The Health Care Blog

Healthcare coverage restored -- good for patients, maybe too late for plans

By Matthew Holt Saint Lisa Girion (and I say that without a smirk on my face!) reports in the LA Times on the latest chapter in the story she started about the ongoing saga of the retroactive cancellations of health...
May 16, 2008 in Health Plans, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

Implications of McCain's plan analyzed at Spot-On

By THCB Staff Over at Spot-On, Matthew predicts what would happen if Sen. John McCain were to win the presidential election this fall, and the Republicans took Congress, and they passed his health plan. Matthew describes the basic tenets in...
May 15, 2008 in McCain, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

POST-MORTEM: California health reform

By Sarah Arnquist The debate over why health reform failed in California sparked up again following the release of a Field Poll in late April that found that nearly three-quarters of California respondents supported Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan. Following the...
May 14, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics, reform, Sarah Arnquist | Permalink | Comments (5)

More on Physician Reimbursement, CMS, the AMA's RVS Update Committee (RUC)

by ROY POSES, MD (Note by Brian Klepper: At Health Care Renewal, Dr. Roy Poses, a Clinical Associate Professor at Brown University's School of Medicine, writes a consistently excellent blog on health care financial conflict . Both he and I...
May 12, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, Physicians, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (11)

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 (3)

Healthy Americans Act could be the place of compromise for health reform in 2008

By Robert Laszewski Health care reform will be hard to do after the November election. I've even called it a long-shot. Polls clearly show the voters split evenly between the Democratic and Republican approach to health care reform. I can't...
May 8, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (6)

The bizzaro world of McCain's health care politics

By Matthew Holt I sometimes write two different versions of pieces, one for you wonks at THCB and one for the more general crowd at Spot-on. Well to be more accurate I write one version which gets edited heavily over...
May 2, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

While I was away....

I met this little baby cheetah.... Meanwhile, over at Spot-on I'm up discussing the McCain health care plan and some of the Democratic reactions to it. My six weeks of traveling the world on an extended honeymoon is over. With...
May 1, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

John McCain and The Politics of The Uninsured

By Robert Laszewski John McCain spoke about health care in Tampa on Tuesday and tried to answer many of the questions that have been raised about his health care reform plan. The most pressing question is how would people with...
April 30, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

McCain starting to talk about health care

This morning John McCain’s team will be talking about health care. There are some interesting ideas in McCain’s plan, which is the Bush tax deduction idea morphed into a tax credit, plus changes in Medicare payments. The best quick explanation...
April 29, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (8)

Ron Paul on health reform: shrink government

By Sarah Arnquist If elected president, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, promises to shrink the government's role in health care. Government intervention, he says, is the cause of today's high costs, inefficiencies and lack of personal responsibility. “We can hardly...
April 28, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (6)

An Open Response To HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt - Brian Klepper and Michael Millenson

By Brian Klepper and Michael Millenson A few months ago, the two of us – both long-time advocates for transparency and accountability – posted separate comments on Secretary Mike Leavitt’s blog. Brian asked Secretary Leavitt to square his support of...
April 22, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Physician Rating, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (0)

Quoteable

By THCB Staff We asked THCB contributor Maggie Mahar for her quick take on the health care policies of each of the presidential candidates. We were pretty much expecting one of Maggie's trademarked dissertations - a meticulously researched critique of...
April 20, 2008 in Maggie Mahar, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

Which way to go for health reform? From Birkenstocks to pom-poms

By Sarah Arnquist The methods proposed to clean up the health care mess in the United States that leading voices pitched to hundreds of journalists Friday unsurprisingly were as varied as their Birkenstocks and patriotic tie. David Himmelstein, co-founder of...
March 31, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (1)

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

By Robert Laszewski Barack Obama’s health care plan follows the Democratic template—an emphasis on dramatically and quickly increasing the number of people who have health insurance by spending significant money upfront. The Obama campaign estimates his health care reform plan...
March 21, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (28)

Loving Our Children

By Brian Klepper Among its many less-noticed accomplishments, this Administration has strangled funding for comprehensive sex education. Instead, it has thrown the immense weight of the US government behind abstinence-based education, an impractical ideological approach rooted in religious zealotry and...
March 14, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Patient Safety, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

