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Pulling It Together: The “R” Word Is Back
Longer ago than I care to admit, I got my start in health policy at M.I.T. when I wrote a book about health care regulation. The book was about a long forgotten attempt to rationalize the health care system through an elaborate health planning program set up in the seventies under the National…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling It Together: Keeping the Health Reform Coalition Together
We could be headed for a new schism in the debate about health reform. Not the familiar gulf between advocates of the market and government, or the predictable one between deficit hawks and spenders, but a new one that crosses traditional partisan and ideological lines between advocates of long-term reform of the health care delivery…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling It Together: What Do We Want Health Insurance To Be?
Trends in the health insurance marketplace show substantial growth in high deductible health plans, especially among smaller firms, where 35% of workers are now covered by plans with a deductible of $1,000 or more. That’s according to our recently released employer health benefits survey, which we have been conducting now…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling It Together: A Recovery Raises Expectations Too
New Orleans is a city still struggling with the aftermath of Katrina and the levee breaks. The people of New Orleans feel that the nation and the federal government have largely forgotten them. Those are the results of our 2008 survey of the people of New Orleans, the second in a…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling It Together: Moving Away From Employer Based Coverage: Don’t Forget Public Opinion
One of the underlying big issues in the unfolding health reform debate is whether most Americans should continue to get insurance through work where they get it today, or purchase it themselves in the individual private health insurance marketplace. Senator McCain promotes moving to individual insurance and having individuals rather…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling It Together: Perspectives on State Health Reform
This Pulling It Together column is the fourth in my new series. All four so far have dealt with different dimensions of health reform. This time I write about one of my favorite topics, the states. As a former head of an umbrella health and social services agency in a…
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