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. A new 4th post analyzes what changed in the bill the House approved Saturday night.
In this final post, I will explore the [...]

Editor’s Note: In addition to Arnold Milstein and Pranav Kothari (pictures and bios above), coauthors of this post include Rushika Fernandopulle MD, MPP, of Harvard Medical School and Renaissance Health in Boston, and Theresa Helle of the Boeing Company in Seattle. For more on health care delivery system innovations and reforms, see the Sept-Oct 2009 issue of Health Affairs, [...]

Two papers, released today by Health Affairs, provide a “reality check” about some of those living with chronic conditions who lack health insurance.
• Uninsured Adults With Chronic Conditions Or Disabilities: Gaps In Public Insurance Programs
By Steven D. Pizer, Austin B. Frakt, and Lisa I. Iezzoni
Who are the uninsured? Where do they live? To answer those [...]

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 [...]

In 2001, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a warning that this country was facing an “obesity epidemic.” Since that time, there have been public policy responses from all levels of government. Yesterday Health Affairs released three studies about municipal responses, one from Los Angeles and two from New York.
• Zoning For Health? The Year-Old Ban On [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Medical spending on conditions associated with obesity has doubled in the past decade and is estimated to have reached an annual rate of $147 billion in 2008, say researchers in a new study published July 27 on the Health Affairs Web site. The study was presented at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “Weight of [...]

At an 11:00 AM press conference on Monday, July 27, Eric Finkelstein of RTI International will discuss the findings from a new study on medical spending on obesity that will be published this morning on the Health Affairs Web site. Finkelstein will be joined by Thomas Frieden, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Bill [...]

It is often observed wryly that Americans have more interest in the well-being of their automobiles and pets than their own health. The challenges of activating patients to manage diet, lifestyle, and chronic conditions are well documented, and the accompanying costs of chronic illness are even more thoroughly characterized. The threats these pose to health [...]

For a long time, I have believed the greatest potential for Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) is in the treatment of chronic illness. I even wrote some fictional vignettes in a “vision” chapter in the National Center for Policy Analysis’ Handbook On State Health Care Reform, describing how HSAs might work for diabetics and other patients. [...]

Editor’s Note: There is widespread agreement that the nation’s primary care infrastructure is woefully inadequate. For example, at the Senate hearing on his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sen. Tom Daschle spoke of health care as a pyramid, with primary care at the bottom and specialized care at the top. He [...]

The current edition of the Health Wonk Review, the biweekly round-up of health policy blogging, is hosted by Jaan Sidorov of the Disease Management Care Blog. His post-inaugural HWR highlights many interesting posts on the SCHIP votes and more. And today, Sidorov highlights the newly published perspective by Louise Russell on the cost of prevention from the current [...]

Editor’s Note: There is widespread agreement that the nation’s primary care infrastructure is woefully inadequate. For example, at the Senate hearing on his nomination to be Secretary of Health and Human Services, Sen. Tom Daschle spoke of health care as a pyramid, with primary care at the bottom and specialized care at the top. He [...]

In a comparison of 18 countries, the United States ranked at the bottom for number of deaths that could have been prevented by timely and effective health care. Not only were U.S. rates among the worst, the rate of improvement from 1997-98 to 2002-03 was the smallest.

The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution was founded to advance opportunity and prosperity through broad-based growth, economic security, and effective government. Perhaps no issue is more important in all of these regards than health care.
Today we are releasing three specific proposals to promote affordability and effectiveness in health care. This summer we’ll release several [...]