The Myth of Health Care Consumerism

By Brian Klepper Last weekend I heard several great presentations at a meeting convened by Jeff Goldsmith, but one contained a point I hadn't heard nailed down before. Kaveh Safavi MD JD, from Thomson Healthcare's Center for Healthcare Improvement, detailed...
March 13, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Economics, Health 2.0, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (21)

HEALTH 2.0: Getting the PHR, Privacy and Deborah Peel issue off my chest

By Matthew Holt I’m a card carrying member of the ACLU. I oppose the Patriot Act. And I absolutely oppose the current Administration's decision to ignore the FISA law that already bends over backwards to help the government spy on...
March 13, 2008 in Health 2.0, Policy, Policy/Politics, Privacy, Technology | Permalink | Comments (9)

POLITICS: Ghost in the Attack Machine

I'm up at Spot-on discussing the return of one of the more improbable and unlovable charcters in the last health reform debate, and her recurrence as a Ghost in the Attack Machine. As ever come back here to comment... It's...
February 22, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (20)

Let's All Ask Secretary Leavitt To Explain HHS' Schizophrenia On Medicare Physician Data - Brian Klepper

Regular readers will know that, last Sunday, I posted a column that pointed to HHS' schizophrenic behavior when it comes to the release of Medicare physician data. First they fight the consumer advocacy group Checkbook.org's lawsuit demanding the release of...
February 13, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Physician Rating, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (2)

Hating employer-based insurance, Chelsea Clinton-style by Michael Millenson

Chelsea Clinton is complaining about her health insurance. As a self-employed consultant, I almost felt sympathetic, until I saw she works for an asset management firm, Avenue Capital Group, that manages just over $20 billion worldwide. They are able to...
February 12, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

Sunday Morning Post, by Brian Klepper

Here's a classical example of a federal regulatory agency holding fast to two opposing ideas at the same time. I wonder what it means? Last week the Department of Health and Human Services posted an interesting notice announcing a new...
February 10, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Physician Rating, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

Is Mandated Universal Coverage the Right Way to Achieve Health Reform? The Health Reform Debate We Haven’t Had Yet, by Jeff Goldsmith

I don’t know how many of you linked over to Lawrence Brown’s perspective piece “The Amazing, Non-Collapsing US Health Care System” in the January 24th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (buried in Mathew’s “Whisper it quietly. ....
February 5, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (13)

An Analysis of Senator John McCain's Health Care Reform Plan By Robert Laszewski

Robert Laszweski has been a fixture in Washington health policy circles for the better part of three decades. He currently serves as the president of Health Policy and Strategy Associates of Alexandria, Virginia. Before forming HPSA in 1992, Robert served...
February 5, 2008 in Policy/Politics, Robert Laszewski | Permalink | Comments (9)

What healthcare ideas did Edwards and Giuliani leave behind? by Craig Stoltz

Craig Stoltz is a web consultant working in the health 2.0 space. He has previously served as health editor for the Washington Post and editorial director of Revolution Health. He blogs at Web 2.0 ... Oh really? Whenever candidates drop...
February 5, 2008 in Craig Stoltz, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY: The Best-Kept Secret of Campaign ’08: A Bipartisan Solution to Health Reform by Wendy Everett

Wendy Everett is president of the New England Healthcare Institute. She thinks that the candidates for President from both parties agree on the important stuff for health care--dealing with chronic care prevention. I can't say that I'm totally in agreement...
February 5, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (8)

Bill would make it illegal to feed the obese by Eric Novack

Really. From USA Today: Three legislators want to make it illegal for restaurants to serve obese customers in Mississippi. House Bill No. 282, which was introduced this month, says: Any food establishment to which this section applies shall not be...
February 2, 2008 in Eric Novack, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

'Health Care That's Always There'. Really? by Eric Novack

We haven't heard from our favorite orthopedic surgeon in a while but Eric Novack is back to change the world...or at least express his annoyance at some people in it! I suspect that we'll be hearing lots of arguments like...
February 2, 2008 in Eric Novack, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

QUALITY: Medicare Health Support--Done and more or less dusted

Recently the targets on Medicare Health Support were changed to make them more financially favorable to the DM companies running the projects. Everyone inside the DM industry has known that MHS has not been doing too well for some time...
January 31, 2008 in Policy/Politics, Quality | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/POLITICS: Health insurance without health care by Claudia Chaufan

Claudia Chaufan teaches sociology of health and medicine and health policy at UC Santa Cruz,. and is Vice President of California Physicians Alliance, the California Chapter of Physicians for a National Health Program, which argues for a single payer system....
January 29, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

POLICY: Shannon Brownlee is da man!

