals with the loonies

By Matthew Holt This is just too funny not to show you all.
August 19, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (15)

Ditching the Public Option

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI It looks to me like the popular objections to a health care bill being expressed by voters this month are concentrated in two primary areas: A concern about “government control of the health care system”—mostly around the...
August 18, 2009 in Policy/Politics, Public Option, Reform, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (53)

Enthoven's ABCDs and why that socialist Gingrich is wrong on standardized benefits

By Matthew Holt Here's Alain Enthoven's four part plan for fixing healthcare. As THCB regulars might guess, it's familiar and very sensible stuff. (Here’s the PDF) A. Create an exchange with standardized plans, make individuals buy through the exchange and...
August 16, 2009 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (4)

Voices from the deserving mob

By Matthew Holt From the (UK) Independent. Real quotes from real people attending the free care in LA this week: "I had a gastric bypass in 2002, but it went wrong, and stomach acid began rotting my teeth. I've had...
August 15, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (15)

KP lawsuit doesn't sniff quite right

By Matthew Holt It’s about time we had a fun Kaiser Permanente scandal, as it’s been a while, and it appears that they’re having some influence on the side of the angels in DC these days. And tracking vis HISTalk...
August 14, 2009 in Health Plans, Policy/Politics, Privacy | Permalink | Comments (9)

Shaking my fist at Jon Cohn

By Matthew Holt Today Stephen Hawking gets the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Not bad for a guy the British NHS had its “death panel” kill off in the 1960s. Meanwhile the real star of the day is not the guy...
August 12, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Fame! (In Canada only)

By Matthew Holt TV is fascinated by my views on American health reform. Well not American TV (you have to be called Michael Cannon to get on American TV). Following my record-setting appearance on France 24 TV (record was fewest...
August 11, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

And the real reason health reform matters

By Matthew Holt And in case you’d forgotten what the health care reform battle is really about, here’s video from Reuters about an open air clinic for the uninsured in Virginia…
August 8, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

The Master and I agree on the goals

By Matthew Holt Writing in his blog in the NY Times, Uwe Reinhardt sets out three overarching goals of health reform 1. Financial barriers should not stand between Americans and preventive or acute health care that they sincerely believe will...
August 8, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Public Option | Permalink | Comments (31)

Dumb and Dumber

By Matthew Holt I can't say that I've been fantastically impressed by the Democrats’ choice of this year to go after health reform, or their explanation of what it is. And I understand that the only interest of the Republicans...
August 7, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Public Option, Town Halls | Permalink | Comments (18)

Finally, A Reasonable Plan for Certification of EHR Technologies

By DAVID C. KIBBE and BRIAN KLEPPER A caution to readers: This post is about methods for certifying Electronic Health Record (EHR) technologies used by physicians, medical practices, and hospitals who hope to qualify for federal incentive payments under the...
August 4, 2009 in Brian Klepper, David Kibbe, HHS, Marketplace, Meaningful Use, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform, Technology, The Industry, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (28)

The Case for Taxing “Cadillac” Healthcare Coverage

By CLAYTON MCWHORTER With President Obama’s plan for healthcare reform recently being dealt a tough blow by the Congressional Budget Office over soaring federal deficit projections, I am beginning to wonder if it is time for the President to modify...
August 4, 2009 in CBO, Congress, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (38)

Sunday mumbles

By Matthew Holt If you can’t quite remember why we’re doing this health reform stuff, here’s a very amusing defense of the current health care system by Jonathan Adler at Newsweek (hat-tip to Jon Cohn). Meanwhile by any measure July...
August 2, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy/Politics, THCB | Permalink | Comments (18)

Two rules by which to judge a health reform bill

By Matthew Holt Right now we have sausage-making going on in DC and lots of uninformed opinions and outright lies being strewn across the front pages and on cable from newly declared experts. I sat in an airport last night...
July 31, 2009 in Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (49)

Health Care Reform Coming Out of Senate Finance?

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI We’ve been getting lots of news these past few days leading to optimism that a bipartisan health care bill will soon emerge from discussions between the “Coalition of the Willing.” That term refers to the three Republicans...
July 29, 2009 in Congress, Policy/Politics, Reform, Robert Laszewski, Senate Finance Committee | Permalink | Comments (20)

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)

A Health Insurance Premium Tax Would be a Chicken Tax

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI The Congress has looked at taxing about everyone and everything to pay for half the cost of a health care bill. They’ve considered sugary soft drinks, beer, “millionaires,” and “gold plated” health benefits to name a few....
July 27, 2009 in Congress, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (6)

Live from Aspen: the moderates' view on Obama health reform

By Matthew Holt Paul Krugman’s article today excoriates the Blue Dogs and a former dog Billy Tauzin in particular. He also (as I did a week or so back) wonders where the Dogs were when the Bush tax cuts were...
July 27, 2009 in Congress, Democratic Party, Matthew Holt, Medicaid, Policy, Policy/Politics, Public Option | Permalink | Comments (11)

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)

Costs v Coverage: Krugman gets it--Brooks is almost quite close

By Matthew Holt So Paul Krugman, the NY Times Nobel Prize winning lefty columnist, says this (and echoes what I’ve been saying for a while) So where in America is there serious consideration of moving away from fee-for-service to a...
July 24, 2009 in Costs, Matthew Holt, New York Times, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (10)

Can HR 3200 Be Fixed?

By ROGER COLLIER Health care reform looks like it’s stalled. And rightly so, based on the provisions of the House Democrats’ health care reform bill. The grossly misnamed America’s Affordable Health Choices Act (HR 3200) combines the worst of all...
July 23, 2009 in Congress, Medicare, Policy/Politics, Public Option, Reform, Roger Collier | Permalink | Comments (54)

Rantology: Sympathy for the blue devils?

By Matthew Holt I do have some vague sympathy for the Blue Dogs, the group of mostly red-state Democrats who have to pretend that they care about fiscal responsibility. They, like me, think that we shouldn't be increasing taxes on...
July 22, 2009 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (21)

Op-Ed: Reform- Why have our objectives been abandoned?

By DR. ALBERT WAXMAN In the campaign of 2008 and the first six months of 2009, the call for healthcare reform has been a refreshing and important theme. It has been widely recognized that 1. Healthcare costs are out of...
July 22, 2009 in Congress, Obama administration, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (23)

Health "reform": Lest we forget...

By Matthew Holt There’s been a lot of hand-wringing and b.s. discussed about the comparatively minor health reform that’s snaking its way through Congress. And when I say comparatively minor I mean it. Mostly because there’s lots this legislation doesn’t...
July 21, 2009 in Marketplace, Matthew Holt, Policy, Policy/Politics, Reform | Permalink | Comments (16)