On October 13, the day the Senate Finance Committee passed its version of health reform, the Health Affairs Blog held a roundtable on public opinion and health reform. Participants included Bob Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard; Chad Bohnert, director of marketing and e-commerce at Zogby International; Mollyann Brodie, vice president, public [...]

Editor’s Note: What follows is the transcript of a roundtable on public opinion and health reform that took place on October 13,  the day the Senate Finance Committee approved its version of health reform legislation. Participants included Bob Blendon, professor of health policy and political analysis at Harvard; Chad Bohnert, director of marketing and e-commerce at [...]

Editor’s Note: Tim Jost wrote 3 posts analyzing the House health reform bill HR 3962. The first looks at financing reforms, the second post delves into the public option, health insurance exchanges, and more.
In this final post, I will explore the remaining 1600 pages of HR 3962.  Although these provisions have received less attention (except [...]

HR 3962, the Affordable Health Care for Americans Act, hit the House floor with a thud Thursday morning at 1990 pages, almost double the size of the bill we last saw before the Energy and Commerce hearings at the end of July.  The bill incorporates, of course, amendments from the House jurisdictional committees, but also [...]

As Congress prepares for an historic floor debate over health care reform, those of us who have worked in the trenches to measure and improve the quality of care are watching with a mix of anticipation and concern. Reform has the potential to significantly improve the transparency and, ultimately, the quality of our system of [...]

Editor’s note: Health Affairs Founding Editor John Iglehart recently interviewed American Hospital Association CEO Rich Umbdenstock. The wide-ranging conversation, transcribed below, touched on the ongoing health reform debate, the evolving role of hospitals in community health, the effect of the economy on hospital finances, the evolution of integrated medicine, patient safety, workforce concerns, and other [...]

As Senate and House Committee versions of health reform move toward unified legislation and floor votes, the most complex political challenge is how to resolve the “public option” controversy.  While one would have thought weightier issues such as the shape of Medicare reform, the taxation required to support coverage subsidies, or the presence or absence [...]

Uwe Reinhardt’s assessment of President Obama’s address to Congress on health reform tops the list of most-read Health Affairs Blog posts for September.  Additional comment on all posts is always welcome. 

Grading The President’s Health Care Speech
by Uwe Reinhardt
Health Affairs Briefing: Bending The Cost Curve In Health Spending
by Chris Fleming
Regional Payment And Delivery Reforms: Critical To [...]

As anyone who has been observing recent goings-on in the Senate Finance Committee knows, moving toward universal coverage is no easy matter. No sooner did Finance Chair Max Baucus (D-MT) release his long-awaited Chairman’s mark of health reform legislation than he was pushed to increase the subsidies available to low- and middle-income Americans to purchase [...]

Patients with serious or advanced illnesses would be given more control over their care by language in health reform legislation passed by three House committees that would pay physicians, nurse practitioners, and other providers for counseling Medicare beneficiaries about advance planning for future care decisions.
That was the unanimous opinion expressed by three respected geriatricians at [...]

For decades, the United States and other nations have sought to tame the long-term growth of health spending.  Even as resources devoted to health care grow, they remain poorly distributed, and much of the health care purchased is of questionable value.  As the Obama Administration and Congress tackle health reform, expanding health coverage to millions [...]

The traditional summer break that provides members of Congress a respite from their official duties instead, in some areas, turned into a raucous, sometimes angry series of town hall meetings focused on the ambitious health care reform proposals of Democrats. The meetings have given reform opponents and advocates an opportunity to voice their opinions, although [...]

What exactly is the U.S. government’s role in health care and how might it change under health reform? What are the implications of slowing the rate of growth in Medicare spending and what would the impact be on beneficiaries? How do the issues involved in end-of-life care really look to the people and providers who live it?
These issues [...]

Editor’s Note: During his 47 years in the Senate, the late Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts was a lion of U.S. health care and health policy. We at Health Affairs, along with much of the rest of America, grieve at his passing.  We recently asked Democratic and Republican politicians, policy experts, and former Senate staff [...]

Editor’s Note: During his 47 years in the Senate, the late Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts was a lion of U.S. health care and health policy. We at Health Affairs, along with much of the rest of America, grieve at his passing.  We recently asked Democratic and Republican politicians, policy experts, and former Senate staff [...]

Tomorrow’s Health Affairs briefing, “Fact Versus Fiction: Key Issues In Health Reform,” will be covered live on Twitter. Posts from Health Affairs deputy editor Sarah Dine will appear in real time on the Twitter “channel” #healthreform with important points and content from the event.
You can follow the discussion on Twitter by searching on “#healthreform.” If you have a Twitter account, you [...]

Reforming the way health care is paid for and delivered in the United States is serious business. It deserves an equally serious discussion
rising above partisanship and hot air. 
Join Health Affairs, the nation’s leading health policy journal,
for a special conference on Key Issues in Health Reform: Fact vs. Fiction.
WHEN: Thursday August 20, 2009 – 8:30 am [...]

The “public plan” is today’s ultimate Rorschach test; different observers may see very different perspectives.  Particularly when the advocates leave loose ends, their opponents weave those untied threads as they will.  Nobody’s on firm ground so no concrete debate is possible.  Lots of smoke, hardly any light. 
It seems that there are some simpler clarifying questions [...]

Editor’s Note: In the post below, Uwe Reinhardt proposes to move from the present, price-discriminatory system of private-sector pricing of health services toward an all-payer system that could serve as a transition to an eventual system based on bundled payments per episode of illness for acute care, or capitation for chronic care.
In a response to Reinhardt’s [...]

Editor’s Note: In a separate post, Uwe Reinhardt proposes to move from the present, price-discriminatory system of private-sector pricing of health services toward an all-payer system that could serve as a transition to an eventual system based on bundled payments per episode of illness for acute care, or capitation for chronic care.
In his response below [...]