It's been really great getting to know the new voice of the Dartmouth school, Shannon Brownlee. She's interviewed in her local paper about the concept that the American health care system delivers More money, but less health. Hopefully we'll have...
January 29, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality | Permalink | Comments (3)

Families USA Health Action 2008: An Alternative Plan - Brian

A wonderful meeting (Full disclosure: They brought me in to blog my impressions.), The Families USA conference that ended Saturday brought together some impressive Congressional politicians - Nancy Pelosi, Tom Daschle, Ken Salazar, Blanche Lincoln - and true health care...
January 28, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLITICS: Whisper it quietly...

But some on the left are begging to realize that health reform, post an assumed 2008 Democratic victory, is still a very, very big assumption. On liberal blog Daily Kos, DemfromCT uses the recent polling data from Bob Blendon's group...
January 27, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (6)

Families USA Health Action 2008: Anthony Fauci on Global Health - Brian

I first met, heard and came to admire Tony Fauci several months ago at the Aspen Health Forum. Dr. Fauci heads the National Institute of Health's National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. In addition to his spectacular medical contributions,...
January 26, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

Families USA: Tom Daschle on Health Care Reform - Brian Klepper

Former Senator and Majority/Minority Leader Daschle gave the opening address on the 2nd day of the Families USA Health Action conference. Mr. Daschle has a new book coming out in March on America's health system and our past efforts to...
January 26, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Nancy Pelosi's Health Care Address - Brian Klepper

The featured highlight address at the opening session of the Families USA conference is by Nancy Pelosi, Congress' first woman Speaker. In person, Speaker Pelosi clearly comes across as a brilliant and warm woman, a friend of Families USA, and...
January 24, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Families USA Health Action 2008 Conference - Brian Klepper

Along with other familiar voices like Maggie Mahar and Ezra Klein, I'm in DC today writing from the Families USA Health Action 2008 conference. Families USA is a progessive (liberal) consumer advocacy organization dedicated to universal coverage, driven by mobilizing...
January 24, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLITICS: Another Zogby poll that's wrong (but understandably so)

Americans have been lying to pollsters for years, and here’s another example Question: The candidates for president have each proposed changes to the healthcare system in America. Generally speaking, on a scale of 1-5, with 1 being not at all...
January 22, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Code Blue! Republicans leaning left on healthcare! Craig Stoltz

Craig Stoltz is a web consultant working in the health 2.0 space. He has previously served as health editor for the Washington Post and editorial director of Revolution Health. He blogs at Web 2.0 ... Oh really? I recently had...
January 18, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (9)

POLITICS: On the vacuousity of the primary season

I am up at Spot-on ranting about how an endless beauty parade among candidates who agree with each other doesn’t help us figure out what we get come election time. Please read it and come back to comment if you...
January 18, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

Four Big Trends - Brian Klepper

Several events and trends emerged over the last year that will reverberate throughout the health care marketplace in 2008 and going forward. While none of these dominated the trade press like some other issues - electronic and personal health records,...
January 16, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Health Plans, Hospitals, Medicare Advantage, Patient Safety, Physician Rating, Physicians, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (8)

POLICY: Do mandates matter? with UPDATE

Former Labor secretary Robert Reich has appealed to Democrats (in other words Paul Krugman and Obama's camp) to stop squabbling over healthcare mandates. Basically he says that Clinton would have to let some people who couldn't afford health care out...
January 15, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLITICS: Just Saying No to crass politicization

Yeah, I know it's not likely that anyone will pay attention given the season, but I do feel that there are enough cases with which to bash insurers which are legitimate that John Edwards didn't have to start politicizing one...
January 9, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality | Permalink | Comments (3)

On Practical Reforms - Brian Klepper

Now that health care reform is once again an active, visible issue in state governments and the presidential campaigns, the ideas are flying fast and furious. Predictably, some ideas are better than others. Over at Health Care Policy and Marketplace...
January 9, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Health Plans, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry, Transparency | Permalink | Comments (11)

POLICY: Ian Morrison--to be thrown out by the Paisley Fabianists club

In a great article called The Fallacy of Excellence my old boss and friend Ian Morrison explains what we intuitively know. people don't understand that more care is not better care. This is going to lead to lots of political...
January 8, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLITICS: More on the Presidential plan comparison

