Unhealthy Competition
In the early hours of the New Year, the Senate voted to avert the “fiscal cliff,” or more accurately, to postpone our dive off the precipice for two months. After much drama, the House of Representatives followed their colleagues and... Read More
A Step Closer to “Single Payor?”
A central component of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is the development of health insurance exchanges, the marketplace where individuals can compare qualified health plans based on what they cover, how much they cost and each patient’s anticipated needs. These...
What Do We Know?
So now we know. We don’t know everything. But we know more than we knew before November 6. We know, for example, that implementation of “Obamacare,” the moniker both its supporters and detractors have now apparently embraced, will proceed. Decision...
CCCHealthDC: How politics and elections are shaping federal and state health policy
Election Day 2012 is behind us. President Obama will return for another scheduled four-year appearance. Also returning will be the (slightly more) Democratic U.S. Senate and the (slightly less) Republican House of Representatives. We are continuing to sort through the...
For Whom are Healthcare Voters Voting?
Last week, the New England Journal of Medicine published a number of articles regarding healthcare, health policy and healthcare politics in the context of next month’s presidential election. I recommend reading all of them. However, one piece in particular titled...
Missed Opportunities
This is not a post about who “won” the first presidential debate. On style points, the consensus seems to be that Romney was the victor… and since that is the consensus, it is therefore true. Nor will this post speculate...
Tonight’s Debate: What to Watch For
We are told that “health care” will be one of six “broad topic areas” to be addressed by President Obama and Governor Romney when they face-off in the first of three Presidential debates tonight in Denver. So, in order to...
Weathering the Storms
Following her unsuccessful run for Delaware Senate, Christine “I am not a witch” O’Donnell famously appeared on CNN’s “Piers Morgan Tonight” to promote her new book. During the interview, O’Donnell grew unhappy with Morgan’s questions about human sexuality and her...
Why Now?
No matter what one thinks about the merits of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), most observers agree that the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress have done a poor to awful job selling it. That’s been true from the beginning...
Healthcare 2012: What to Watch For
Now that the Supreme Court has ruled on the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the playing field is set for the 2012 elections. It is unlikely that any outside event will alter the health policy environment in which...
Post-SCOTUS: Clear advice for Democrats
“Give me a one-handed economist,” President Harry Truman famously wished. “All my economists say, on the one hand, but on the other…” In the days since the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 decision allowing implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) to...
Post-SCOTUS: Clear advice for Republicans
Everyone agrees that last week’s decision upholding the Affordable Care Act was a clear victory for President Obama. It was the best possible outcome for a president seeking reelection. Logically, a victory for Obama and the Democrats means a loss...
