Centered Politics: June 2009 Archives

Let's Put A Health Insurance Program in Place that Voters Will Want to "Mend Not End"

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on June 27, 2009 12:14 PM

One of the few certainties about health reforms to be enacted soon is that they won't repeal the law of unintended consequences. As President Obama has suggested, there will be need for further tweaks to compensate for surprises. The important thing is to put the program in place and to do so in a way that maximizes the chances voters will say "mend it, don't end it" when the ...
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Overtreatment is a Major Cause of America's Exploding Health Bill

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on June 24, 2009 10:24 AM | 3 Comments

Ever since the 1960s, there's been broad agreement within the health policy community that a major cause of America's exploding health bill is overtreatment - patients are being subjected to costly tests, procedures and drugs that don't do them any good. This insight is common to today's proposed reforms and recommendations originally made during the Nixon Administration to encourage the growth of health maintenance organizations where payments were not ...
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Compromise Needed To Pass Health Insurance Reform

By Sheri Rivlin and Allan Rivlin on June 21, 2009 9:46 AM | 2 Comments

Try telling conservatives that Barack Obama is no liberal and you just get blank stares. Reading their own talking points, they will never understand how one could possibly suggest that the president who has tripled the deficit and wants to socialize everything could be anything other than a liberal unless you want to call him a socialist. But liberals are certain Barack Obama is not a socialist and they ...
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The Role of Doctors in the Health Care Debate: Can We Afford the Bill?

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on June 18, 2009 9:33 AM

Single-payer advocates are painfully learning about the basic conservatism of America's political system and the truth of the sports metaphor that the game is played between the 40-yard lines. With each day, the debate seems to be getting even narrower. Today nothing not between the 47-yard lines is on the table. A key unasked question in today's constricted debate is whether any new law will strengthen or weaken physicians, ...
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Are We Learning From the "Correct" Failed Attempt at Health Reform?

By Greg Pierce on June 17, 2009 10:10 PM

President Obama, Secretary Sibelius, Senators Kennedy and Baucus, and Representatives Waxman and Rangel have each trumpeted their commitment to learn from the lessons of the failed 1992-1994 effort to reform our healthcare system. To that end, the President has limited the Administration's guidance to general principles - thus avoiding the sound of the 900-page thud left by First Lady Clinton's White House-led effort to draft a bill. Seeking to avoid ...
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Administrative Expense Deserves More Respect

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on June 7, 2009 12:41 AM

It appears that the only player in the health reform debate lacking a Washington lobby is administrative expense, the payments everyone loves to hate. Administrative expense deserves more respect, a reader noted in response to my argument that some public plans seem appealing because of their lower administrative costs. Spending more administrative dollars may be an important part of the solution. Spending less may make the problem worse. Think about that when ...
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Will The Real Public Plan Please Stand Up?

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on June 3, 2009 5:05 PM

The wonk's version of fantasy football is in full swing as we're treated to a debate about the absolute centrality of a public plan in any health reforms. On the left we have those who argue that the public plan is an absolute necessity if insurance is ever to become affordable to the millions who now lack coverage. The very existence of such a plan, they argue, will create ...
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Middle East Peace

By DavidV on June 1, 2009 6:01 PM

Filmaker David Vyorst ("The First Basket") shares a preview of his next documentary feature about people working on a local level to create relationships of peace in the Middle East. (Click "Continue Reading" to see the video.) ...
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June 2009 Archives