Long time THCB friend Steve Beller tells me this: We’ve created a Comparative Analysis of Presidential Health Care Plans, which analyzes much of the details of Susan Blumenthal's and Kaisers’ work in order to identify top candidates based on voters’...
January 7, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

Health Care’s Cold Truth: An Iowa Perspective - Michael Millenson

I am writing this blog from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, grateful that the temperature has warmed from brutally cold to pleasantly sub-freezing. Fortunately, the warm feelings left by the extraordinary victory of Sen. Barack Obama, the candidate for whom I was...
January 4, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (12)

Susan Blumenthal's Presidential Health Care Plans Update

Susan Blumenthal, M.D. has updated her exhaustive (and exhausting) list of the Presidential candidates’ health care proposals You'll find the Side-by-Side Comparisons on the The Huffington Post
January 4, 2008 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLITICS: The Crystal Ball - Healthcare reform in California

I'm up over at Spot-on discussing why the opinion of 32 corn farmers in Iowa may not matter quite as much for health insurance as what's going on in my fair state. The piece is called: A Californian Crystal Ball....
January 3, 2008 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

The Politics of Publicly-Funded Health Care - Brian Klepper

Over at Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review, the always insightful Bob Laszewski walks us through the mechanics of the just-passed federal budget and its health care financing implications for SCHIP, physicians, hospitals, Medicare Advantage plans. This clear, common sense...
January 3, 2008 in Brian Klepper, Health Plans, Hospitals, Physicians, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

California not really uber alles

Late last week Brian Klepper stirred things up around here calling California's health care bill Business As Usual. Over at Spot-on earlier this week I was a little more simplistic. I call the California approach The Last of the Old...
December 26, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (9)

POLICY: As Goes California, So Should Go the Nation, by Mary Kay Henry

Now I can’t claim to be an optimist about the future of California's health reform bill. But at least someone is. And that someone is SEIU Executive Vice President Mary Kay Henry. Here’s her take on the latest California news...
December 19, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

Policy- vs. Market-Based Reform: RHIOs as a Case Study - Brian Klepper

As Anonymouse insightfully commented, the Harvard team's RHIO study in Health Affairs is very telling about the barriers facing do-gooder health care projects. That said, I wanted to add two comments. First, while RHIOs are unquestionably good public policy, what...
December 18, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Health 2.0, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (2)

Bad Medicine: How The AMA Undermined Primary Care in America - Brian Klepper

On Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal website, Dr. Benjamin Brewer describes physicians’ reactions to the 10.1% cut in Medicare physician payments that will take effect January 1. He argues that the onus will fall, once again, disproportionately on primary care physicians,...
December 13, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (31)

POLITICS: Cohn on Obama; me on Cutler

Jon Cohn’s TNR piece Mandate Overboard goes (in somewhat grueling detail) into a defense his estimate that a mandateless universal insurance plan will leave a substantial number uninsured. I’ll say it more simply. Voluntary universal health insurance is a Harvard...
December 10, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

POLITICS: President Obama's Health care head fake

So unlike Paul Krugman who's just being critical of Obama's lack of a mandate, over at Spot-on I think I see the political brilliance behind it--or am I just deluding myself? Come back here to comment of course: It’s a...
December 7, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (6)

POLITICS: Jonathan Cohn confesses on the Obama 15 million problem

Apparently the 15m uninsured in Obama's plan are all Jonathan Cohn's fault. At least the picking up on that number by Hillary and Edwards in the debates, that is. I’m still struggling with how Obama is correctly to the left...
December 4, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

If Grady Fails By Brian Klepper

In an extraordinary move earlier this week, the politically-appointed Fulton-DeKalb Hospital Authority, the governing body over Atlanta's Grady Health System, unanimously and voluntary stepped aside, to be replaced by a new non-profit corporation. Projecting a $55 million deficit this year,...
November 29, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Hospitals, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (6)

POLICY: The liberal media maliciously tells the truth about Rudy, again

There's more Giuliani bashing going on in the liberal media. First in the NY Times Frank Rich goes after him via the seedy route of the forthcoming tell-all lawsuit from Bernie Kerik's ex-girlfriend. (It's good stuff--I'd recommend a full read)....
November 24, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY: Low prices ain't cheap enough

