Two statistical “events” catalyze a lot of health reform debate every year: the Census Bureau’s annual estimate of those without health insurance, and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) actuary’s estimate of the percentage of gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to health care. We can argue about whether these are the two most [...]

Editor’s Note: Last week Health Affairs published critiques of the health plans put forward by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (IL) and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (AZ). Health Affairs also published a third paper outlining a way that the best aspects of the two plans might be blended in a compromise package.
In [...]

Editor’s Note: Last week Health Affairs published critiques of the health plans put forward by presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain. Health Affairs also published a third paper outlining how the two plans might be blended in a compromise. Here, three of the authors – Wharton economist Mark Pauly, Harvard economist Katherine Swartz, and economist [...]

Editor’s Note: Last week Health Affairs published critiques of the health plans put forward by Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (IL) and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (AZ). Health Affairs also published a third paper outlining a way that the best aspects of the two plans might be blended in a compromise package.
In the post below, [...]

Editor’s Note: The post by Dennis Cotter below addresses the way in which Medicare should incorporate erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (epoetin) into its composite-rate payment for end-stage renal disease treatment. Watch for subsequent posts on this topic from Amgen and others. 
Statement of the problem. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act (MMA) mandates that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) [...]

For further vetting of the presidential candidates’ health care proposals, health economics, and more, turn to today’s Health Wonk Review. This terrific edition of the best of health policy blogging is hosted by Jaan Sidorov of the Disease Management Care Blog.

As a nation, we have engaged in many debates and much discourse on how to improve America’s health care system. There has been an understandable focus on the well-trod issues, such as health costs, access, and the specifics of a number of health reform plans. Let me offer one more issue that I believe deserves [...]

Yesterday, Health Affairs published a set of papers that critiqued the health plans of presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama, along with a paper by Wharton economist Mark Pauly outlining areas of compromise between the two plans. [All three papers are free access online--extended through the election. Related content on Health Affairs Blog includes: a conversation [...]

Editor’s Note: The post below by Arnold Milstein is published in tandem with the release of Health Affairs’ Sept-Oct. 2008 issue, a thematic volume titled “Overhauling The Delivery System“ that focuses on medical  homes, retail clinics, and other models of health care delivery innovation. Future articles by Milstein will identify the four medical practices he refers to in his post [...]

Sooner or later, we are all patients. This past weekend a group of journalists, doctors, advocates, health center leaders, technology experts, professors, and – yes – patients, gathered at Airlie House in Virginia to share stories and insights along the journey to improve health and health care. The small conference, “Patients and Policy Narratives: The [...]

Editor’s Note: This post by Tom Miller of the American Enterprise Institute appears in tandem with last week’s publication on the Health Affairs Web site of an article by Jack Hadley of George Mason University, John Holahan of the Urban Institute, and coauthors, which estimates the cost of covering uninsured Americans. Miller’s post follows posts on the Hadley-Holahan article by Henry Aaron of the [...]

Over the summer, Health Affairs Blog posts on the Medicare Advantage debate in Congress claimed top spots on the most-read list for July and August. A late August post by Henry Aaron looked at how Obama and McCain would cover the uninsured. Another late August post by Len Nichols on calculating the cost of covering [...]