If you’re just reading the headlines, jobs and the economy have displaced access to affordable health insurance as the electorate’s top domestic concern with six months to go until Election Day. But digging a little deeper into the results of a new poll from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, it appears that voters also believe […]

By proposing to move away from the employer-based health care system to one emphasizing the individual market, Sen. John McCain (AZ), the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has set the stage for health care to become part of a major debate about government and the marketplace during this year’s election, Robert Blendon said May 5.
Blendon, a […]

Editor’s Note: In connection with the publication of its May/June issue, a thematic issue on health reform, Health Affairs organized a May 5 conference call on the role of health reform in the presidential election. The call was moderated by Health Affairs editor-in-chief Susan Dentzer. Participants included Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy and political […]

What role will the issue of health care reform play in the 2008 presidential election? How would the candidates control rising health costs and cover the uninsured, and how will the economic downturn affect efforts to expand access? Would the candidates’ reform proposals fix the health system’s flaws? What lessons can be drawn from previous […]

UnitedHealth Group officials may have been laying protective cover for themselves when they attributed poor first-quarter earnings to a sagging economy last week. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t also true, as United said, that business is bad because the company’s products are getting too expensive for a growing number of workers and companies. Coming within […]

Editor’s Note: Should drugmakers and medical device manufacturers be allowed to provide physicians with medical and scientific journal articles concerning uses of their products that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration? Recently, the FDA issued draft guidance that would permit this practice with certain regulatory restraints. In the post below, Jerome […]

Editor’s Note: Should drugmakers and medical device manufacturers be allowed to provide physicians with medical and scientific journal articles concerning uses of their products that have not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration? Recently, the FDA issued draft guidance that would permit this practice within certain regulatory restraints. In the post below, Scott […]

Americans need and deserve health information technology (IT). As the chairman and CEO of Verizon Communications Inc. and the only business representative on a federal commission to develop a strategy for health care IT standards, I have spent considerable time over the past several years promoting this technological necessity.  
In addition, Verizon helped found an unprecedented, […]

The State Children’s Health Insurance Program was supposed to be the MVP of various health care policy initiatives in 2007. SCHIP reauthorization, featured widely in conferences, at meetings, and on the Health Affairs Blog, had broad, bipartisan support uniting very strange bedfellows of all political stripes. Nonetheless, two bills for reauthorization were vetoed, and a modest extension keeps the […]

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series of posts on health and health care disparities that Health Affairs Blog is publishing in conjunction with the new March/April issue of Health Affairs on Disparities: Expanding The Focus, published with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Brian Smedley and Richard Epstein contributed earlier posts in the series, which will […]

Editor’s Note: This post continues the conversation in the Health Affairs Blog roundtable on the unsuccessful health reform effort in California. Below, Lucien Wulsin responds to the ideas expressed in the first round of California posts, which appeared last Wednesday and Thursday. You can also read and comment on response posts appearing today from Rick […]

Editor’s Note: This post continues the conversation in the Health Affairs Blog roundtable on the unsuccessful health reform effort in California. Below, Patricia Lynch responds to the ideas expressed in the first round of California posts, which appeared last Wednesday and Thursday. You can also read and comment on response posts appearing today from Rick Curtis […]

Editor’s Note: This post continues the conversation in the Health Affairs Blog roundtable on the unsuccessful health reform effort in California. Below, Ed Neuschler and Rick Curtis respond to the ideas expressed in the first round of California posts, which appeared last Wednesday and Thursday. You can also read and comment on response posts appearing […]

Editor’s Note: This is the fourth post in a Health Affairs Blog roundtable on the unsuccessful health care reform effort in California. Rick Curtis and Ed Neuschler, Patricia Lynch, and Rick Kronick are also participating in the roundtable. Follow-up comments from Curtis and Neuschler, Lynch, and Wulsin are posted.
Nearly 20 percent of Californians under age sixty-five […]

Editor’s Note: This is the third post in a Health Affairs Blog roundtable on the unsuccessful health care reform effort in California. Rick Curtis and Ed Neuschler, Patricia Lynch, and Lucien Wulsin are also participating in the roundtable. Follow-up comments from Curtis and Neuschler, Lynch, and Wulsin are posted.
A lot of heat, if very little […]

Editor’s Note: This is the second post in a Health Affairs Blog roundtable on the unsuccessful health care reform effort California. Rick Curtis and Ed Neuschler, Lucien Wulsin, and Rick Kronick are also participating in the roundtable. Follow-up comments from Curtis and Neuschler, Wulsin, and Lynch are posted.
Kaiser Permanente views the failure to put the health reform legislation developed by Gov. […]

Editor’s Note: This is the first post in a Health Affairs Blog roundtable on the unsuccessful health care reform effort in California. Patricia Lynch, Lucien Wulsin, and Rick Kronick are also participating in the roundtable. Follow-up comments from Curtis and Neuschler, Lynch, and Wulsin are posted.
Although stymied by economic woes and governance constraints unique to California, the […]

Comparing health systems, the growth of U.S. health spending, and proposals to fix Medicare physician payment topped the January-February 2008 most-read list for the Health Affairs Blog. Sign up for email or RSS feed alerts to stay on top of new postings. Additional commenting always welcome.

U.S. Worst At Beating Death From Treatable Illness
by Jane Hiebert-White
HEALTH […]

Editor’s Note: The following post by Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) comments on the projections of national health spending from 2007 through 2017, published today by Sean Keehan and his colleagues in the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary as a Health Affairs Web Exclusive. 
Although there’s a lot of explosive material in the latest National Health Expenditures forecast, […]

Editor’s Note: The following post by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) comments on the projections of national health spending from 2007 through 2017, published today by Sean Keehan and his colleagues at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary as a Health Affairs Web Exclusive.
The projection that health care spending will reach […]