Health Reform in the House | Fact of the Day The Federal Government’s long-term fiscal shortfall is driven primarily by escalating health care costs.
(White House Office of Management and Budget) | Health Resources |
Under the Microscope ISSUE BRIEF: Setting Medicare Payment Policy
One of the issues that has emerged in health reform discussions concerns how to bring about change in the Medicare program to improve efficiency and control health care cost growth. This brief goes over the issues involved in giving greater authority to an independent entity to establish Medicare rates, and also reviews how Medicare payments are determined today. [Kaiser Family Foundation, 8/13/2009]
Health Care Headlines White House Enlists Help of Doctors in Health Care Overhaul
The White House is asking doctors to help promote its drive to overhaul health care, marking another effort by President Obama to regain momentum on one of his top-priority issues. [Boston Globe, 8/27/2009] Hospitals May Benefit From Health Reform
Hospitals may gain as much as $16 billion over a decade from the Obama administration's proposals to overhaul the healthcare system. [Bloomberg News, 8/27/2009] Cooperatives' Record Weighed in Health-Care Debate
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), a pivotal lawmaker in the health-care debate, wants to deliver coverage to the uninsured by starting up new cooperatives modeled on rural electric cooperatives that were founded during the Great Depression. [Washington Post, 8/27/2009] Health Reform: Looking Back at LBJ and Medicare
The Democratic proposals being debated this year could lead to the biggest shift in federal health care policy since the advent of Medicare in the 1960s. [Wall Street Journal, 8/27/2009] Letters To The Editor: Mr. Steele's Health-Reform Distortions
By Ron Pollack, executive director, Families USA
Michael S. Steele's Aug. 24 op-ed, "Protecting Our Seniors," showed that the Republican National Committee chairman has a great future ahead of him -- as a writer of fiction. [Washington Post, 8/27/2009] OPINION: Health Care For Animals
By Nicholas Kristoff
Opponents suggest that a “government takeover” of health care will be a milestone on the road to “socialized medicine,” and when he hears those terms, Wendell Potter cringes. [New York Times, 8/27/2009] OPINION: Is True Health-Care Reform Doomed?
By Allan Sloan, senior editor at large, Fortune Magazine
One of the good things about spending vacation time away from the computer and second-by-second news is that it's easier to see the big picture. And one thing that came into focus during my recent beach time -- and is even more clear today -- is that the health-care "reform" making its way through Congress has disaster written all over it unless there's a clear, understandable and affordable public option in the final version.
[Washington Post, 8/27/2009] COMMENTARY: How Insurers Do and Don't Compete
By David Leonhardt
Insurance executive often claim that they operate in a competitive market. [New York Times, 8/27/2009]
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