Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Public Health;  IT / Internet / E-mail;  Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 23 Jun 2008 - 1:00 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 new 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 the central role that he predicts the Senate Finance Committee will play in future health reform legislation and argues that progressives should shift the focus of lobbying efforts from the presidential candidates to committee members, specifically committee Chair Max Baucus (D-Mont.).

Igor from the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room blog discusses testimony from the center's senior fellow Jeanne Lambrew, in which she asks, "If private insurers can better meet our goals for the health system, why object to a level competition with public plans?"

Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag notes that focusing on the current effects of rising health care costs also might encourage consensus for addressing future health spending increases, which he calls "ultimately the nation's central long-term challenge in setting federal fiscal policy."

Conn Carroll of the Heritage Foundation's The Foundry -- in response to an opinion piece by Rep. Pete Stark (D-Calif.) praising a Medicare-For-All system -- says such a system would interfere with free market reforms and "encourage" fraud and waste.

Merril Goozner of Gooz News discusses a Journal of the American Medical Association commentary by Ezekiel Emanuel and Victor Fuchs about the overutilization of health care services and concludes the authors "shy away from the radical prescriptions" that Goozner believes are necessary to reduce health care costs.

Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review's Bob Laszewski reacts to news that insurer Coventry has seen an increase in its Medicare Advantage medical loss ratio for the second quarter and says that "either Coventry has lost control of their financials or the sector is seeing something big -- neither being a good development." Managed Care Matters' Joe Paduda blogs about a conference call with Coventry's CFO Shawn Guertin and discusses possible factors contributing to projected losses.

HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt continues his discussion of challenges facing lawmakers addressing fiscal concerns in the Medicare program in two more posts (here and here). Leavitt will submit the posts as minutes to the annual spring Medicare Trustee's meeting.

Michael Millenson from The Health Care Blog blogs about findings from an American Medical Association paper released earlier this week that found improving physician claims processing and reimbursement could save around $200 billion.

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn from Health Populi discusses recommendations of a new IBM report that finds health care systems in many countries are "unsustainable" because of health cost growth, problems with quality and medical errors, lack of access and increasing rates of chronic disease.

Elizabeth Carpenter of the New America Foundation's New Health Dialogue discusses why former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) might support an individual mandate for some Americans.

Jacob Goldstein from the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog discusses news that the state and its largest insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts, announced they will not reimburse physicians and hospitals for 28 preventable medical errors.

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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