Pulling It Together: Changing the HIV Testing Message June 27, 2011 Perspective In 2006 the CDC began recommending routine HIV testing in health care settings for everyone between the ages of 13 and 64. Annual testing is recommended for people at highest risk. Our 2011 survey of Americans and HIV released last week — our eighth comprehensive survey of its kind — …
Pulling It Together: Writing Regulations July 18, 2011 Perspective Not since Geraldo Rivera revealed the secret contents of Al Capone’s vault on national TV in the mid-80s, or more recently, sports fans awaited the LeBron James “decision” about where he would play next, have we so anxiously awaited anything as much as the draft health exchange regulations just published…
Pulling it Together: A Note on Presidential Leadership Strategy November 20, 2009 Perspective In inside circles of the health reform debate there has been criticism of the President for not weighing in earlier and publicly on the details of health reform legislation. Does he want the Senate’s approach to employer obligations, or the approach taken in the House? What form of public option…
Pulling it Together: A Holiday Reminder on the Economy and Health Care December 2, 2009 Perspective With so much of the focus on the political dynamics of the health reform debate and a few hot button issues, I wonder if we have lost track of what propelled health care to the top domestic issue in the first place—people’s concerns about paying for health care in the…
Pulling it Together: What Conservatives Are Winning July 12, 2010 Perspective Conservatives are out of sorts these days about the direction in which health care is headed. They think the new health reform law expands the role of government too much and spends too much at a time when they believe deficit reduction should be a higher priority. The claims about…
Pulling it Together: An Actuarial Rorschach Test February 11, 2010 Perspective Drew Altman, Larry Levitt, Gary Claxton My colleagues have worked on this column with me and I invited them to join me as authors. As with pretty much every other discussion of health care going back to the days of Roosevelt, the great reform debate of 2009 (and now 2010)…
Pulling It Together: Repeal January 6, 2011 Perspective The House will soon vote to repeal the health reform law, the Senate won’t, and the President would veto it if they did. So what does a House vote for repeal mean? It is, of course, a campaign promise kept to the political right. It is also a signal from…
Pulling It Together: Health IN the Economy April 29, 2008 Perspective I am writing this Pulling It Together column about this one chart and its potential interpretations and implications. Source: Key Findings: Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: Election 2008 — April 2008, Kaiser Family Foundation, April 2008. This chart from our most recent tracking poll shows the economy rising as a political issue…
Pulling it Together: On Health Reform, Will All Roads Meet in the Middle? June 4, 2009 Perspective A few weeks ago a small group of upset single-payer advocates followed Senator Baucus into the parking garage of our D.C. building as he was arriving to do one of our health reform newsmaker breakfasts, cosponsored by Families USA and the National Federation of Independent Business. They were angry because…
Pulling It Together: The Repeal Trap? January 5, 2010 Perspective Almost a year into an often acrimonious health reform debate, we stand poised for near certain passage of historic health reform legislation. Yet, somewhat perplexingly, there’s now talk about whether a law that has not even been enacted might actually be repealed and reporters have been calling asking what the…
