Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 15 Sep 2008 - 5:00 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.

Louise of Colorado Health Insurance Insider writes in response to critics of universal health care who argue that a government-financed system would cause rationing and long wait times, and that the U.S. health system already rations care by ability to pay.

Arnold Milstein on the Health Affairs Blog discusses the use of medical homes to improve quality of care and reduce costs. Milstein cautions that, in order to achieve savings in the short- and long-term, medical home models should "explicitly incorporate features from existing primary care practices that achieve low total cost of care and favorable performance on other domains of quality."

Niko Karvounis of the Century Foundation's Health Beat Blog examines certificate of need laws, which enable states to regulate the construction of new health facilities, and discusses Republican vice presidential nominee Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's opposition to such regulations as governor.

Bob Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review writes that neither of the presidential nominees' health plans "has a chance of being implemented" and says that voters need to hear how the nominees would handle the "real world of health care reform."

Michael Miller of Health Policy and Communications Blog provides an overview of the federal Employee Retirement Income Security Act and discusses the challenges it presents to health reform.

The Healthcare Economist's Jason Shafrin continues his discussion of health care fragmentation, referencing a Commonwealth Fund report on improving quality.

Healthcare Manumission's John Joseph Leppard IV calls Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) health plan a "uniquely radical proposal for the paradigm of American health insurance purchasing" because it would remove the employer tax exclusion for health insurance and "encourage people to show the same cost consciousness and discipline as they do when shopping for other goods and services."

Managed Care Matters' Joe Paduda lists some advantages of a single-payer health care system compared to a universal system that utilizes private insurers.

Joanne Kenen of the New America Foundation's New Health Dialogue blog discusses California HealthCare Foundation President Mark Smith's comments at a Health Affairs forum that providers and regulators should reward medical and policy innovations that lower costs instead of viewing them as "threats." A webcast of the forum is available on kaisernetwork.org.

Joe Klein on Time's Swampland blog writes that McCain's health care proposal would increase taxes on health benefits and "do nothing for families with members who have pre-existing conditions or children with special needs -- because it makes no provision to regulate the insurers." Igor Volsky of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room writes that McCain's plan will increase taxes over time because his proposed tax credits for health insurance are indexed to inflation rather than the cost of health care. Volsky points to a Center for American Progress report that looks at the potential effects of the McCain plan.

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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