August 13 Health Care Reform News
10 Steps to Better Health Care
WE have reached a sobering point in our national health-reform debate. Americans have recognized that our health system is bankrupting us and that we have dealt with this by letting the system price more and more people out of health care…Yes, many European health systems have done it, but we are not Europe. And evidence that places like the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota or the Cleveland Clinic are doing it is likewise dismissed because their unique structures (for example, their physicians work on salary rather than being paid for each service) make them seem as far from Middle America as Sweden is.
NY Times by Atul Gawande, Donald Berwick, Elliott Fisher and Mark McClellan
Additional Mayo Clinic health care reform coverage:
TOP STORIES
Alan Frumin May Rise from Obscurity to Craft Senate Health Bill
The Bloomberg Report
August 13, 2009
The central figure in Congress’s struggle to craft health care legislation may be someone who’s neither a Democratic nor Republican lawmaker or an elected official of any kind; he’s Alan Frumin, Senate parliamentarian.
Understanding How Americans View Health Reform
The New England Journal of Medicine
August 13, 2009
On health care issues, public support for change is shaped by the interaction of three factors: people’s perception of problems that affect the country, their assessment of their own current life situation, and their worries about their own future.
The Washington Post
August 13, 2009
An interview with Nancy-Ann DeParle'.
INSURANCE
Administrative Expenses of Health Plans
BCBS
August 13, 2009
Hitting back against claims that 30 percent of premiums pay for administrative costs, a new report that surveyed 36 plans showed only 9 percent of premiums went to cover admin costs.
TRANSPARENCY/SAFETY
The Debt and Health Care Reform
ABC News
August 13, 2009
Increasingly, citizens at town hall meetings are expressing concern over the government’s ability to pay for health care reform without adding to the deficit.
Health Reform Rhetoric Gets Personal for Britons
The Washington Post
August 13, 2009
Allegations lobbed at Britain's state-funded health care services have British health officials saying they are misleading, exaggerated, and sometimes just plain wrong.
WELLNESS/CHRONIC CARE
End-Of-Life Provision Loses Favor
The Wall Street Journal
August 13, 2009
A furor over a provision for government-paid counseling to plan for end-of-life care is steering lawmakers away from the issue
Four Ways Health Reform Can Improve Patient Medication Adherence
Healthleaders Media
August 13, 2009
Improving adherence is a significant link to addressing health reform.
STATE NEWS
Connecticut Officials Seek End to Increases in Health Insurance Rates
The Hartford Courant
August 13, 2009
Connecticut officials are calling for major changes in how rate increases are granted on individual health insurance policies.
REFORM EFFORTS
The New England Journal of Medicine
August 13, 2009
As a nation we will be far better off with meaningful health care reform than without it.
American’s Aren’t Going to Buy Health Care Spin Mr. President
USA Today
August 13, 2009
Why is President Obama letting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congress run health care reform into the ground?
Obama Injects Himself into Health Talks Despite Risks
The New York Times
August 12, 2009
In pursuing his proposed overhaul of the health care system, President Obama has consistently presented himself as aloof from the legislative fray; however, now he’s more involved in negotiating deals with industry.
Poll: Health Care Views Take Sympathetic Tilt
USA Today
August 13, 2009
In a survey of 1,000 adults taken Tuesday, 34 percent say demonstrations at the hometown sessions have made them more sympathetic to the protesters' views.
Why the Democrats are on Their Way to Blowing Health Care - Again
Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review
August 12, 2009
The Democrats chose partisanship over bipartisanship.
MEDIA AND ADVERTISING
Americans For Stable Quality Care
American Coalition
August 13, 2009
A new coalition has been formed, funded largely by PhRMA that could spend tens of millions of dollars in just a couple months to give the White House air coverage.
Health Care For America Now Expands Advertising in Six States
Health Care For America Now
August 13, 2009
National Campaign continues to urge key members of congress to support health care reform now.
EMPLOYERS
Plan B for Business Groups: Going Negative
Politico
August 13, 2009
Town halls could give cover to some big business players, who’ve shied away from challenging the White House, to turn their guns on the reform agenda and kill it - just like they did more than a decade ago.
HEALTH INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Modern Medicine: How Technology Will Transform Health Care Delivery
Fortune
August 13, 2009
How health care and technology industries can be brought together to solve one of this country’s greatest fundamental issues remains to be determined.
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