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 NewslettersOur newsletter features a commentary by Grace-Marie Turner on the major developments and issues of the week as well as summaries of writings by participants in the Health Policy Consensus Group and other articles of interest from the health policy world, plus announcements of coming events. It is emailed in an HTML format from the galen@galen.org email address, via Constant Contact, and you may have to adjust your email settings and junk mailbox to ensure that you don’t miss an issue.1 2 3 4 5 Next >October 3, 2008
Massachusetts to San FranciscoMassachusetts has won another round in its effort to get U.S. taxpayers to help fund its experiment in universal coverage. Gov. Deval Patrick announced Tuesday that the federal government has approved an extension of its waiver, allowing the state to continue to provide Medicaid subsidies to people making as much as $63,600 a year. Federal taxpayers will be paying nearly $11 billion to help the Bay State fund its $21-billion health reform plan over the next three years.
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Massachusetts, McCain, Obama, San Francisco, biologics, Europe, health insurance, Canada, Medicare, Medicaid, vaccines
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Massachusetts September 26, 2008
Reality vs. RhetoricWhile the financial markets roil, the health reform debate is boiling up on the campaign trail where the reality of the policies that are being offered is out of sync with the rhetoric of the promises. While Sen. John McCain's health reform plan is being labeled as "radical" by many critics, in fact the changes that he is proposing are designed to save the private health sector and bring 21st century information and efficiencies to health insurance and health care.September 19, 2008
Health Credits and Drug ImportationHealth Affairs this week focused on the health plans of the leading presidential candidates, but misunderstanding and even misrepresentation of Sen. John McCain's health policy proposal continues to confuse the debate. Tom Buchmueller, Sherry Glied, Anne Royalty, and Katherine Swartz wrote a critique of selected aspects of the McCain plan but ignored key aspects of it which I believe would mitigate many of their criticisms.
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McCain, Obama, Health Affairs, tax credits, insurance, health credit, importation, Medicare, prescription drugs, health care reform, Canada, dentist, UK, Medicaid, premium assistance, SCHIP
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2008 Election September 12, 2008
Equality, Free-Riders, Elvis, and MoreCosts are the defining issue in the health care debate, and Brookings Institution economist Gary Burtless offers some revealing new data showing the remarkably equal distribution of health spending among Americans in all income categories.September 5, 2008
A Tale of Twin CitiesIn addition to all of the televised political activities this week in the Twin Cities, there also were a number of serious policy discussions taking place. I spoke at several of them, including forums on health care organized by Congressional Quarterly and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. More on those in a minute. But first, I attended a breakfast hosted by PhRMA at the Science Museum in St. Paul featuring Emmy Award-winning talk show host Montel Williams, who spoke about the pain and daily challenges of his 20-year struggle with multiple sclerosis.August 29, 2008
The Rest of the StoryThe Census Bureau's report on Tuesday surprised all of us, showing the number of uninsured had fallen last year to 45.7 million. But, as I wrote in my commentary for The Wall Street Journal, that's unfortunately not the whole story. The number of people with private insurance was flat (at 202 million), but because of population growth, there was actually a decline in private insurance in percentage terms.August 15, 2008
Cost, Cost, CostThe cost of health care is on everyone’s mind, so it’s nice to have good news to report: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported on August 14 that average beneficiary premiums for the standard Medicare drug benefit will increase by just $3 a month in 2009, to $28. That is 37% lower than the $44 a month that legislators estimated seniors would pay this year when the Medicare Modernization Act was enacted in 2003.August 8, 2008
Summer ShortsOur colleague Philip Stevens of the International Policy Network in London alerted us to an article in this morning's Times that offers fair warning to those who want to create a new government body to determine the effectiveness and value of new drugs, as many in the U.S. are proposing. The writer is Jonathan Waxman, a professor of oncology at Imperial College in London, who clearly is a die-hard fan of the British National Health Service. He began his article saying that "Our Government has been a fabulous custodian of healthcare…with a doubling in NHS spending" over the last decade.1 2 3 4 5 Next > |
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