Mercer says that the number of small businesses offering health insurance to workers went down last year despite the greater and easier availability of high-deductible and HSA plans. Fewer small employers offered health insurance this year, despite the widespread availability...
November 20, 2007 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (23)

POLICY: David Gratzer, source of Rudy misinformation

My, my. We can't exactly be surprised that Rudy Giuliani is on the one hand telling yet more porky pies and on the other hand not contributing to the debate in health care—other than shouting “socialized medicine” as loudly as...
October 31, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (10)

POLITICS: Liveblogging Hillary, by Amanda Goltz

Hillary Clinton did a live webcast on Tuesday night. Given what’s happening in less than 36 hours I was way too busy to watch it. But luckily for me and for you Amanda Goltz who works for a certain large...
September 19, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

POLICY: Guesses at important dates...

In the comments to Brian Klepper’s piece yesterday, troublemaker commenter JD asks the following Matt, I don't know if you can do polls on this site, but I'd be interested to see what the readers here would guess as the...
August 30, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

What Are They Thinking: ONCHIT and RTI - Brian Klepper

I'm sure I don't really get the deeper issues involved here, but sometimes its hard to not have your breath taken away by some people's notion of a good idea. Maybe its because I'm not a true geek, but what...
August 24, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (15)

A Broker Afterthought: An Acknowledgment, An Apology and A Criticism - Brian Klepper

In the comment section of my post on broker compensation, KWeller properly points out that 1) some states regulate broker commissions more stringently than Florida does and 2) I do a disservice to brokers who practice without financial conflict. He...
August 16, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics, THCB, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Consultants to Hospitals: Prepare for Transparency - Brian Klepper

We must view and treat the community as the "owner" to whom we are fully accountable. Aggregate financial performance data, aggregate productivity performance and aggregate quality and patient satisfaction data belong in the public realm. How else can consumers make...
August 16, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Health Plans, Hospitals, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (4)

Podcast: Mello on Health Courts

Professor Michele Mello, an expert on the health care justice system at the Harvard School of Public Health, has an interesting 9.5 minute audio podcast on why health courts would be an improvement over the current medical liability system. The...
August 16, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Hospitals, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Presidential Candidates On Health Care

Over at the Huffington Post, Dr. Susan Blumenthal and her team at the DC-based Center for the Study of the Presidency, have released their third in a series of articles comparing the Presidential candidates positions on various aspects of health...
August 15, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (0)

Managed Care Redux - by Brian Klepper

Like democracy, managed care is a great idea. It's just that its rarely been tried. Even so, my guess is that its about to re-emerge in a new, improved form, and possibly with some other name. If the signs around...
August 15, 2007 in Brian Klepper, Health Plans, Hospitals, Physicians, Policy, Policy/Politics, Quality, THCB, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLICY/POLITICS: In which I try to make sense of one Republican's uncaring careless approach to health care policy

I’m up at Spot-on trying to make sense of Giuliani on health care. George W. Bush decided that the way to save his presidency from irrelevancy was to threaten a veto of a bipartisan extension of the Childrens Health Insurance...
August 13, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

POLITICS/POLICY: Hillary kicks idiot butt

I’m not exactly a huge Hillary Clinton fan, but this brief video of her responding to an idiot questioner calling universal medicine “socialized” is pretty funny! Almost more amusing is that there was a Republican in the audience of African-American...
August 10, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLICY/HEALTH PLANS: SCHIP passes the Senate, but I think for now Medicare Advantage is safe...for now

A version of SCHIP that doesn’t touch Medicare passed the Senate last night. It has a veto proof majority. Of course it now has to be reconciled with the house bill that raises more taxes and cuts Medicare Advantage. So...
August 3, 2007 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

POLICY/INTERNATIONAL: John Cohn puts the boot in....nicely

I told John Cohn a while back that he was just too nice, and that he shouldn’t engage in the pointless argument with the free-marketeers about whether we treat cancer better or worse than the Europeans—especially as we do so...
July 30, 2007 in International, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (30)

POLICY: Great new site--Health08.org, and more on health IT in the election

Health08.org - Health care election news, analysis and events from KFF. And it’s the baby of someone THCBers know and love but we can't identify in public because the individual concerned used to have opinions, and KFF isn’t allowed to...
July 27, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY: Carmona rips White House

Richard H. Carmona, Surgeon General (and new Healthline Board Member BTW) rips the Bush Administration which made him Surgeon General. He says it’s happened for a while, but apparently according to Koop, Satcher and other Surgeon Generals, it’s worse under...
July 11, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

