Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

About half of those are the long-term uninsured, including those with jobs that simply don't offer insurance, said Len Nichols, a health economist who directs the health policy program for the New America Foundation. "They're literally an underclass."

If nothing is done now to control the costs of health care, the average family premium for employer-sponsored insurance in Wisconsin will jump by a staggering 83%, according to a report released by the New America Foundation. ...

McCain favors targeting problem areas, such as helping cash-poor subprime borrowers, strengthening student loans and having a gas tax holiday, while Obama prefers more traditional shot-in-the-arm stimulants including rebates and state budget relief funds, said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. "They are different approaches, and I don't have an opinion on which would work better. They actually are both crafted from a number of sensible plans," MacGuineas said. "And it's a very confusing economy, so nobody knows how to navigate… more

On a night when the convention’s stated theme was “securing America’s future,” speakers portrayed McCain as an unreconstructed hawk and Bush enabler, an outdated thinker who supported a war that distracted America from fighting al-Qaida in Afghanistan, empowered a hostile Iran and left the United States weaker instead of safer...

...The night also was a nod to what one foreign policy analyst, Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation, called “Pentagon-hugging” -- an effort to display a pro-military, pro-veteran Democratic Party. Veterans who spoke Wednesday accused the Bush… more

...[T]he economic slowdown means that more people who now are middle class could find themselves uninsured. It also means that more people are worried that they could lose jobs and their health insurance.

“It is a deep and growing -- and you could say even gnawing -- fear among the middle class,” said Len Nichols, director of the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute. LINK

"One of the reasons why the international stage is so important (in this campaign) is there's a sense of real doubt in the rest of the world about America," said Steve Clemons, a foreign policy blogger who writes "The Washington Note" and a policy analyst with the New America Foundation, a D.C. think tank.

Despite their differences over Iraq, Clemons said, both Obama and McCain want to prove to U.S. voters that they would represent a break with Bush style and doctrine and "restore America's prestige… more

Nearly seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States has not yet come up with a "coherent plan of action" to fight terrorism, Sen. Russ Feingold said Monday during a speech at the New America Foundation. "Instead, we remain mired in and distracted politically and financially by Iraq," Feingold told the audience. "As a consequence, many of the same serious problems that made us vulnerable to al Qaeda’s attack -- in strategic planning, institutional readiness and allocation… more

250 State Deaths Yearly Blamed on Insurance Gap

Nearly five people die each week in Wisconsin because they don't have health insurance, according to an estimate released Tuesday by a national group that supports universal coverage.

That figure - roughly 250 people a year - is based on an update of an estimate released in 2002 by the Institute of Medicine, an affiliate of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Len Nichols, a health care economist at the New America Foundation, described the… more

The leading presidential candidates' proposals on health care reform are more detailed - and perhaps more realistic - than those of past elections.

That could bode well for the chances of significant reform in the next four years.

"Both sides of the aisle give me hope that we are going to have an adult conversation," said Len Nichols, a health care economist at the New America Foundation, a research group that focuses on bipartisan approaches to public policy issues.

In the Democratic… more

Energy experts with Glendale-based Johnson Controls Inc. are busy crafting their first proposal aimed at winning a piece of an ambitious $5 billion plan to reduce global warming by retrofitting energy-wasting buildings in 16 of the world's largest cities.

Step one: Houston, one of the country's most polluted cities, where more than 270 buildings could see upgrades.

Meeting in Milwaukee last week, managers and experts from Johnson Controls offices around the country scoured slides of aging boilers and control systems in… more