Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report feature highlights recent blog entries

While mainstream news coverage is still a primary source of information for the latest in policy debates and the health care marketplace, online blogs have become a significant part of the media landscape, often presenting new perspectives on policy issues and drawing attention to under-reported topics.

To provide complete coverage of health policy issues, the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report offers readers a window into the world of blogs in a new roundup of health policy-related blog posts. "Blog Watch," published on Tuesdays and Fridays, tracks a wide range of blogs, providing a brief description and relevant links for highlighted posts.

The American Prospect's Ezra Klein reacts positively to a report from The Politico's Mike Allen that Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) hopes he "can be helpful, perhaps in a [prospective Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack] Obama [Ill.] administration, on health care reform," possibly as HHS Secretary.

Michael Tanner from Cato@Liberty reacts to a recent Health Affairs article on progress under health reform legislation in Massachusetts, saying, "If this is success, I would hate to see failure."

Igor from the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room blog discusses deregulation of state health insurance markets proposed by presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) and how they could result in destabilization similar to that which occurred after deregulation of the credit industry.

Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag discusses a new CBO brief that finds several factors may limit the potential of price transparency for health services to slow the growth of health care costs.

Rob Cunningham from the Health Affairs Blog welcomes news that the CMS issued a final rule to permit some analytic uses of Medicare Part D claims data, noting that the new data will improve the quality of studies on Medicare Part D.

The Health Business Blog's David Williams discusses a recent Wall Street Journal article that reported some hospitals are now auctioning patients' debt online and notes a few reasons why hospital debts "don't feel like real debts" to some patients. Anthony Wright from Health Access Weblog also discusses the article and Health Access California's support of AB774, which included a moratorium on patients being sent to collection agencies.

Jason Shafrin of the Health Care Economist discusses the results of a study analyzing France's decision to offer no-cost health insurance plans to cover out-of-pocket payments and whether the plans increased utilization of health care services.

Brian Rosman from Health Care for All's A Healthy Blog reports on a Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation summit on health reform, noting that the summit "signaled what may be a new consensus that fundamental payment reforms must be part" of additional health reform efforts in the state. A webcast of the forum will be available on kaisernetwork.org.

Diana Dutton and Hal Holman from the Health Care Blog discuss presumptive Obama's health care plan, saying he "may promise less but accomplish more" than Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).

Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review's Bob Laszewski discusses the results of Massachusetts health reform and what it means for other reform efforts, saying that "that attempts to incrementally deal with access first, while avoiding a major restructuring of the system to simultaneously deal with costs, will only lead to an incomplete result in improving access and costs that cannot be sustained."

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn of Health Populi discusses a new Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) issue brief on the amount of savings retirees would need to afford health insurance and health care expenses, noting that these predictions might carry more weight because Americans have named the economy as a top concern in recent public opinion polling.

Bob Vineyard of Insure Blog writes that women with a history of caesarean sections being denied individual insurance, as reported in the New York Times, might have more to do with Colorado's insurance regulations than a systemic problem.

The New America Foundation's New Health Dialog's Joanne Kenen blogs about an Alliance for Health Reform and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation forum on the potential for the presidential candidates' health care plans to control health care costs. Kenen reports panelists Paul Ginsberg, Mark McClellan and Uwe Reinhardt were in relative agreement that each of the candidates' plans would provide little control over rapidly rising health costs. A webcast of the forum is available on kaisernetwork.org.

Jacob Goldstein from the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog reports on a Department of Veterans' Affairs psychiatrist's Congressional testimony yesterday about an e-mail she sent "suggesting her colleagues be less quick to diagnose post-traumatic stress disorder in veterans."