Centered Politics

A Bad Week for the GOP on Immigration

By Douglas Rivlin on March 4, 2010 2:35 PM

Immigration doesn't break cleanly along left/right, liberal/conservative, or Democratic/Republican lines. There are lots of pro-immigration and pro-immigrant conservatives and they come in different varieties. Likewise, there are lots of progressives with deep reservations about immigration reform and immigration in general. But the divisions the immigration debate creates on the right are deeper, more passionate, and much more destructive to GOP unity than the division on the left and the last few ...
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A Simple Theory To Explain Why Health Care Legislation Has Stalled

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on February 18, 2010 2:33 PM

I have a simple theory to explain why health reform legislation has stalled -- it is an echo of why the Clinton plan failed -- most Americans are ultimately unwilling to abandon today's imperfect system for a new one that would require them to adapt to changes that ultimately could prove more uncomfortable than the status quo.This has nothing to do with partisan bickering, timing, communications campaigns or any of ...
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A Progressive Game Changer: Immigration Reform in 2010

By Douglas Rivlin on February 11, 2010 2:55 PM

Progressives need a game changer. Assuming progressives have the twin goals of helping Democrats avoid a monumental defeat in November and positioning progressive policies to have more sway in the two- or six-years that remain of the Obama administration, progressives need an issue around which to mobilize and energize. Consider immigration reform. It builds coalitions on the left, divides coalitions on the right, and mobilizes Latino and immigrant voters who ...
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Portobello mushroom and chèvre stuffed spinach ravioli with walnuts and blackened leek crisps

By Allan Rivlin on February 10, 2010 1:20 PM

This dish is hand rolled and stuffed spinach raviolis topped with the walnuts and leek crisps, which are kind of like potato chips made out of burnt leeks, in a white wine and walnut oil sauce. Leave out the chèvre, butter, and parmesan and the dish is vegan. This dish is hard work, no doubt, but it's worth it. Allow about an hour for making the raviolis and an hour ...
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Would the Public Accept a "Generic" Provider/Hospital Network if Insurance Companies Offered One?

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on February 1, 2010 3:08 PM

Are health insurers interested in building a better mousetrap? If they came up with one, would consumers beat a path to their door?These questions are provoked by a recent Massachusetts study concluding that health insurance costs are rising because insurers are being forced to pay what seem to be abnormally high reimbursement rates to hospitals that have banded together to get greater bargaining power. It is fleshed out by health ...
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Is Health Reform the Third Rail of American Politics?

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on January 21, 2010 9:24 AM

And has evidence based medicine become the third rail of health reform?Consider what President Obama said to ABC News's George Stephanopoulos: "We know that we need insurance reform, that the health insurance companies are taking advantage of people," ..."We know that we have to have some form of cost containment because if we don't, then our budgets are going to blow up, and we know that small businesses are going to need ...
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The Excise Tax is Worth A Try

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on January 11, 2010 9:13 AM

The ongoing reform debate often tends to obscure a very basic fact - that insurance is expensive for groups of beneficiaries that consume a lot of care. Basically insurance premiums track the cost of care. Administrative costs and profits are merely icing on the cake. So it is impossible to have much impact on premiums without cutting care.A basic goal of healthcare reform is bringing costs under control, which will ...
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The Three Big Ideas of Alain Enthoven, Paul Ellwood and Jack Wennberg

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on January 2, 2010 1:57 PM

As negotiators work quietly to come up with a health reform compromise that is either the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning--depending on one's political perspective, it is worth taking a moment to consider the role of the three men who constituted the beginning of the beginning when they began agitating more than a quarter century ago: Alain Enthoven, Paul Ellwood and Jack Wennberg. The three big ...
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Lessons From the Health Care Debate For The Looming Immigration Debate

By Douglas Rivlin on December 23, 2009 2:52 PM

The legislative process is messy, with many ups and downs along the way if any significant or even incremental change is to be made against the (almost) immoveable forces arrayed against progress in Washington. As the health care reform effort moves closer to the end game that will now likely result in a bill signing at the White House, those progressives gearing up for the fight for comprehensive immigration reform ...
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The Lesson of Today's Health Care Debate Is That Most of Us Don't Find Health Costs Intolerable - Yet

By Jim Jaffe - Health Care Editor on December 23, 2009 9:21 AM

Successful enactment of health reform legislation using the Senate bill as the foundation would suggest that America remains a centrist country and that progress is a possibility as long as a majority of our elected officials are open to compromise and a few leaders have the patience and skill to find the center. The Senate health care bill does an impressive job of reducing the uninsured population, but is tentative ...
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