POLICY/POLITICS: Giuliani sorta has a health care plan

Great. So the fake hero who made millions out of talking tough has a fake health care plan. About as rational as Bush’s and very similar. Giuliani has blasted Hillary Rodham Clinton and the other two top Democratic contenders for...
June 8, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHARMA/POLICY: War on drugs a loser

A major Canadian paper is saying something rather sensible--"War on drugs a loser".
May 29, 2007 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/POLITICS: Wyden gets a noted conservative to join him

Ron Wyden’s interesting universal health care proposal, which is essentially a variant of managed competition with an individual mandate that decouples employment from insurance is getting some support. And notably it has a major Republican, Bob Bennett from Utah, signing...
May 7, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

HEALTH PLANS/POLICY: Ignagni--arguing out of both sides of her mouth, with UPDATE

My favorite lobbyist has a letter in the NY Times. In which she argues that beneficiaries save money compared to regular Medicare, and (this is the fun part) if payments are reduced then this will have to be reflected in...
May 7, 2007 in Health Plans, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY: Ezra Klein's The Health of Nations

Now I’ve met Ezra I can stop calling him the young punk. He has written another excellent review of health care in universal coverage nations, including socialized medicine in the heart of America for our allegedly most treasured citizens. It’s...
April 25, 2007 in International, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (13)

BLOGS/POLICY: WorldHealthCareBlog

I'm in DC at the World Health Care Congress where I’m writing about speakers like George Halvorson from KP talking about health care reform (he’s right but wrong) and Tadataka Yamada from the Gates Foundation talking about health in the...
April 22, 2007 in Blogs, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY: Criticizing Jonathan Cohn

OK, it's official. All this congratulatory fawing over Jonathan Cohn and his book Sick is getting to me, and I have a real criticism about him. And it's the topic of my column over at Spot-on today--Jonathan Cohn is Way...
April 20, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

POLICY/POLITICS: Pat Salber on gun laws

In the wake of yesterday's massacre in Virginia, here's Pat Salber about the gun massacre on campus. We need to empower and fund reputable organizations to perform the research on violence and violence prevention. (It has effectively disappeared from the...
April 17, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY: Go read Maggie Mahar at TPMcafe

The TPM Cafe Book Club debate about Sick goes on. This piece from Maggie Mahar is great, and not just because she quotes me twice (although that doesn't hurt!) -- Why Real Reform is Necessary--and Politically Possible. Go read!
April 12, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/POLITICS: Universal Health Insurance and the NY Times--all hail Jon Cohn (with brief UPDATE)

In recent months, not content with letting Judy Miller transcribe enough Cheney press releases to sink us into a $1 trillion dollar/3,000 lives and counting quagmire in Iraq, whomever runs the New York Times’ health care coverage has essentially handed...
April 1, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (14)

POLICY/POLITICS: Solving The American Health Care Crisis

Umang Malhotra has been in touch with me about his new book. There’s a summary article up on the web and details about the whole book. It’s called Solving The American Health Care Crisis.
March 29, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/POLITICS: Up at The Grauniad

My father would rolling in his grave if he wasn't still alive. I, yup the guy who voted for Thatcher twice, have been given a column on the venerable web site of The Guardian--the paper of the wet liberal lefty...
March 28, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLITICS/INDUSTRY: Oooh, vicious but beautiful.

From my favorite Cal health care economist Pisano is an HBS professor, and for HBS professors books are consulting platforms. A strong consulting platform must demonstrate knowledge of the sector (check), stroke the egos of industry leaders (check), profess a...
March 23, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/POLITICS: Looks Good, Doesn't Fly

Over at Spot-on (where I’ve been remiss in keeping up my remedial education work for the non-specialists) I’m up talking about optimism over recent polling results about the nation’s appetite for universal coverage reform— Looks Good, Doesn't Fly. As ever...
March 21, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (4)

POLITICS: Survey--wanna take it?

