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Tag: public planNewslettersOur 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.September 18, 2009
It's Not Over YetSenate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus spent much of the summer dancing with the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to figure out how to squeeze his health reform bill into its scoring framework and get a positive outcome. Surprise, surprise, he succeeded! The CBO said on Wednesday that the Baucus bill will lead to a "net reduction in the federal budget deficit of $49 billion" over the next 10 years and that 94% of Americans will have health insurance.
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Senate Finance Committee, Senator Max Baucus, Congressional Budget Office, The New York Times, Nicholas Kristof, Galen highlights, Utah, Utah Health Insurance Exchange, Forbes, Kaiser Family Foundation, Health Research & Educational Trust, employer benefits, insurance premiums, Joseph Antos, American Enterprise Institute, public plan, hospitals, private health insurance, Health Affairs, Dobson DaVanzo and Associates LLC, Steve Chapman, Chicago Tribune, Massachusetts, The Boston Globe, Massachusetts Medical Society, physicians, Craig Richardson, individual mandate, employer mandate, Commonwealth Care, uninsured, Tom Miller, Joint Economic Committee, pharmaceuticals, David Griller, Daniel Denis, SECOR, Canada, malpractice, Philip Howard, The Atlantic, retail health clinics, The Washington Post
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Health Reform August 11, 2009
Galen in the NewsAugust 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.
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USA Today, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, public plan, restaurants, calorie count
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Health Reform July 24, 2009
Stalling OutHouse leaders and the White House are working furiously to try to get a floor vote on health reform legislation before the August recess, but a rebellion inside the Democratic party and alarm bells from constituents are virtually certain to delay action until the fall. The American people are increasingly focused on the details of the reform plans making their way through Congress, and they don't like what they see.
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President Obama, news conference, The New York Times, Rep. Paul Ryan, Ceci Connolly, The Washington Post, individual mandate, John Fund, The Wall Street Journal, tax credits, uninsured, public plan, Senate Commerce Committee, National Review Online, New York Post, American Affordable Health Choices Act, Lewin Group, John Sheils, Randy Haught, The Heritage Foundation, The American Spectator, nonprofit hospitals, Bradford Gray, Urban Institute, Mark Schlesinger, Yale University, Health Affairs, consumer-driven health, Merrill Matthews, Institute for Policy Innovation, health ownership, John R. Graham, Pacific Research Institute, Medicare fee-for-service, California, America's Health Insurance Plans, Robert Coulam, Simmons College, Roger Feldman, University of Minnesota, Bryan Dowd, Medicare, Medicare Advantage
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Health Reform July 9, 2009
Fractures and FissuresWhite House and congressional leaders continue to work feverishly on a sweeping overhaul of one-sixth of our economy, but their efforts hit a number of road blocks this week, putting their rapid timetable and even passage of major health reform legislation in jeopardy. The week started with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel signaling that President Obama would be willing to negotiate over creation of a government-run health insurance plan. Mr. Emanuel said one of several ways to meet the president's goals would be to have a public plan as a fallback if the marketplace fails to provide sufficient competition on its own.June 19, 2009
BombshellsThe Congressional Budget Office told the Senate health committee its bill would cost $1 trillion over the next 10 years and would only provide health insurance for a net 16 million more people. It said 15 million would lose their coverage at work and eight million would lose coverage from other sources, leaving 36 million uninsured. Since the goal is to have virtually everyone covered with no deficit spending, this was a double whammy, especially since there is even more spending in the bill that the CBO hasn't yet scored.June 12, 2009
Trouble BrewingThe first Democratic bill in the hopper this week came from Sen. Kennedy's Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, taking 615-pages to turn most of whatever is left of our private health sector over to government. The normally-genteel Sen. Orrin Hatch was quoted in The New York Times this morning as calling the bill "the most liberal bunch of gobbledygook I've seen in my life -- a complete liberal mishmash of ideas." Keith Hennessey, director of the National Economic Council under President Bush, was the first to present a detailed analysis, which you can find here.
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HELP bill, public plan, mandate, AMA, Senate Finance Committee, Medicare, Patients' Choice Act, Paul Ryan, Tom Coburn, comparative effectiveness research, Federal Coordinating Council for Comparative Effectiveness Research, Massachusetts, Michael Tanner, Cato Institute, tax treatment of health insurance, Robert Helms, American Enterprise Institute, Tom Miller, Karl Rove, The Wall Street Journal, Jeffrey Anderson, Pacific Research Institute, Scott Gottlieb, Coleen Klasmeier, Canada, David Gratzer, Manhattan Institute
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Health Reform May 15, 2009
Health Care BrouhahaThe White House and its allies cheered on Monday when President Obama announced that six health groups had pledged to reduce the growth of health spending by 1.5 percent a year for the next 10 years. The president called it a "watershed event," saying that this could save as much as $2 trillion over a decade. But when the actual members of the organizations heard the news, all hell broke loose.
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Society for Innovative Medical Practice Design, MDVIP, Kevin Sack, concierge medicine, personalized health, AHIP, HDHP, HSA, high-deductible health plan, health savings account, comparative effectiveness, NICE, Britain, Imperial College School of Medicine, Karol Sikora, Eli Lilly and Company, John Lechleiter, innovation, private health insurance, Medicare, administrative cost, BNA, William Schiffbauer, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Yuval Levin, Jim Capretta, Economix, tax credits, National Review, physicians, American Enterprise Institute, Scott Gottlieb, Cato Institute, Michael Cannon, stimulus bill, The Wall Street Journal, tax treatment of health insurance, Uwe Reinhardt, Pfizer, Senate Finance Committee, public plan, National Health Insurance Exchange, mandates, Medicare Trustees Report, Nancy-Ann DeParle, America's Health Insurance Plans, American Hospital Association, health spending
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Health Reform May 8, 2009
Setting the Eagle FreeJack Kemp was a visionary leader with an enduring passion for liberty and an unfailing love for the American dream, and the airwaves have been filled this week with testimonials about him and his transformative ideas. I first met Jack Kemp in the 1970s, when he still was a relatively unknown member of Congress and I was a Washington correspondent for the San Diego Union. Jack had played football for the San Diego Chargers before being traded to the Buffalo Bills in 1962. San Diegans were interested in this man they knew as a star quarterback and who now was a congressman from Buffalo talking about cutting taxes to spur economic growth.
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Jack Kemp, Kemp Commission, National Commission on Economic Growth and Tax Reform, Unleashing America's Potential, comparative effectiveness, Senate Finance Committee, public plan, Walt Francis, FEHBP, The Heritage Foundation, Stuart Butler, Merrill Matthews, Council for Affordable Health Insurance, Steve Forbes, Forbes, Canada, Brian Lee Crowley, Atlantic Institute for Market Studies, GE, healthymagination, swine flu, Henry Miller, Hoover Institution, Scott Gottlieb, AEI, vaccines, Paul Howard, Manhattan Institute, Medicare, Medicaid, fraud, Jim Frogue, Center for Health Transformation
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