Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 08 Oct 2008 - 9:00 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.

Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters suggests health care questions for tonight's presidential debate.

Shadowfax on Movin' Meat explains why he does not call access to health care a "right," but "a moral obligation for an industrialized society."

Paul Testa on the New America Foundation's New Health Dialogue discusses recent polls examining the public's attitudes toward and comprehension of the presidential candidates' health care proposals and concludes that "it seems imperative for the [politicians] to be clear also, laying out the specific differences."

Susanne King on Physicians for a National Health Program blog writes, "I agree with [Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.)] that it is time for a radical change in our health care system. ... But radical reform is useful only if it addresses the problems ... and McCain's plan does not do that."

Several bloggers discussed new ads and a speech by Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) that critique McCain's health plan, as well as a clarification from the McCain campaign that he would use large reductions in spending from Medicare and Medicaid to make the refundable tax credits provided under his health care proposal "budget neutral."

• The American Prospect's Ezra Klein surveys the Obama campaign's critiques and predicts that "future Republican candidates won't open themselves up to the same attacks. They will not take aim at the employer health market."
  
  
• Michael Cannon of the Cato Institute's Cato@Liberty examines statements in a new Obama ad, which he calls "false and misleading."
  
  
• James Kvaal on the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room writes that McCain's plan to use savings from Medicare and Medicaid to help pay for his health proposal "only delays -- rather than eliminating -- the tax increase on middle-class families." McCain's proposal would replace an income tax break for employees who receive health insurance from employers with a refundable tax credit of as much as $2,500 for individuals and $5,000 for families who purchase private coverage through their employers or the individual market. James Capretta on New Atlantis' Diagnosis Rx discusses McCain's proposed tax credit and points to a National Review Online opinion piece that critiques Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joseph Biden's (Del.) health care comments on the plan during last week's debate. In addition, John Goodman responds to Paul Krugman's recent New York Times column criticizing McCain's plan.
  
  
• The Health Care Blog's Matthew Holt asks why the Obama campaign has not linked health insurance rescissions in California with McCain's proposal to encourage more people to buy insurance on the individual market.
  
  
• Jonathan Cohn on the New Republic's The Plank says that "aggressively defining the health care issue now has one more advantage for Obama. It will let him use the waning stages of the campaign to build a mandate for reform."
  

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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