The nice people at SUNY Stony Brook want you to take a survey about political advertising on the Internet. The survey is anonymous. You will not be required to give your name. It should take 10 to 15 minutes to...
March 17, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLITICS: Powell's speech at HIMSS

I thought Gen. Colin Powell's speech at HIMSS was fantastic, funny, moving, intelligent, wonderful and hopeful. Lots of other people were cheerleading him too. However, what else I thought you can see over at Modern Healthcare.
March 15, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY: The Not So Common Good

Catching up from when I was gone....this article on health reform went up at Spot-on a couple of weeks back. It's called The Not So Common Good. We've been hearing a lot about the problems of the uninsured. We've been...
March 5, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

POLICY/POLITICS: Will Medicare Advantage get slashed? with UPDATE

Bob Laszewski has been, correctly, all over the issue of Medicare Advantage payments and what the Dems will do to them. And he’s at it again CBO Pours Gasoline on the Democratic Plans to Cut Medicare Advantage Payments to HMOs....
February 28, 2007 in Health Plans, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (10)

POLICY: Centrist democratic policy wonks talk shop

The Century Foundation has a discussion from a bunch of health care policy experts/pundits about the latest developments in the health reform “debate”. Given the large cast of characters (inc Aaron, Hacker, Relman and younger punks Cohn, Klein et al),...
February 14, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLICY/POLITICS: Wal-Mart & the SEIU

This is bizarre, but both Wal-Mart and the SEIU want the employer-based health insurance system to end. So apparently today they’re going to agree about that. Of course as Wal-Mart has a completely fungible workforce, any attempt to make it...
February 7, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/POLITICS: Spitzer calls a spade a spade w/UPDATE

Eliot Spitzer calls a spade a spade in his speech about reforming healthcare in New York. He goes after two of the biggest subsidized sacred cows: 1) Medicaid costs which are double the national average. In fact New York spends...
January 30, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (6)

POLICY/POLITICS: Spitzer has big health care reform plans

Eliot Spitzer has big health care reform plans. And why would he want to be left out of all the fun? Moreover, he has the big problem/opportunity of all that lovely WF&A in New York Medicaid
January 26, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (9)

POLICY/POLITICS: Bush's Health Plan

I'm up over at Spot-on discussing the basics of Bush's Health Plan. Go read and return to comment. I was awakened during my slumber through the State of the Union by a mention from President George Bush of a health...
January 25, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (105)

POLITICS: Obama seems to be coming at Clinton from the left

Although he’s regarded as a sell-out by Harpers, Obama seems to be taking the sensible tack that Hillary Rodham Clinton won’t survive the Democratic primaries based on her pro-Iraq war vote and her incrementalist health care strategy. Today he called...
January 25, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

HEALTH PLANS/POLICY: Meter Reading--How Regulation Might Fail

Today I’m up at Spot-on in a piece about the influence of big health plans on reform efforts called Meter Reading: How Regulation Might Fail. Maybe, just maybe, we're getting serious about health care. This week's news says yet more...
January 18, 2007 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (5)

POLITICS: Sacramento, We Have A Problem

Up at Spot-on I’m discussing Arnie’s plan — Sacramento, We Have A Problem. As ever, return here to comment. When looking at the Golden State's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and his attempt to fix health care, I am reminded of a...
January 11, 2007 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

POLICY/POLITICS: I love the guy's moxie

Say what you like about Arnold, but you got to give him credit for being a proper flip-flopper with real moxie. While Bush drowns in his stay-the-course quagmire, Arnold has repudiated basically everything he claimed to care about when he...
January 9, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (51)

POLICY/POLITICS: It's all the illegal Austrian socialist's fault

It’s all quite amusing. You wouldn’t know it, but there are no problems with health care in California, and what Arnie did yesterday was a display of showing his true feelings—a combination of handouts to illegal aliens and an introduction...
January 9, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLICY/POLITICS: Iraq, planning and the VA

In a op-ed in the LA Times, called The battle of Iraq's wounded Linda Bilmes points out that the number of wounded servicemen and women from the Iraq war/occupation is incredibly high relative to the 3,000 deaths. Something like 50,000....
January 5, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

POLICY/POLITICS: Health care reform all the rage

Arnie is yakking about health care. Over at Spot-on where I'll be penning a weekly column this year (honest!) I explain why it's mostly much ado about nuttin'. Well you can't trust these people, can you? No sooner than I'd...
January 3, 2007 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

POLICY: Peak Oil and Healthcare by Dan Bednarz, Ph.D

Dan Bednarz from Energy & Healthcare Consultants in Pittsburgh, PA is pretty concerned that you health care types don’t seem to be concerned about Peak Oil. What you say, you’ve never heard of Peak Oil? Better read this then! America’s...
December 31, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLICY/POLITICS: The looting of the taxpayer's pocket, part 731

