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 [...]

On October 12 America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) released a commissioned report by Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC), “Potential Impact of Health Reform on the Cost of Private Health Insurance Coverage.”   The study reported that health care reform as envisioned by the Senate Finance Committee would raise the cost of private health insurance by 23 percent [...]

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 [...]

Preventing and more effectively managing chronic illness are critical national health priorities. Patients with chronic disease currently account for three-quarters of overall health spending. Multiple morbidities are common: More than half of Medicare beneficiaries are treated for five or more chronic conditions yearly. Nine chronic ailments account for nearly 60% of the recent rise in [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

On September 22, 1993, President Bill Clinton spoke to a joint session of Congress about the imperative of enacting health reform. It was a powerful speech. Clinton emphasized the need to fix a “badly broken” system that cost too much and left too many Americans without insurance. He eloquently cited stories of how ordinary Americans [...]

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 Fleming
Building A Health Marketplace That Works
by [...]

A post on the short-term easing of the nurse shortage and Uwe Reinhardt’s ”Modest Proposal On Payment Reform” top the Health Affairs Blog most-read list for July. The list also includes several posts addressing the ongoing health reform debate. Additional comment is always welcome.

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 [...]

Editor’s Note: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been deprived of needed resources and authority by Congresses and Presidents of both parties, former CMS acting director Kerry Weems said in a recent Health Affairs interview with the journal’s founding editor, John Iglehart. To follow up on this interview, the Health Affairs Blog convened [...]

Editor’s Note: The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been deprived of needed resources and authority by Congresses and Presidents of both parties, former CMS acting director Kerry Weems said in a recent Health Affairs interview with the journal’s founding editor, John Iglehart. To follow up on this interview, the Health Affairs Blog convened [...]

Editor’s Note: Dr. Patchin wrote the blog post below in her official capacity as Chair of the Board of Trustees of the American Medical Association.
Health Affairs recently published an interview with Kerry Weems, former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. In the interview, inaccurate statements were made about the role of the [...]

Health Affairs and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) are pleased to announce a new series of Health Policy Briefs aimed at providing clear, accessible overviews of timely and important health policy topics. The first brief explores the current debate over cutting payments to “Medicare Advantage” plans – the privately run health plans that now [...]

Over the past few years, policymakers, practitioners, and scholars have proposed several reforms to the health care system. These have included, among others, a systems focus, an engineering focus, and a collaborative focus. What these reports share in common is the recognized need for changes in the payment system to accompany changes in the delivery [...]

In June, Health Affairs Blog featured a series of guest posts on pay for performance and offered blogs from the Global Health Council meeting and Annual Research Meeting of AcademyHealth, both held in Washington, D.C. Sign up for email or RSS feed alerts to stay on top of new postings. Additional commenting always welcome.

Health Wonk [...]

No doubt that Teddy Kennedy’s dramatic return to the Capitol on Wednesday and the senatorial smackdown on Medicare that ensued were the stuff of legend. With Kennedy’s vote putting the Senate Democrats over the hump on cloture on S. 3101, nine Republicans who had voted against cloture last week pivoted to produce a potentially veto-proof [...]

Editor’s Note: Today, The Health Affairs Blog concludes a series of four posts on trends in performance measurement and performance-based payment in health care. The series focuses particularly on the increasing emphasis being placed on measuring and rewarding cost-efficiency. Arnold Milstein (below) and Howard Beckman contribute posts today. Last Thursday, James Robinson and Tom Williams weighed in.
Using the estimation methods published [...]