The Health Care Blog

Senate Health Care Reform: Two Huge Problems, One Giant Red Herring

By ROGER COLLIER Pity poor Senator Harry Reid. Not only is he facing an uphill reelection fight in Nevada, but as Majority Leader, he must reconcile the health care reform bills from the Finance and the Health, Education, Labor and...
October 28, 2009 in Roger Collier, The Public Option | Permalink | Comments (13)

The Chairman's Mark - Good Ideas, Potentially Fatal Flaws

By ROGER COLLIER So, at long last, Senator Max Baucus has released his Chairman’s Mark draft health care reform bill for discussion by the full Senate Finance Committee. The 223-page draft bill is generally consistent with the “Framework for a...
September 16, 2009 in Medicare Advantage, Reform, Roger Collier, Senate Finance Committee | Permalink | Comments (3)

Happy Trails, Trigger

By ROGER COLLIER Okay, my apologies to Roy Rogers, but I was pleased to see in the New York Times that the idea of a public plan trigger is finally getting serious consideration by the White House and by Senate...
September 8, 2009 in Health Plans, Reform, Roger Collier, Senate Finance Committee | 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)

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)

House Health Care Reform: Ignoring the Elephant?

By ROGER COLLIER After some frantic last minute political gyrations and a lot of pressure from the President, House Democrats have announced details of their draft health care reform bill. Much as expected, the 852-page bill emerging from three House...
July 15, 2009 in Congress, Health Plans, Policy/Politics, Reform, Roger Collier | Permalink | Comments (26)

Has Harry Reid Torpedoed Reform?

By ROGER COLLIER Health care reform ran into new BIG trouble this week with a series of comments from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On Tuesday, Reid leapt into the middle of reform negotiations, telling Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max...
July 10, 2009 in Policy/Politics, Reform, Roger Collier, Senate Finance Committee | Permalink | Comments (13)

HELP! IS THE CBO GETTING SUCKERED?

By ROGER COLLIER In a comment on my previous post on the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions reform bill, tcoyote explained some of the political thinking behind what seem like totally spurious cost projections. While I can readily accept...
July 6, 2009 in CBO, Congress, Reform, Roger Collier, Senate HELP | Permalink | Comments (8)

HELP! This is Unbelievable

By ROGER COLLIER Key members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee announced on Thursday what they claimed were dramatically improved cost and coverage estimates for the latest version of their health care reform bill. Headed by Democratic...
July 4, 2009 in CBO, Congress, Medicaid, Reform, Roger Collier, Senate HELP | Permalink | Comments (36)

We Need Southwest Airlines!

By ROGER COLLIER Can price competition cut health care costs? There are lessons to be learned from the airline industry. Over thirty years, per capita health care costs, adjusted for inflation, have increased two and a half times. In the...
June 18, 2009 in Roger Collier | Permalink | Comments (11)

Designing an Effective Insurance Exchange. Or Not.

By ROGER COLLIER If health care reform legislation is passed, it will almost certainly include provisions for Insurance exchanges. Theoretically, these could be key to controlling costs and expanding access to coverage. In practice (and in addition to assumptions about...
June 13, 2009 in Economics, Roger Collier | Permalink | Comments (4)

The Great $2 Billion Cost Cut "Promise" Meets Another Obstacle

By ROGER COLLIER It turns out that the hospital, insurance and pharmaceutical organizations who announced with great fanfare a couple of weeks ago their plan to cut/maybe think about cutting* $2 trillion/maybe nothing* from their costs may have been even...
May 28, 2009 in Economics, Roger Collier | Permalink | Comments (16)

The Cost of Health Reform - $1.5 Trillion or ... ?

By ROGER COLLIER Putting the political cart firmly before the horse, the Senate Finance Committee heard testimony last week on how to pay for reform—before they had reliable estimates of how much it is likely to cost. It’s not that...
May 20, 2009 in Economics, Roger Collier, Senate Finance Committee | Permalink | Comments (3)

The Path of Five Fallacies

By ROGER COLLIER No, it’s not one of those Chinese operas from the Chairman Mao years, but rather my reaction to a recent report from the prestigious Commonwealth Fund. “The Path to a High Performance US Health System,” and its...
April 13, 2009 in Roger Collier | Permalink | Comments (24)