THE DAILY DOSE: WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 2009

Under the Microscope

POLL: Public Opinion on Health Care Issues
As the legislative work of health care reform begins in earnest, the Foundation’s latest tracking poll finds a fair amount of stability in Americans’ attitudes towards possible changes in policy. Among the hallmarks of this public opinion picture are a significant level of difficulty in affording necessary care, a general desire to see health care reform pass and an openness to multiple methods of expanding coverage. At the same time, the survey suggests that support for features such as an employer or individual mandate is malleable in the face of one-sided oppositional arguments, and that willingness to pay a personal price for reform remains limited.
[Kaiser Family Foundation, June 2009]

Read coverage of this poll in the Seattle Post Intelligencer, The Kansas City Star, and at Center for American Progress.

STATE DATA: Health Care Competition
Even though there are over 1,000 private insurance carriers in the U.S, most states are dominated by one or two health insurance providers. This concentration limits employers’ and families’ health insurance options as well as the care they receive. View the Interactive Map here.
[Center for American Progress, June 2009]

Health Care Headlines

• Doctors Show Signs of Support for Obama’s Health Plan
  A day after President Barack Obama sought doctor support for his health reform plan, the American Medical Association talked Tuesday of meeting him at the bargaining table in support of some form of publicly funded health insurance option. [Chicago Tribune, 6/16/2009]
• Orszag Defends Health Care Plans Amid Criticism
  The Obama administration is proposing an ambitious overhaul of the health care system. White House Budget Director Peter Orszag says the transformation of the $2 trillion sector is unlikely to occur without some jostling or concerns being raised. [NPR, 6/16/2009]
• Obama’s Health Plan Needs Spending Controls, CBO Says
  President Obama's plan to expand health coverage to the uninsured is likely to dig the nation deeper into debt unless policymakers adopt politically painful controls on spending, such as sharp reductions in payments to doctors, hospitals and other providers, congressional budget analysts said yesterday. [Washington Post, 6/17/2009]
• Dems Pledge Lower Cost Health Bill
  Stung by Republican criticism of the $1.3 trillion price-tag on Sen. Ted Kennedy’s health bill, Democrats involved in Senate Finance Committee negotiations pledged Tuesday night to release a plan that keeps costs lower – but still about $1 trillion over 10 years. [Politico, 6/16/2009]
• First Work Session on Senate Health Care Bill
  Eye-popping new cost estimates for President Barack Obama's plan to overhaul the U.S. health care system are forcing majority Democrats to scale back their plans to subsidize coverage for the uninsured. [Associated Press, 6/17/2009]
• Dem, GOP Centrists Meet in Secret
  Centrist House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle are working together privately on healthcare reform. [The Hill, 6/16/2009]
• Pelosi Courts Centrists on Health Care
  Against Republican charges that they are engineering a government takeover of health care, Democrats have been trying to get centrists in their party on board as they put together their overhaul plans.
  [CQ Today, 6/16/2009]
• Health Insurers Refuse to Limit Rescission of Coverage
  Executives of three of the nation's largest health insurers told federal lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday that they would continue canceling medical coverage for some sick policyholders, despite withering criticism from Republican and Democratic members of Congress who decried the practice as unfair and abusive. [L.A. Times, 6/17/2009]
• When Health Insurance Isn’t Health Insurance
  In May, 2008, Robin Beaton, a retired registered nurse from Waxahachie, Texas, went to her dermatologist to be treated for acne. He mistakenly wrote down something on her chart that made it appear that she might have a pre-cancerous skin condition. [Time, 6/16/2009]
• Goodwill Works in Health Care
  Money is not the only source of political capital in Washington. Religious advocacy groups are using their store of goodwill to ensure that lawmakers address their paramount issue: long-term care.
  [Roll Call, 6/17/2009]
• Wellness Not Faring Well
  Innocuous sounding “wellness programs” that many employers would like to see included as part of health care reform legislation have sparked a lobbying campaign by disease groups, consumer organizations and unions. [Roll Call, 6/17/2009]
• OPINION: Health Insurance Exchanges: The Most Important, Undernoticed Part of Health Reform
  By Ezra Klein
  If I had to choose the most important aspect of health reform, it wouldn't be the public plan. Nor would it be the individual mandate, or the employer mandate, or the employer tax exclusion, or the Medicaid expansion. It wouldn't, in fact, be any of the issues that are dominating the political conversation. [Washington Post, 6/16/2009]
• OPINION: Achilles Heel of Health Care Reform
  By Bruce Bartlett, Former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy during George H.W. Bush’s administration
  The biggest problem facing health care reform has always been its cost. On Monday, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that Sen. Ted Kennedy’s bill would cost $1 trillion over the next 10 years and reduce the ranks of the uninsured by only one-third. [Politico, 6/17/2009]
• OPINION: More RXes Needed for Nation’s Ailing Health Care System
  By Norman Ornstein, American Enterprise Institute
  Health care reform is moving rapidly toward action, with both chambers of Congress deeply engaged and a substantial amount of interaction within and across committees, and with President Barack Obama becoming much more directly involved. [Roll Call, 6/17/2009]