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| Features and Opinion Learn what experts think about the current trends in the health care industry and the steps already being taken towards health care reform. Interested in contributing to this page? Please contact us at editor@reformplans.com.
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Watch the Democrats, Part II - CJR |
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Trudy Lieberman, Columbia Journalism Review, May 27, 2008
A story in The Hill a few weeks ago, which we reported on, offered some grim comments from members of the Senate about prospects for health reform that have reverberated. Among others, they reverberated with Ezra Klein at The American Prospect, who commented on the senators’ comments and later that day ran two follow-up clarifications from Senator Jay Rockefeller and Senator Max Baucus. Rockefeller had originally said: “We all know there is not enough money to do all this stuff. What they are doing is…laying out their ambitions.” Baucus had told The Hill that the groundwork for reform was being laid through hearings, but he projected an uphill battle ahead. “If they try to solve all the problems, it’s going to be difficult.”
Klein called their offices and gave space for clarification on his blog and, in the spirit of blogosphere conversation, that’s what he should do. Rockefeller’s press secretary said: “It’s not that we shouldn’t do health care, but we need to be realistic that we’re broke.” He added that the senator’s position is to take priorities (presumably health care) off the budget—which requires that if programs are added, others must be cut to pay for them—and find other ways to finance the new stuff. That’s the story reporters should follow. Will Rockefeller take the lead and find the money, or is his statement just more empty words?
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SCHIP: The Bush Admin.'s Effort to Preserve Childrens' Private Health Insurance - Heritage Found. |
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Nina Owcharenko, The Heritage Foundation, May 20, 2008
In August of 2007, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid released a directive on the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP). The directive keeps the program focused on its core population—low-income uninsured children—and pays particular attention to the impact that SCHIP expansions have on existing private coverage.
The SCHIP statute describes the purpose of the program as assisting uninsured low-income children. Although there is some disagreement over its interpretation, the statute defines "low-income" children as those children whose family income is at or below 200 percent of the poverty line. In an effort to keep the program focused on uninsured children, the statute also includes provisions to ensure that the program does not substitute for coverage under a group health plan and to inform parents, through outreach efforts, of the possible availability of private coverage.
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Addressing Japan's Health Care Cost Challenge - McKinsey Quarterly |
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The McKinsey Quarterly, May 2008
At first glance, Japan's health care system, like its people, seems to be in remarkably good shape. The country's National Health Insurance plan provides generous universal coverage. The Japanese suffer relatively low rates of disease and have among the highest life expectancy in the world. Moreover, spending on health care is lower than in most Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, thanks to strictly controlled reimbursement levels.
But Japan, like many other economically advanced countries, faces mounting health care expenses that will be difficult to support using current methods. MGI research suggests health care spending in Japan could double as a proportion of GDP within 30 years, with advances in medical technology, growing wealth, and demographic changes driving the increase. The financing gap is so large that policies on which Japan has relied in the past, such as increasing co-payments, will not be sufficient to close it.
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Against Obama, McCain Has a Lot of Ground to Make Up In Health Care - HCPMR |
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Robert Laszewski, Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review, May 15, 2008
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 care?"
The answer was Obama by 55% and McCain by 31%.
And this poll was done a few days after his much publicized week-long health care tour.
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The Republican Health-Care Surrender - The Wall Street Journal |
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Dick Armey, The Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2008
Former House majority leader Dick Armey attacks Republicans, and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley in particular, for not sticking with traditional Republican strategies for health care reform and getting the government and other third parties "out of our health-care business" by "expanding Health Savings Accounts, allowing people to buy insurance across state lines, doing away with tax policies that encourage third-party payment systems, and by embracing health care price disclosure."
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DTCA for PTCA: Crossing the Line in Consumer Health Education - New England Journal of Medicine |
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William E. Boden and George A. Diamond, New England Journal of Medicine, May 14, 2008
These authors note that a TV advertisement last November for Johnson & Johnson Cordis division's Cypher stent was the first such ad for a medical device. "But in making the leap from pharmaceuticals to medical devices, the ad campaign raises important questions regarding the net societal benefit of medical advertising directed at the lay public. Even if there is an overall benefit from the unfettered transmission of information in a free society, has industry crossed the line this time?" the authors ask.
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Health Plans Taking Over Health Management - World Health Care Blog |
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Scott MacStravic, World Health Care Blog, May 12, 2008
In the early days of health management (HM), whether for employees (EHM) or insured populations (PHM), insurers were among early adopters of the outsourcing approach thereto. Since insurance plans had plenty of work to do in marketing their offerings, paying claims, and managing utilization of care, they were quite willing to outsource HM to the growing number of specialized vendors of disease management (DM) or health & wellness programs (HW).
But there are increasing signs that insurance plans are reconsidering this decision, and “in-sourcing” HM as a major strategy and revenue-generating addition to their insurance offerings. For one thing, they have the large populations that can create the kinds of economies and qualities of scale that enable HM to be effective and efficient. For another, they are faced with employer clients who want, even insist on HM as a key element in their relationships with insurance plans.
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The Candidates on Health Care - Seattle Post Intelligencer |
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Grace-Marie Turner (The Galen Institute), Seattle Post Intelligencer, May 12, 2008
Turner analyses the health reform plans of presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain.
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State Health Reform and Human Services - Red Orbit |
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Bruce Goldberg, American Public Services Association, May 7, 2008
Goldberg argues that state health reforms offer an opportunity to rethink not just health delivery, but public services as well.
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"Healthy Americans Act" Could be the Compromise in 2009 - HCPMR |
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Robert Laszewski, Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review, May 5, 2008
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 tell you who will win the presidency but I am willing to make the bold statement that it will be a close election and neither very different approach to health care reform will enjoy any kind of mandate.
That will mean finding common ground between these very different approaches will be more than tricky.
But we may already have an outline.
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT) have crafted a health care reform plan that gives both sides the most important things each are looking for:
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The Cost of Health Care for Small Business - The Washington Times |
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Richard Burr and Lamar Alexander, The Washington Times, May 2,2008
Senators Burr and Alexander describe the financial challenges that American businesses and their workers are facing as health care costs skyrocket, and what we should do about this circumstance.
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Featured Podcast
Current State and Prospects for Consumer Directed Health Care
Kim D. Slocum, President of KDS Consulting speaks with Malorye Allison, editor-in-chief of ReformPlans.com.
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