Health Reform
Government is taking over health care
Sometime next year government will overtake all other payers and fund more than half of all US health care, according to actuaries at CMS. Last year health care consumed 17.3% of our economy, the largest one year climb since 1960. We spent $282 million per hour last year on health care. Just government’s share of…
Read MoreQuality and Valerie Jarrett at Families
Regions of the US with higher health care spending actually have worse health outcomes, according to Elliott Fisher from Dartmouth. Friday’s Families conference started with a fascinating plenary about the disconnect between what we spend on health care and what we get, followed by concrete guidance for providers who want to improve the quality of…
Read MoreSen. Frankin stars at Families conference
In describing opponents of health care reform, Minnesota Senator Al Frankin reminded advocates at yesterday’s Families USA conference of a quote by former Speaker Sam Rayburn, “Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.” He characterized the opponents as having bumper stickers with only one word – No.…
Read MoreSecond wind for health care reform
My second day of visiting Capitol offices found mainly optimism and people really taking a breather. The President’s State of the Union speech last night helped. The Houses and the White House are talking although no one expects this to happen anytime soon. I heard about the seven stages of grieving from more than one…
Read MoreCapitol Hill visit – What about reform?
I’m spending this week at the Families USA pre-conference meeting of advocates from across the states. We thought we’d be talking about how to implement health care reforms (and we still are talking about that), but politics got in the way. We have also been fanning out across Capitol Hill, reminding our legislators that the…
Read MoreCheshire/ Wallingford LWV health care forum features Congressman Murphy
There were concerns that Saturday’s forum on health care might get ugly, but thankfully everyone stuck to the issues – what should Congress do now about health care reform. Congressman Murphy said that health care is a very personal, hot button issue and it should be. We have to look very hard at what we…
Read MoreIf national health reform happens, how will it affect CT?
Passage of a national health reform bill appears uncertain. However under any scenario, if it happens, Medicaid will expand significantly. At least 100,000 more CT residents could become eligible for the program that has struggled in our state. The CT Health Policy Project has drafted a list of policy and design questions that need to…
Read MoreJanuary web quiz – national health reform and Connecticut
Test your knowledge of how national health reforms will help Connecticut. Take the January CT Health Policy Web Quiz.
Read MoreNew report finds CT will gain 225,000 new insured if national health reform passes
A new report by Families USA finds that in ten years CT will have 225,000 more insured residents than we do now if the Senate Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is passed. Without it, our uninsured numbers will grow by 58,000 to almost 400,000. The number of uninsured residents in our state is already…
Read MoreHow reducing health care costs could work
Many pundits have criticized the national health reform bills because they don’t do enough to reduce costs – to “bend the cost curve” – and deride the pilot programs to test cost cutting innovations. But an article by Atul Gawande in the latest New Yorker magazine describes how government sponsored pilot programs reduced skyrocketing food…
Read More