Pulling it Together: As The International AIDS Conference Convenes, Some Positive News About Public Opinion and HIV July 19, 2012 Perspective The American people are busy trying to make ends meet and take care of their families and they are constantly bombarded by messaging and spin. They rarely have a full understanding of policy issues and debates. Often it is their strongly held beliefs, whether based on accurate or inaccurate perceptions,…
Pulling it Together: About Kaiser Health News May 1, 2009 Perspective There is lots of apocalyptic talk these days about the collapse of the newspaper industry and the challenges facing news organizations. There is even talk of the unimaginable, my hometown paper The Boston Globe shutting down. Surely they know that Red Sox Nation cannot exist without the Globe Sports pages.…
Pulling It Together: Critical Path To Health Reform: Conclusion March 27, 2008 Perspective Finally, it bears mentioning for organizations like Kaiser that do research and analysis and are committed to public education on complex health policy issues, that the kinds of activities that will be most useful will vary depending on what stage we are at on the “critical path.” At this early…
Pulling it Together: Reflections on This Year’s Four Percent Premium Increase September 5, 2012 Perspective Our 2012 Employer Health Benefits Survey found a 4% increase in premiums this year, continuing the recent trend of moderation in health costs and spending reported in several studies. Double digit increases in premiums were once a common occurrence, but we have not seen any since a 10% increase in…
Pulling It Together: Bono, Jon Stewart and the HIV/AIDS Message December 14, 2011 Perspective One of the most interesting conversations on a health topic happened recently on The Daily Show between Bono and Jon Stewart. Bono told Stewart that we were “at the beginning of the end of the AIDS epidemic,” promising an announcement the next day that would explain how a combination of…
Pulling it Together: The Experts vs. The Public on Health Reform May 14, 2009 Perspective In repeated Kaiser polls, we see a divide between what experts believe and what the public believes about some of the key issues in health reform. They don’t disagree on everything; far from it. But there is a wide gulf on basic beliefs about what is behind the problems in…
Pulling It Together: Critical Path To Health Reform: Stage Two March 27, 2008 Perspective Will the new president make health a top early priority and exercise real leadership on the issue? One of the big lessons of the health reform debate of the early nineties is that the Congress needs to be fully engaged in the process early on. Nevertheless, for health reform legislation…
Pulling It Together: Critical Path To Health Reform: Stage One March 27, 2008 Perspective Will there be a big debate about health reform in the general election? If there is it will elevate the issue further, engage the public, and create momentum and a mandate for action by a new President and Congress. If, however, the debate about health is tepid or health is…
Pulling it Together: Small $ for HIV Prevention July 28, 2009 Perspective It’s no secret that the response to the HIV epidemic domestically has not kept pace with the response to the global epidemic. And in an earlier column called America Has Gone Quiet on HIV/AIDS I wrote about the growing complacency towards the domestic epidemic revealed in our recent survey of…
Pulling It Together: Jobs, A Reason to Fast Track Coverage March 13, 2009 Perspective The two big topics in Washington right now are the economy and health care. I’ve written before about how the two are linked, and in particular about how among the everyday economic problems people are having, paying for health care is a big one. But the latest numbers out from…
