Health Affairs

Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series of posts by Timothy Jost on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  Earlier posts have analyzed some important guidances, as well as provisions governing state waiver requests, student health plans, premium review, medical loss ratios, insurance exchanges, coverage for pre-existing conditions, appeals of coverage denials, coverage for [...]

In the December issue, Health Affairs published a series of papers on the effects of self-referral by physicians for imaging services. Princeton economist Uwe Reinhardt spotlighted the set of papers in a Christmas Eve blog post in the New York Times’ Economix blog: A fascinating narrative on how private health insurers and Medicare have both [...]

Editor’s Note: This is the latest in a series of posts by Timothy Jost on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.  Earlier posts analyze provisions governing the medical loss ratio, insurance exchanges, coverage for pre-existing conditions, appeals of coverage denials, coverage for preventive services, a patient bill of rights, grandfathered plans, tax-exempt hospitals, the small employer tax credit, the [...]

The busy daytime schedules of office-based primary care doctors, coupled with limited access to primary care services, have led a large number of Americans to seek care in hospital emergency departments, even when the problem may not be an emergency.  According to a new study in the September issue of Health Affairs, more than a quarter [...]

As Americans start to understand the concrete benefits contained in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), public attitudes about the new law will become more favorable. That at least is what the Obama administration is counting on. The administration has worked to quickly begin some of those benefits – such as a ban [...]

The Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to vote today on the nomination of Sherry Glied to be the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the Department of Health and Human Services. The President nominated Glied, a professor and chair of the department of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public [...]

Reducing Medicare Part D drug prices requires careful tools, not simply the power to negotiate

Here in DC we’re bracing for the storm of the century — snow storm, that is.  What better time to catch up on some health policy reading? We list here the top 10 most-read posts from January on Health Affairs Blog. Topics cover health reform, health care costs, the mammography guidelines controversy, and more. And [...]

We offer readers the annual “top 10″ list of most-read posts from Health Affairs Blog. Health reform topped the list in 2009. If you missed any of these posts, here’s your chance to catch up on your reading. Propaganda And Prejudice Distort The Health Reform Debate by Merton Bernstein Nurse Shortage Eases Under Recession by [...]

The January 2010 edition of Health Affairs focuses on long-term services and supports and the challenges of ensuring affordable, high-quality care to people with disabilities, including many of the nation’s aged. The journal has invited key lawmakers and leading experts in aging and health policy to discuss the policies and new approaches needed to address [...]

A new policy brief from Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation explores a key aspect of landmark health reform legislation passed by the House of Representatives: the proposal for a government-run public health insurance plan. The brief lays out details of the plan, including who could enroll, who could receive subsidies to buy [...]

Both the new House health reform bill and the Senate Finance Committee bill, despite their best efforts, have to impose some taxes on some taxpayers; they cannot get all of a trillion dollars of subsidies for insurance out of Medicare.  But they differ on what and whom to tax: the House proposes to tax well-off [...]

Narrative Matters recently brought together 80 writers, journalists, and academics to celebrate the Tenth Anniversary of Narrative Matters.  There was much to celebrate: over 150 Narratives published in Health Affairs that covered a spectrum of human stories set in the increasingly institutionalized health care system.  We came to celebrate the power of stories and storytelling in the [...]

There has been much debate about whether the various health reform bills being debated in Congress contain enough measures to reform the health care delivery system and slow the rate of growth in health care spending. Speaking at the Sept. 9 briefing held to release Health Affairs’ Sept-Oct issue, a thematic volume titled “Bending The [...]

Early in President Barack Obama’s speech to Congress about health care reform, he mentioned health care costs as one of the causes of the problem of lack of insurance coverage. But most of the speech focused on what to do about health insurance costs, not health care costs. Changing the rules about how insurance companies operate [...]

Health reform proposals and an examination of what’s working to control health care costs dominated the most-read posts on Health Affairs Blog in August. Additional commenting is always welcome. A Modest Proposal On Payment Reform by Uwe Reinhardt Low-Cost Health Quality Care In America by John Iglehart Obesity Spending Estimated at 147 Billion Annually by Chris [...]

The Problem. The treatment of lower-income workers and families eligible for employer coverage is a difficult challenge for health reform. Many of these workers struggle to afford their rising contribution requirements. Recent survey findings indicate that 38 percent of workers eligible for employer coverage and with incomes under 200% of the federal poverty level (FPL) [...]

Editor’s Note: Below is the transcript of a Health Affairs Blog Roundtable on Atul Gawande’s New Yorker article on McAllen, Texas, and variations in health care costs. The roundtable used the article as a jumping-off point for a wide-ranging discussion on the policy implications of cost variations, delivery system reform, and other topics. Participants included Robert [...]

Editor’s Note: In the post below, Amitabh Chandra responds to criticisms of the Dartmouth Atlas and offers his vision of the lessons of the Dartmouth findings on variations in health care costs and practice styles. Watch the Blog tomorrow for a roundtable discussion on Atul Gawande’s New Yorker article on McAllen Texas and the policy [...]

Editor’s Note: Health Affairs has recently published two studies looking at the association between hospital costs and quality. The first, by Ashish Jha and coauthors, appeared in our May-June issue, and the second by Laura Yasaitis, Amitabh Chandra, and coauthors, was published online. Variations in spending and intensity of care, and the effects of these [...]