Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  Public Health
Article Date: 10 Sep 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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While mainstream news coverage is still a primary source of information for the latest in policy debates and the health care marketplace, online blogs have become a significant part of the media landscape, often presenting new perspectives on policy issues and drawing attention to under-reported topics. To provide complete coverage of health policy issues, the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report offers readers a window into the world of blogs in a roundup of health policy-related blog posts. "Blog Watch," published on Tuesdays and Fridays, tracks a wide range of blogs, providing a brief description and relevant links for highlighted posts.

Michael Cannon from Cato@Liberty calls a comment by National Center for Policy Analysis President and CEO John Goodman that anyone who has emergency department access essentially is insured "substantively problematic." Cannon also criticizes reactions from proponents of universal health coverage, saying that "a lack of access [to health care] doesn't bother them as much as a lack of coverage."

Igor Volsky of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room labels Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) convention speech critiquing Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's (Ill.) health plan as "fear-mongering" and uses results from Massachusetts health reform legislation to refute McCain's comments.

Beth Abbott on the Health Access Weblog reports on results presented at a California forum on consequences of the Medicaid proof of citizenship requirement. Abbott writes, "The consensus was that these requirements did nothing to contribute to the expansion of public health programs, streamline efficiency of the administration of government programs, or add meaningful deterrents to fraud or abuse in public benefits." A webcast of the forum is available on kaisernetwork.org.

The Healthcare Economist's Jason Shafrin discusses a National Bureau of Economic Research paper that examines negative consequences of health care fragmentation.

Conn Carroll of the Heritage Foundation's The Foundry discusses comments from Sen. Bob Bennett (R-Utah) and Grace-Marie Turner about the Healthy Americans Act, a bill co-sponsored by Bennett and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.). The comments came at a panel on health reform sponsored by the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs during the Republican Convention.

Joanne Kenen of the New America Foundation's New Health Dialogue points to a New York Times graphic analyzing the number of times major speakers used certain key words during the Democratic and Republican conventions. Kenen finds that "health" and "health care" were uttered more often in speeches from the Democratic Convention.

Jacob Goldstein from the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog discusses Walgreen CEO Jeffrey Rein's comment that the prescription drug market is "tight" and notes that the current economic climate is leading some patients to skip prescriptions.

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation.

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