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 (13)

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)

Hiding In Plain Sight: Using Medicare To Solve The ‘Public Option’ Conundrum

By JEFF GOLDSMITH As Senate and House Committee versions of health reform move toward unified legislation and floor votes, the most complex political challenge is how to resolve the “public option” controversy. While one would have thought weightier issues such...
October 21, 2009 in Jeff Goldsmith, Medicare, Public Option, Reform | Permalink | Comments (53)

Health Reform and Medicare: Part I

By THOMAS L. GREANEY Here’s a pop quiz on health reform: Which prominent Republican said the following: And if you don’t [oppose this health care legislation] and if I don’t do it, one of these days you and I are...
September 30, 2009 in Medicare, Public Option, Reform | Permalink | Comments (9)

Not Really an Option

By GARY NISSEN To: Executives leading U.S. Hospitals The public option appears to back in the national dialogue and I’m wondering how concerned you all are about that. After all, many of you have been quite successful at minimizing the...
September 13, 2009 in Economics, Hospitals, Public Option, Reform, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (16)

Public Still Backs the Public Plan

By MERRILL GOOZNER The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that President Obama in his speech tonight will renew his support for including a public plan option in health care reform. He will also endorse an individual mandate, which could...
September 10, 2009 in Public Option, Reform | Permalink | Comments (34)

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)

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)

Time for a Closer Look (and Lower Costs)

By ROGER COLLIER One of the effects of the exaggerations, misinterpretations, distortions, and downright lies about Congressional health care reform proposals—mostly from far-right politicians and their hangers-on—has been to deter more objective analysis. In fact, two key features of the...
September 1, 2009 in Congress, Medicaid, Medicare, Public Option, Reform, Roger Collier | Permalink | Comments (3)

Health Reform Bills Would Be Great For the Business Of Health Care

By ROBERT LASZEWSKI Editors Note: This piece by veteran THCB contributor, Robert Laszewski, first appeared on Kaiser Health News. The piece is republished here with permission. Have you noticed how none of the big health care business special interests is...
August 29, 2009 in Public Option, Reform, Robert Laszewski, The Industry | Permalink | Comments (17)

Neither Quick Nor Easy

By THOMAS L. GREANEY The idea of establishing regional cooperatives, advanced as an alternative to President Obama’s public plan option, has attracted attention as a means of assuring that health reform legislation contains some means to improve competition among health...
August 22, 2009 in Cooperatives, Policy, Public Option, Reform | Permalink | Comments (9)

Are Cooperatives a Reasonable Alternative to a Public Plan?

By TIMOTHY S. JOST First, a word about history. We have tried cooperatives before. During the 1930s and 1940s, the heyday of the cooperative movement in the United States, the Farm Security Administration encouraged the development of health cooperatives. At...
August 20, 2009 in Cooperatives, Health Plans, History, Public Option, Reform | Permalink | Comments (9)

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)

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)

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)

Speculators Bet Reform Won’t Hurt Industry

By DON JOHNSON Speculators seem to be betting that a watered down health insurance reform bill won't hurt health insurers, hospitals, drug makers or medical device and supply manufacturers. Stocks for almost all of these health sectors and for exchange...
July 27, 2009 in CBO, Congress, Economics, Public Option, Reform | Permalink | Comments (18)

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)

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)