Opinion Column
Money, Medicine and Myths
I was on a phone call with fellow health policy types back during the presidential primary season when the conversation turned to pay-for-performance.
All Coverage
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Insurers Apply Different Methods In Making Coverage Decisions
Public and private insurance plans say they evaluate medical services for coverage by looking at published scientific research, rating the evidence and making comparisons based on effectiveness and safety. But their approaches vary widely in terms of transparency, comprehensiveness in reviewing evidence, openness to outside suggestions and explicit consideration of cost.
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Washington State Takes a Hard Look at New Treatments and Tests
A Washington state program decides whether to cover new treatments and tests by comparing them with the standard alternatives. If there’s no real difference, a panel of medical professionals can pick the least expensive. Decisions are binding for employees insured by the state, workers’ compensation claimants and patients in Medicaid, the state-federal program for the poor.
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Letter From Obama to Sens. Kennedy and Baucus
President Obama sent this letter to Senators Edward Kennedy and Max Baucus regarding health reform.
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Sen. Baucus Tells Single-Payer Advocates He Regrets There Wasn’t More Discussion Of Single-Payer Plan
Sen. Max Baucus told single-payer advocates Wednesday that he regrets not allowing more discussion of the single-payer plan in attempts at health care reform, but that it’s too far along in the process to consider it now.
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A Consumer’s Guide to Health Care Reform
How Congress decides several important issues could affect how millions of Americans get and pay for insurance and medical care.
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Daschle Gives Health Reform 50-50 Chance Of Passing
The man originally designated to run President Obama’s health reform effort debated President Bush’s HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt about possible overhaul legislation.
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Transcript of President Obama’s Remarks On Health Reform
President Barack Obama urges reform of the U.S. health care system in a meeting at the White House with Senate Democrats.
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Some Doctors Cut Deals With Struggling Patients
Doctors across the country are reducing their charges and offering payment plans to patients who have lost health insurance or income. This helps people stay well, but it also helps doctors maintain their practices at a time when many financially struggling Americans are deferring care. Patients who don’t pay their bills still run the risk of hearing from bill collectors.
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Opinion Column
Why Higher Taxes Will Improve Your Health
Already, you can hear the opponents of health care reform making a familiar argument: It will mean huge new taxes. Although they’re exaggerating–the tax hikes wouldn’t be “huge”–you should be willing to pay these new taxes. Happily.
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Family Budgets and Health Care: One Couple’s Story
Sixty-year-old Ron Gaston was a shipping and receiving clerk in Wichita, Kansas, who earned about $30,000 a year.
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The Cost of Cancer
This documentary explores the severe challenges cancer patients can face in paying for their health care even when they have private health insurance.
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NJ Hospital Fight Foreshadows Health Reform Challenges
A battle over whether to build a new hospital in northeastern New Jersey illustrates the formidable obstacles confronting President Obama and Congress as they try to mine savings from the $2.5 trillion health care system.
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Big, Small or Nothing At All? Three Scenarios For Health Reform
With the health care debate about to erupt on Capitol Hill, a look at three ways it could turn out.
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Opinion Column
Don’t Ignore Long-Term Care During Health Debate
Sen. Ted Kennedy is vowing to make long-term care insurance part of health reform. But even he has an uphill struggle to make sure it’s included in any broad-based bill.
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Opinion Column
Is Universal Coverage Comparatively Effective?
As congressional Democrats prepare to deliver on President Barack Obama’s goal of “expanding coverage to all Americans” an important question remains unanswered: is universal coverage worth the money? Not only is there “no evidence” to show that universal coverage is the most cost-effective use of our $2 trillion, the benefits may not exceed the costs at all.
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Message From Massachusetts: Insurance Requirement Can Provoke Anger
If Congress wants all Americans to get health insurance, it will have to win over people like Gary Cloutier, owner of Cloots Auto Body Shop in Westfield, Mass. He says he just can’t afford it.
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Health Care Reform Newsmaker Series: Sen. Max Baucus
This webcast features Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., at a Health Care Reform Newsmaker media briefing sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business.
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New College Grads Scramble For Insurance In Faltering Economy
Young adults who are ousted from their parents’ health plans are among the largest and fastest-growing groups of uninsured.
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Health Care Reform Newsmaker Series: Sen. Orrin Hatch
This May 7, 2009 webcast features Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), senior member of the Senate Committee on Finance, and ranking Republican on the panel’s Subcommittee on Health Care.
