Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 14 Jan 2009 - 4:00 PST

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"Blog Watch" offers readers a roundup of health policy-related blog posts.

The American Prospect's Ezra Klein looks at a new Center for American Progress report detailing changes in U.S. health care since 1994. Klein also points to a poll that found a majority of U.S. residents said they would be better off if former President Clinton's health care plan had passed.

Michael Cannon of Cato@Liberty looks at President-elect Barack Obama's comments that he may eliminate the Medicare Advantage program and responds, "A man who wants to reform America's health care sector ought not begin the effort by proposing to take something away from seniors, America's largest and most politically active voting block."

Brian Klepper of the Health Care Blog hosts the most recent edition of Health Wonk Review, a biweekly compendium of more than two dozen health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology and managed care bloggers. A different participant's blog hosts each issue.

Bob Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review believes some health reform advocates' "'irrational exuberance'" could be "waning." He adds that in his "mind, bipartisanship is the only way health care reform can occur."

Health Populi's Jane Sarasohn-Kahn responds to a Families USA report that found many unemployed workers cannot afford COBRA premiums, saying, "In the U.S., job insecurity equals health insecurity. Without significant subsidies to buy into COBRA, most unemployed workers will also quickly morph into uninsured workers." Insure Blog's Henry Stern responds, "The truth is that very few people are truly uninsurable, but many (most?) folks don't know this, and so they don't even bother to look for alternatives to COBRA" in the individual insurance market.

Managed Care Matters' Joe Paduda gives his predictions for health insurance plans in 2009.

Jeff Emanuel of Red State examines challenges facing the FDA approval process and strategies to increase the number of new products approved each year. Emanuel also discusses the agency's Critical Path Initiative and its origins.

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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