NYTimes.com

The Medicare payment reforms in both the House and the Senate bills will help to slow the growth of costs by rewarding value over volume, as will the proposed Medicare commission and the tax on insurers who offer high-cost health plans, which are in the Senate Finance Committee bill. And both House and Senate legislation also include “innovation centers” which will allow us to test different payment models and health care processes.

Even with these steps, the reform bills could be strengthened. Specifically:

From the Editors: "Where the Wild Things Are," a film based on Maurice Sendak’s classic children’s book, hit theaters on Friday. The book is loved by 4- and 5-year-olds, but this PG-rated movie may well be too scary for them.

Child development experts debate whether, when it comes to the big screen, live-action films are easier for preschoolers to identify with and enjoy than complex animation. But the live-action G-rated movie seems increasingly rare these days.

... modernized and will be healthier and even stronger over the long term for it," Steve Clemons of US think tank New America Foundation said in a recent ...

The health care drama in the U.S. Senate is cresting. After months of hearings--and decades of dithering--it is time to see if the United States is going to remain the only advanced industrial nation in the world that does not provide universal health care.

The recently approved new "drug" law in Mexico is in fact not a step toward decriminalization, but rather toward mandatory sentencing. Until last month, possession of small (unspecified) amounts of drugs was not a criminal offense in Mexico; only the sale or purchase was. The new law establishes a minuscule limit on legal possession, meaning that today, almost anyone caught carrying any drug is subject to arrest, prosecution and jail.

If anything, the new law criminalizes drug use much more… more

Len M. Nichols is director of the health policy program at The New America Foundation in Washington, DC The president made clear tonight that he is ... and more »

I don't think I commit sins with higher-than-average frequency, but after accumulating them for five decades, I could sure use a born-again experience. Just a quick cleansing and a fresh start.

Actually, make that four decades. In the mid 1960s, when I was 8 or 9, I did get born again. At a southern Baptist church in Texas, I felt the tug of God and responded to the altar call, and several weeks later got baptized. But within a few years I was losing my… more

“At the end of the day, these are robust human beings who occupy the Oval Office, and they are skilled with robust language,” said Ted Widmer, a presidential historian at Brown. Original article

A look at the big issues that will dominate the health care debate in the months ahead...

This video features Len Nichols, director of the Health Policy Program, at the New America Foundation. Link to video