The global health literature is rich in studies of the challenges and intricacies of translating slivers of economic surplus from the industrialized countries into effective health, education, and development programs in the poorer countries to the south. Donors often express frustration over unpredictable behavior, byzantine politics, incomprehensible values, and an apparent absence of accountability on [...]

This week Robert Laszewski, a consultant with Health Policy and Strategy Associates, and a keen observer of the health policy world, launched his new blog — Health Policy and Marketplace Review. Its goal is to “provide an ongoing review of health policy activity in Washington, D.C. and the marketplace.” First week posts cover such topics [...]

For your holiday reading pleasure, we list here the top 10 “most-read” posts during the first two months of the Health Affairs blog. Thanks to all who joined the debate. Additional commenting is always welcome.
1. NURSES: 7 Myths About the Nursing Shortage
by Linda Aiken
2. HEALTH REFORM: Time for a Wake-Up Call
by Drew Altman and Robert [...]

Relations between hospitals and physicians are broken. Can they be improved by lodging accountability for cost and quality in delivery systems consisting of local hospitals and the physicians who work within and around them?
Extended hospital medical staff. The prospects for these still mostly virtual systems –- dubbed “extended hospital medical staffs” by Dartmouth professor of [...]

On Wednesday, Dec. 6, Health Affairs hosted a conference call among the authors of the primary papers in its Dec. 5 Web Exclusive package on hospital-physician relations:
Chris Fleming (communications manager, Health Affairs): You all wrote very interesting papers for our package on hospital-physician relations, and I thought I would start things out by just asking, [...]

In a Dec. 12 Health Affairs Web Exclusive [free access until Dec. 26], Kaiser Permanente Chairman and CEO George Halvorson and two other Kaiser executives put forward a plan to cover 85 percent of California’s uninsured, and 98 percent of Californians overall, within two years. The plan, which includes an individual mandate and additional assistance [...]

A new edition of Health Wonk Review is up on Rita Schwab’s MSSP Nexus blog. Rita introduces the biweekly round-up of the best of health policy blogging this way: “As health policy wonks (by the way, one of the definitions of wonk is “a student who spends much time studying and has little or no [...]

Beltway sages expect the health agenda for the 110th Congress to be crowded, especially in comparison with other recent sessions, and can identify without great difficulty a number of issues that are likely to loom large come January. SCHIP reauthorization and Medicare’s physician payment dilemma are on most pundits’ short list of inevitable preoccupations. The [...]

In a 2001 campaign at Yale University, students, scientists, and the organization Doctors Without Borders asked Yale to help increase access to the AIDS drug d4t in South Africa. Yale scientists discovered and patented d4t; the university subsequently licensed the drug to Bristol-Myers Squibb, which marketed it for $1,600 per patient per year. Under pressure [...]

Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA) has roared like a lion through much of his tenure as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. But he went out like a lamb this week in what was likely to be his last hearing as chair, notwithstanding that the subject was the vexatious problem of Medicare payment for [...]

The health insurance industry will continue to consolidate, WellPoint, Inc. chairman, president, and CEO Larry Glasscock told me in an interview published November 28 on the Health Affairs Web site [2-week free access]. Glasscock also cautioned, however, that health insurers could face new competition from financial services companies.

In a March 2006 paper in Health Affairs [2-week free access], Mark Pauly and colleagues describe some of the thinking behind the World Bank’s interest in experimental programs to foster the growth of private insurance in developing countries. The authors’ focus is on countries where per capita income is low, government resources are limited, taxation [...]

More than half of the nation’s uninsured residents are ineligible for public programs such as Medicaid but do not have enough resources to purchase coverage themselves, researchers from the Urban Institute report in a Health Affairs Web Exclusive [2-week free access] published November 30.