Just worth reading this report to figure out how politics gets done, and how the Federal treasury gets looted drip by drip….especially right before the budget bill is sent to the President by a lame duck Congress (and it’s not...
December 15, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLITICS: Students interrupt Iran president

Students interrupt Iran president The president's speech was interrupted several times by students, ADWAR reported. Ahmadinejad responded by accusing the protesting students of having no shame and being on the payroll of the United States, according to ADWAR. But he...
December 15, 2006 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY/POLITICS/HEALTH PLANS: Igleheart, Glasscock, pussycats

After a little prompting (i.e. 30 minutes after I posted a blog comment asking why it wasn’t up) Health Affairs has posted a letter I wrote two days ago in response to John Iglehart’s interview with Larry Glasscock in its...
December 6, 2006 in Health Plans, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY/PODCASTS: Radio stardom

My erudite tones from the YourCall radio show on Monday--available streaming or in MP3 for download
December 5, 2006 in Podcasts, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLITICS/TECH: Fame and fortune and everythingthat goes with it

Today, (Monday) I’ll be on local NPR in San Francisco talking about what the Democrats may (or more likely, may not) do about health care in the new Congress. It’s on the Your Call show on 91.7 KALW at 10am...
December 4, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics, Technology | Permalink | Comments (0)

POLICY/POLITICS/HEALTH PLANS: A Stark future for private health plans in Medicare?

Here's the SF Chronicle on Pete Stark's opinion about Medicare Advantage Boiled down, Stark's contention -- based on a new Commonwealth Fund foundation study -- is that the private firms are being paid 12.4 percent more per patient than government-run...
December 1, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

POLICY/POLITICS/PHARMA: PhRMA sends the D out on the field

Even thought the White House will likely veto any change to Part D, the WSJ has started playing desperate defense on behalf of PhRMA. Apparently if we impose government price controls, it’ll cripple R&D and no new drug will ever...
November 24, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (30)

POLITICS: I love hypocrisy

Key Evangelical quits amid gay sex claim
November 3, 2006 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/POITICS: A Grim Anniversary

A Grim Anniversary: 20 years ago today possibly the worst single bill ever passed by the US Congress went into law. In the the hysteria over crack cocaine and the death of basketball star Len Bias (not from crack by...
October 27, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (2)

PHARMA/POLICY/POLITICS: More rational behavior from big Pharma

Exactly as happened in 2000, and 2002 a late surge of money is coming to help Republicans from the PACs of New Jersey’s finest. According to a report published Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, drug-industry dollars are helping to...
October 26, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (15)

POLITICS: Beyond belief!

I used to have a joke game called the “who’s Denny Hastert” game. Essentially none of my college educated friends in San Francisco and Silicon Valley knew who he was despite the fact that he was Speaker of the House...
October 17, 2006 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

PHARMA/POLICY: McLellan leaves offices with partisan and incorrect remarks about Part D

Someone should tell Mark McClellan that he was generally respected by everyone and that now that he doesn't work for the White House there's no need to become a Republican shill. But that's what he's doing by saying that Medicare...
October 17, 2006 in Pharma, Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLITICS/PHARMA: Bush Aides Called Evangelicals 'Nuts'

Apparently Karl Rove and friends think that the religious right is nuts A new book by a former White House official says that President Bush's top political advisors privately ridiculed evangelical supporters as "nuts" and "goofy" while embracing them in...
October 13, 2006 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (1)

POLICY/POLITICS: Econ 101

I’m up at Spot-on taking explaining very basic economics to the unwashed masses in a piece called Back To School, Business Week and no I didn’t get to choose the title. The main point is that health care is not...
October 6, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (3)

POLITICS/POLICY: Shock-Horror--I almost agree with Arnold Kling

Arnold Kling responds to Moulitas’ (DailyKos) overture to the Libertarians in a piece called Dear Libertarian Democrats... The only slight flaw in all this is that there aren’t very many libertarians, but then again we don’t need too many Republican...
October 6, 2006 in Policy, Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (7)

POLICY: The New York Times cannot leave its pustilent sore alone!

This one is absolutely beyond belief. This time the dog is licking its sore raw and just cannot stop. Two boneheaded articles based on Cutler’s work have run in the NY Times in the last few weeks, and required such...
October 5, 2006 in Policy/Politics | Permalink | Comments (8)