Health Affairs

The effort to cut federal budget deficits resembles nothing so much as the old movie serials in which each week the hero ran a gantlet of perils the last of which threatened imminent death or dismemberment.  Seven days later, the intrepid adventurer would somehow escape unscathed, only to repeat the cycle. The courageous crusader of... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: For more Health Affairs Blog coverage of the new Census Bureau health insurance data, see Nina Owcharenko’s post. Most of the newspaper coverage of the just-released Census Bureau data on health insurance coverage has focused changes in coverage between 2009 and 2010.  Since the advent of the Great Recession, the reduction in health... Read the rest of this entry »

In the mid-1990s, a number of health care analysts and some elected officials, worried about projected growth of Medicare spending, suggested replacing Medicare with flat dollar payments to Medicare beneficiaries.  These payments could be used to buy private insurance plans that the recipients preferred. Federal payments would be capped.  Individuals could buy any approved plan.... Read the rest of this entry »

Seven years ago, Stuart Butler and I joined together, a conservative/liberal “odd couple,” to endorse the idea that states should be empowered to take the lead on health reform.  As with many positions endorsed by strange bedfellows, our reasons for supporting that position differed. Stuart’s view, as I perceived it, was that states should act... Read the rest of this entry »

The chairs of the deficit reduction commission, Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, have put forward their draft plan for cutting the deficit.  More accurately, plans, since many of the elements are, to put matters kindly, vague We all agree that we have a daunting deficit problem that should be addressed soon. How soon is less clear.  “After... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: In the aftermath of President Obama’s State of the Union address, what is the state of health reform? Where do we go from here? In the post below, Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution addresses these questions. See also other posts on the same issues from Joseph Antos of the American Enterprise Institute and Timothy Jost... Read the rest of this entry »

After the August congressional recess, health care reform was on life support.  In a speech of remarkable force and eloquence on Wednesday night to a congressional joint session, President Obama made clear that he would use every resource available to him to assure that health reform survives to become law. The August recess had left... Read the rest of this entry »

Editor’s Note: This post by Henry Aaron of the Brookings Institution appears in tandem with today’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. Additional bloggers on the topic include Len Nichols of... Read the rest of this entry »