Different polls, different questions – but people are worried about health care

A new poll, Inform CT Consumer Confidence Survey, finds that almost two thirds of CT residents are worried about health insurance affordability, up 12% in the last year. A new Gallup poll found that Americans’ perceptions of the health care and drug industries are the lowest among all sectors except the federal government. That means…

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New to the Book Club: Creating Scientific Controversies

It’s a shame that this book is written in the style of a textbook rather than for the general public, because we all need to hear David Harker’s message. Created scientific controversies surround issues where there is broad scientific agreement but the public’s perception is that there is uncertainty and doubt. The false controversies can…

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Reform is hard and Econ 101 doesn’t work

An article published today in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the challenges in health reform and why the usual, simple fixes aren’t working.  The article by Richard Bohmer, The Hard Work of Health Care Transformation, explains why changing financial incentives or governance structures aren’t sufficient to effect change. The status quo is very…

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CSG-ERC annual meeting in Quebec: States seek relief from rising prescription drug costs

The rising cost of health care is hitting hard across North America, both in houses of government and at home, around the kitchen table, where the cost of vital prescription drugs can too often make or break a household budget. From 2001 to 2011, health care spending by states jumped a staggering $5.1 billion across…

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Lots of hospital quality news, CT not excelling

  In the last few days several sources have released hospital quality rankings and measures. The bottom line — CT’s hospitals have a lot of work to do. CMS released their long-awaited five star system for hospital ratings, but no CT hospitals received five stars. In fact, only one earned four stars (Backus), 17 received…

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Updated CT Health System Primer online

Our Basics of CT’s Health System has been updated for 2016. It addresses private insurance, Medicare, Medicaid, the uninsured, health care financing, reform and where CT stands. The primer is part of our resource collection available at cthealthbook.org.

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CT Health Reform Dashboard – SIM ethics problems growing, hospital mergers threaten

August’s CT Health Reform Dashboardupdate is again very active – and not in a good way. Thousands of working HUSKY parents lost coverage this week. SIM ethics problems continue to plague reform efforts. Efforts to bypass DSS’s prudent evaluation of the new, untested, very ambitious Medicaid reform plan are disturbing. Consultants for the Health Care…

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CTHPP website down, apologies

Our CT Health Policy Project website has been down for an unacceptable length of time. (I know some of you feel our pain.) Be assured we are working furiously on a solution – both short and long-term. We apologize for any inconvenience. If there is something you are looking for, please let us know at…

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