Health Policy

Is It Time for Malpractice Reform?

Erin Drankoski — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:12:00 -0500

Year after year, Republicans try to pass legislation that would limit medical malpractice awards. Fix the tort system, they argue, and we fix rising health-care costs. And year after year, Democrats resist placing arbitrary caps on awards to people who may have suffered from an egregious medical error. The fight plays out like a predictable old Western -- good guys versus bad guys. Depending on your politics, the villain is either the greedy doctor or the greedy trial lawyer.

Health reform invites a fresh look at malpractice. The Republican tort reform

ReidCare Remix | Slate

Cecille Isidro — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:02:00 -0500

Len Nichols, the economist who dreamed up this "level playing field" variation on the public option, says CBO's wrong—the public option won't charge higher ...

Where Stupak Leads

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 13:24:00 -0500

Last week, the debate over the Democratic health reform effort took a brief and unexpected philosophical turn. Bart Stupak, a pro-labor Catholic Democrat representing Michigan's 1st congressional district, managed to pass the Stupak amendment as part of the House health bill. Sensing that an insurrection among anti-abortion Democrats threatened to derail the legislation, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who ardently opposes restrictions on abortion, allowed Stupak to offer the amendment, and it passed by a wide margin thanks to Republican votes.

Critics at Dartmouth Assess Health Bills | New York Times

Cecille Isidro — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 12:20:00 -0500

In a recent blog post on the Web site of the policy journal Health Affairs, Dr. Wennberg, two other Darmouth researchers and the author Shannon Brownlee ...

Be More Like Medicare

Kate Schuler — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:27:00 -0500

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:

Healthcare and Abortion | HardBall (MSNBC)

Erin Drankoski — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:22:00 -0500

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News,

Study: Without Health Reform, Colorado Business Will Face Climbing Costs | Bizjournals.com

Cecille Isidro — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:21:00 -0500

The report was prepared by the New America Foundation, a Washington think tank, in collaboration with the Center for Colorado's Economic Future at the ...

Health Care and Values | NPR

Erin Drankoski — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:58:00 -0500

Will Health Care Reform Heal the Federal Budget?

Kirsten Gilbert — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 11:15:00 -0500

A New America Event
11/06/2009 - 9:30am

On November 6, US Budget Watch, a joint project of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and The Pew Charitable Trusts, hosted an event on the current health care reform debate, called "Will Health Care Reform Heal the Federal Budget?" The event focused on the fiscal implications of reform, specifically looking at costs, offsets, and the extent to which health care reform can "bend the cost curve." New Health Dialogue twittered the entire

US Health Care Reform Could Leave Implementation to States | California Healthline

Cecille Isidro — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:22:00 -0500

... medical care," Micah Weinberg, a senior research fellow in the California Program of the New America Foundation, argues in a Sacramento Bee opinion piece...