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Our 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.

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August 28, 2009
Sen. Kennedy was both respected and liked by colleagues on both sides of the aisle during his remarkable 47 years in the Senate. While he always was firm in his liberal views and we seldom agreed with him, Sen. Kennedy did listen to his Republican colleagues and worked to forge compromises. That bipartisan spirit has been markedly missing during his absence from the Senate this year. The health reform legislation making its way through Congress is rigid and aggressively liberal, without any evidence of bipartisanship, and it is rightly facing a firestorm of opposition.




August 21, 2009
The tide has clearly shifted. I am back from nine days on the road, and in forum after forum, from Virginia to Illinois, to New Mexico, Louisiana, and Ohio, citizens are anxious about health reform and about the Obama administration's aggressive expansion of government spending. While Democratic leaders in Congress and the "Gang of Six" senators pledge to press on with reform, it is hard for me to see how members, especially Democrats in marginal districts, will be able to vote for any version of the bills making their way through Congress.




August 18, 2009
Lafayette, LA – A driving rainstorm did not dampen the spirits of 600 people who came to the Lafayette Public Library to tell Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) about their serious concerns over the threats that they believe “ObamaCare” presents to their health care. Sen. Vitter himself was late because of the huge traffic jam around the library. Citizens, some soaking wet, poured into the library, determined that their voices be heard. The parking lot was jammed, and the main auditorium filled quickly, with some people arriving at 1 p.m. for the 4:30 town hall meeting. Even with two overflow rooms set up, a couple hundred people could not get in.




August 11, 2009
August is a hot month in the health reform debate, and the news can't wait until next week's Health Policy Matters. I have had several op-eds published over the last few days. In today's USA Today, I was asked to take an "opposing view" to the paper's editorial about healthy eating. Congress already has passed regressive taxes on tobacco and is considering taxes on soft drinks and snack foods. Now the federal government wants to police restaurant menus to make sure they include calorie counts. This will increase the cost of restaurant meals, deter creativity and innovation, and inject government further into our lives.




August 7, 2009
I've never seen anything like the anxiety about health reform that is erupting in town hall meetings around the country. To say this is manufactured or organized by anybody totally misses the point of the genuine fear that people are trying to get across to their legislative representatives. On this point alone, I agree with New York Times columnist Paul Krugman who writes today that he "can't find any [previous] examples of congressmen shouted down, congressmen hanged in effigy, congressmen surrounded and followed by taunting crowds."










July 21, 2009

The biggest news is the letter sent to Congress by 13 of the nation's leading health care delivery systems, including the Mayo Clinic. President Obama has traveled throughout the country extolling the virtues of these integrated care delivery systems, saying that they deliver better value at lower costs and should be a model for the rest of the nation. The problem is, the legislation that already has passed two committees in the House could put them out of business.





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