Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance;  Pediatrics / Children's Health
Article Date: 28 Jan 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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

The American Prospect's Ezra Klein says now is "an excellent time to reform and simplify Medicaid." He recommends making "it a primarily federal program, with states able to use state money to expand categories or add services."

Igor Volsky of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room looks at ways health information technology spending can help improve primary care infrastructure.

John Goodman of his eponymous Health Policy Blog lists examples of "direct-pay markets" in health care, under which he says providers compete based on cost and quality.

Sarah Dine on the Health Affairs Blog looks at provisions of the current SCHIP reauthorization and expansion bills and how they differ from the 2007 vetoed proposal.

Peter Neupert of Microsoft's Neupert on Health discusses his testimony on health IT before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee where his main message was that reformers "should really focus on the health outcomes we want to achieve, not just on the technology itself."

Paul Testa of the New America Foundation's New Health Dialogue reports on speaker presentations at a Kaiser Family Foundation event on children's health coverage. A webcast of the event is available online at kaisernetwork.org.

Jonathan Cohn of the New Republic's The Treatment looks at whether Democratic House leaders would support health reform legislation this year following a statement from Majority Whip Rep. James Clyburn (S.C.) that he does not expect "comprehensive health reform" legislation in 2009. Cohn says that "news that Pelosi and other senior [members] expect legislation this year is an encouraging sign."

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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