Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 22 Oct 2008 - 6:00 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.

The American Prospect's Ezra Klein discusses rationing of health services in response to Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag's recent mention of the placebo effect during a talk on health and behavioral economics. Klein asks, "If the care we're denying is of little value -- if it's no better than the placebo -- is saying no 'rationing care'? Or is it simply providing appropriate care?"

Michael Cannon on Cato@Liberty discusses news that Hawaii is ending its program to provide universal health insurance for children, saying the plan was too costly because some families dropped private coverage to receive subsidies and that canceling the program "[disrupts children's] coverage and care." Cannon continues that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's (Ill.) "health plan promises much of the same." Dennis Smith on the Heritage Foundation's The Foundry says, "Hawaii demonstrates the issue has become expansion of public benefit programs as a means of redistributing income rather than about making health care affordable."

Igor Volsky of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room blog discusses a new report on ways Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) health proposal would affect baby boomers. The report finds that when adjusting for premium variation by age, McCain's proposed health insurance tax credit would cover an average of 23% of the premium for a 60- to 64-year-old, as opposed to 84% for an 18- to 24-year-old.

Paul Testa on the New American Foundation's New Health Dialogue blog discusses a recent NAF report that examines the nongroup insurance market and the possible effects of McCain's proposal to let individuals buy insurance across state lines. Testa looks at problems with high-risk pools and guaranteed renewal policies and says additional reforms are needed for such a proposal to create a system "that prioritizes coordinated, high-value care over underwriting and marketing."

Julia Eisman on Families USA's Stand Up for Health Care discusses the connection between poverty and health status, saying, "As the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, it's not only the income gap that's widening, but a health gap."

Jacob Goldstein on the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog reports on the presidential candidates' agreement on a health policy issue: changing the way Medicare reimburses physicians from a fee-for-service model.

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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