THE DAILY DOSE: WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 2009

Daily Dose
For Immediate Release:
2009-07-22T00:00:00
Contact Info:
Katie Grant
Stephanie Lundberg
(202) 225 - 3130
Health Reform in the House

Fact of the Day

The national average for spending per Medicare enrollee was $8,304 dollars in 2006.
(Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy)

Health Resources

Under the Microscope

How Health Care Reform Can Lower the Costs of Insurance Administration
The United States leads all industrialized countries in the share of national health care expenditures devoted to insurance administration. The U.S. share is over 30 percent greater than Germany’s and more than three times that of Japan. This issue brief examines the sources of administrative costs and describes how a private–public approach to health care reform—with the central feature of a national insurance exchange (largely replacing the present individual and small-group markets)—could substantially lower such costs. [Commonwealth Fund, 7/16/2009]

Health Care Headlines

  • Obama Ups Ante on Health-Care Overhaul
    President Barack Obama is significantly raising his personal stake in the effort to overhaul America's health-care system, as Democrats and the public express growing unease about the costs. [Wall Street Journal, 7/22/2009]
  • Obama Seeks New Health Care Momentum
    The White House on Tuesday launched a full offensive to regain control of the health care debate, wooing conservative Democrats with promises of cost cutting and attempting to paint Republican critics as attack dogs blocking change. [Washington Times, 7/22/2009]
  • Blue Dogs See Signs of Hope
    Blue Dog Democrats announced Tuesday that they had reached a “significant breakthrough” with Energy and Commerce Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) and President Barack Obama to cut health care costs, but they added that they still have many issues to resolve before they can back the overhaul. [Roll Call, 7/22/2009] Read a related article.
  • American Medical Association Report Card Ranks Insurers’ Efficiency
    Doctors frustrated with medical claim denials issued a report card Tuesday of the nation's largest insurers. [Dallas Morning News, 7/21/2009]
  • Health Insurance Industry Spins Data in Fight Against Public Plan
    The industry that helped scuttle health reform 15 years ago with its "Harry and Louise" ads is back, voicing support for a central element of the Obama administration's plans: making sure everyone is covered. [Washington Post, 7/22/2009]
  • Like Car Insurance, Health Coverage May Be Mandated
    President Obama's dream of dramatically remaking the nation's health-care system is still a long way from reality. But if lawmakers can reach an accord, one thing is virtually certain: For the first time ever, every American would be required to carry health insurance. [Washington Post, 7/22/2009]
  • GOP Readies Summer Offensive on Health
    Congressional Republicans will use the next two weeks to cast the Democratic health care plan as a harmful tax on an ailing economy — and then plan to go for the jugular over the August break.
    [Roll Call, 7/22/2009]
  • OPINION: Imperfect Health Bill Still Beats the Status Quo
    By Steven Pearlstein
    Among the range of options for health-care reform, there's one that is sure to raise your taxes, increase your out-of-pocket medical expenses, swell the federal deficit, leave more Americans without insurance and guarantee that wages will remain stagnant. [Washington Post, 7/22/2009]
  • OPINION: Obama and Allies Must Not Dawdle on Health Care
    By Norman Ornstein, senior fellow, American Enterprise Institute
    The August deadline for a health care reform bill on the president’s desk was never realistic. But it was plausible to set an August deadline for two disparate bills passing the House and Senate, leaving a month or two to work out the kinks and come up with a compromise plan. [Roll Call, 7/22/2009]
  • OPINION: Voters Settle on a Public Plan
    By Mark Mellman, democratic pollster
    Sometimes Washington reveals just how detached it is by transforming an issue that is settled in the public mind into a matter of great controversy and contention. Ask anyone here to list the polarizing issues in the healthcare debate and the “public option” will shoot to the top. [The Hill, 7/21/2009]