Category: UShealthpolicy

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
Last Friday, the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum hosted an event titled “Impact of the 2008 Presidential Election on Health Policy.” Harvard professor Bob Blendon presented his analysis of exit polling results from the November presidential election. Stuart Altman, Phil Johnston, and Kerry Healey responded in a panel discussion on the […]

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
Families USA, a national health care advocacy group, has released a good news-bad news report. (Read article on boston.com) The good news is that the number of uninsured children has declined by about 6 percent last year. Nationally, about one in nine children had no health insurance in 2007, according to […]

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
On Thursday afternoon, the New England Alliance for Children’s Health (NEACH), the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and PricewaterhouseCoopers hosted a national broadcast of a town hall meeting with a panel of Congressional leaders, health care policy experts and a senior health care advisor to President-elect Obama, followed by a panel discussion […]

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
A Kos post has all the links on national reform from the past few days, and the latest news from Kaiser is here. But the videos are more fun. From the New Republic’s Jonathan Cohn, the Top 5 Reasons We Know Obama Is Serious About Health Care Reform:
And in case Obama’s transition […]

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
Today’s guest blogger is Michael Miller, Director of Strategic Policy for Community Catalyst
When Massachusetts passed it groundbreaking health reform initiative in 2006, few people anticipated the enormous influence it would have on subsequent policy debate across the country. Since then however, the “Massachusetts model” has been the basis for discussion in […]

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
Sen. Kennedy’s call in theWashington Post today draws on the Massachusetts experience to argue for national reform:
President-elect Barack Obama has issued a clarion call for action on health care. His practical and thoughtful proposals draw from our Massachusetts experience and add important measures to improve quality and reduce costs. His plan includes […]

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
In no particular order, here are some things we’re thinking about in relation to the new post-election administration and Congress:
1. Stimulus Bill - FMAP? Will Congress pass a new economic stimulus bill during a lame duck session, and will it include an FMAP increase - more Medicaid funds for states? For Massachusetts, […]

HCFA wrote:
I’ve been saving our “Health Care Humor” tag for when/if Mitt Romney is selected as VP candidate, and has to walk back from chapter 58, his campaign’s claim for his signal achievement, but this new statement from McCain health plan author John Goodman is too good to pass up.
He claims that anyone who […]

HCFA wrote:
I’ve been saving our “Health Care Humor” tag for when/if Mitt Romney is selected as VP candidate, and has to walk back from chapter 58, his campaign’s claim for his signal achievement, but this new statement from McCain health plan author John Goodman is too good to pass up.
He claims that anyone who […]

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
Health Care for America Now, a coalition including labor unions, large membership groups, DC think tanks, doctors, nurses, and leading online activists, is launching a $40 million campaign to push for quality, affordable health care for every American.
The campaign is being announced today with events in 52 cities. Elizabeth Edwards, wife of […]

noreply@blogger.com (Kevin) wrote:
Online chatter today that a President Obama might choose former Senator Tom Daschle as his Secretary of Health and Human Services. It’s way, way too early to speculate, and the main-stream speculation has been that Daschle would make an outstanding chief of staff.
This was in Congress Daily, a capitol hill insider newsletter:
“Former […]

Kevin wrote:
New report from the National Insitute for Healthcare Management: Understanding the Uninsured: Tailoring Policy Solutions for Different Subpopulations:
One in four people without health insurance in America are eligible for government-funded health coverage but have failed to sign up for any government aid program, according to a new study. The study, by nonprofit […]

Kevin wrote:
Yale political scientist and health reform expert Jacob Hacker has written an important post untangling the confusion many feel in the back-and-forth between Clinton and Obama over health care (read it here). Hacker explains how the virtually identical structure in both candidate’s plans have been hidden in the vitriol over their modest differences:
So […]

Kevin wrote:
Have you seen this past week’s Frontline documentary, “Sick Around the World: Can the US Learn Anything From the Rest of the World About How to Run a Health Care System”? If you haven’t, consider yourself urged to go the the PBS website and view it online — click here. Fantastic […]

Kevin wrote:
Those who pay extremely close attention to national Medicaid policy know the name, Dennis Smith, well; and he’s unknown to 99.999% of everyone else. Here’s a note from the Kaiser Daily Report:
Dennis Smith on Friday left his position as the director of CMS’ Center for Medicaid and State Operations, which he had […]

Kevin wrote:
Martha Coakley is weighing in against new CMS rules limiting the aiblity of states to expand their SCHIP eligibility levels. Excerpts from her release below:
BOSTON – Today, Attorney General Martha Coakley’s Office filed an amicus brief in the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey supporting New Jersey’s […]

Kevin wrote:
This slide is the summary of a short presentation detailing the steps that could (or could not) lead to national health reform in 2009. The presentation is by Drew Altman, President of the Kaiser Family Foundation. Here’s his explanation of the slides:
My aim here is to provide a simple visual aid — called […]

Kevin wrote:
This looks like it could be really good. The PBS series, FRONTLINE will present SICK AROUND THE WORLD on Tuesday, April 15, 2008, at 9 p.m. ET on PBS. Here’s part of the release:
Four in five Americans say the U.S. health-care system needs “fundamental” change. Can the U.S. learn anything […]

Kevin wrote:
Kudos to Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic Presidential candidate John Edwards, for taking on presumptive Republican Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain on the stark insufficiency of his health care proposal. Noting that neither she nor McCain, as cancer victims, would be eligible for private coverage under insurance rules which permit “medical […]

Kevin wrote:
Simmons College will host a national conference on women and health care reform, April 17 and 18. The conference is organized by Raising Women’s Voices for the Health Care We Need, a collaboration of the National Women’s Health Network, the Avery Institute for Social Change and MergerWatch. The goal is to inform and […]