Opinion
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Expert Comments: Proposed California Health Care Expansion Will Over-Burden Taxpayers
Opinion -(CHICAGO, Illinois - December 18, 2007) On December 14, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D) proposed legislation that would expand health insurance by increasing state payroll and cigarette taxes. -
Advances in Health IT – No Government Needed
Opinion -Health and Human Services Department Secretary Mike Leavitt has taken a special interest in Health IT (health information technology). He advocates requiring Medicare providers to use e-prescribing and e-records. -
SCHIP Reauthorization Loses Focus
Opinion -"SCHIP Legislation: Not good enough" (Sept. 26) fails to address what reauthorizing the State Children's Health Insurance Program actually means. 2. -
Minnesota Disclosure Law Sparks Controversy
Opinion -A law passed in 2006 requiring pharmaceutical companies to disclose financial connections to Minnesota medical practitioners is stirring controversy in the state's medical community. -
Experts Praise SCHIP Veto
Opinion -Paul J. Gessing, president of the Rio Grande Foundation, says it's a welcome change: "I'd take the big-picture view that it is great news that President Bush has decided, even if belatedly, to embrace fiscal conservatism. -
Proposed Interstate Compact Would Lower Costs, Uninsurance Rates in Maine
Opinion -On September 7, The Maine Heritage Policy Center released a model bill it says would lower health insurance and health care costs statewide by making a greater range of insurance products available to the state's residents. -
Pharmacy Reimbursement Bill Stalls in Congress
Opinion -Community pharmacy owners nationwide watched with concern this autumn as U.S. House Energy & Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell (D-MI) delayed scheduling hearings for federal legislation that may make or break their businesses' future. -
Study Identifies States’ Health Policy Reform Successes … and Mistakes
Opinion -On September 4, a public policy research group in Kansas released a study showing which health care reforms are--and are not--working in other states. -
Cancer Society Turns Ad Campaign Toward Politics
Opinion -Faces of Americans flash across the television screen as a narrator says, "This is what a health care crisis looks like to the American Cancer Society: People with cancer but without insurance, countless others with insurance, just not enough to cover -
Minnesota Becomes First State to Stop Billing After Medical Errors
Opinion -Minnesota's hospitals have formally agreed to stop charging patients and insurance companies for certain medical errors, such as operating on the wrong body part. As a practical matter, it's not really a huge change, hospital officials say. -
Fighting Back Against Junk Science
Opinion -In last month's column, I identified five groups responsible for perpetuating the fake consensus that pesticides pose a significant public health threat: the media, politicians, liberal advocacy groups, government agencies, and the organic food industry. -
Book Misses its Opportunity to Suggest Real Medicaid Reforms
Opinion -Making Medicaid Work: A Practical Guide for Transforming Medicaid Atlanta: SHPS and Center for Health Transformation, 2007 84 pages Available for free download at http://www.shps.com/medicaid/book/medicaid. -
Interest in HSAs Will Surge in 2008
Opinion -In late September the Washington, DC-based global consulting firm Watson Wyatt Worldwide identified "more health savings accounts" as a major benefit trend during the open enrollment season, the annual period when employees can adjust the benefits their -
Avandia Controversy Shows Dangers of Politics
Opinion -Ever wonder how much of a role politics might play in medicine? If you consider an event that took place this summer, you might start to think it's rather significant. -
Big Names Join HIT Game
Opinion -A group of employers including AT&T, Applied Materials, BP, Cardinal Health, Intel, Pitney-Bowes, and Walmart has created Dossia.org, an Internet-based personal health record. -
Drug Companies Asked to Disclose Too Much
Opinion -Drug companies are concerned about Minnesota's efforts to make them publicly reveal their financial dealings with doctors statewide--something many experts say is a valid concern. -
Europeans Refuse to Understand American Health Care System
Opinion -This autumn in Rome, I debated Italian politicians on national radio, tried to explain our health system to government and industry leaders in Italy, and spoke at a conference at the Vatican about the fundamental values of health care and the common good. -
Groups Combat Childhood Obesity through School Vending Machines
Opinion -Kindergartners through high school seniors will continue to see more low-calorie vending-machine drinks after a year-old agreement between the American Beverage Association (ABA) and the Alliance for a Healthier Generation (AHG) was left largely -
Groups Urge CMS to Pay for Anemia Drugs
Opinion -The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a resolution on September 4 asking the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to reconsider its July decision not to pay for anemia drugs. -
Hillary Clinton’s Plan Would Ruin U.S. Health Care
Opinion -What's past is prologue for the Hillary Health Plot, Part II. Just as she did in 1993, when she was the point person for the Clinton administration's health care reform proposals, Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) wants to rule your health care. -
Pressing Forward with Health IT
Opinion -A growing number of initiatives within the private sector, among industry groups, and at the state level to promote and adopt health information technology (HIT) have some analysts suggesting federal efforts have been less effective than developments -
States Sue Bush Administration over SCHIP Eligibility Reforms
Opinion -On October 4, four states filed suit in a New York federal court against the U.S. -
Universal Health Care Law Is Ineffective in Maine, Study Finds
Opinion -Maine's uninsured rate did not improve significantly between 2003 and 2006 despite a universal health care initiative passed in 2003, according to a report issued in late August by The Maine Heritage Policy Center. -
U.S. House Defeats Effort to Override SCHIP Veto
Opinion -On October 18, the U.S. House of Representatives defeated an effort to override President George W. Bush's veto of H.R. 976, the Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2007.
