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Investing in disease prevention receives majority support among Americans

Trust for America's Health (TFAH) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) released a new public opinion survey today that finds that 71 percent of Americans favor an increased investment in disease prevention and that disease prevention is one of the most popular components of health reform. Forty-four percent of Americans strongly favor investing more in prevention.

16 Nov 2009

CCH issues a special Briefing on employer and Medicaid-related provisions

CCH has issued a special Briefing on the employer and Medicare- and Medicaid-related provisions in the House version of health care reform, detailing provisions of the legislation approved on November 7.

16 Nov 2009

Health reform: Senate prepares for CBO estimate; GOP on attack

News outlets covering the health reform debate noted that Republicans are continuing their arguments against Democratic legislation and outlined what might happen in the coming week in the Senate.

16 Nov 2009

Democrats finding little common ground on abortion language in health legislation

Reaction to the amendment restricting abortion in the House health reform bill, passed more than a week ago, continued to reverberate through news outlets today.

16 Nov 2009

Today's opinions and editorials

Unless you find more realistic ways of paying for the promises included in the bill, you are simply setting up the public for more frustration -- and yourselves for a political backlash (David Broder, 11/13).

13 Nov 2009

Insurer recruits employees to oppose health bills, angers consumer group

"In an aggressive new effort to influence the congressional health care debate, UnitedHealth Group this week e-mailed its 75,000 U.S. employees, urging them to contact their senators and providing two form letters attacking specific legislative proposals," the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

13 Nov 2009

Health reform: Senate facing controversies on coverage numbers, abortion language

The Wall Street Journal: "When the Senate unveils its health-care bill, all eyes will be on the price tag. But an equally significant number may be how many people get health insurance under the legislation."

13 Nov 2009

Health policy research round up - Medicare and Massachusetts

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation: The Secrets of Massachusetts' Success - "By the summer of 2008, less than two years after Massachusetts' health reform law became effective, only 2.6 percent of state residents were uninsured—the lowest proportion ever recorded for any state." This study by the RWJF-funded State Health Access Reform Evaluation (SHARE) initiative "explains how national reforms can use similar methods to avoid the pitfalls that have plagued other coverage expansions."

13 Nov 2009

AMA takes on social issues, backs reform, rebuts 100-year trend

After a century of health-reform opposition - with highlights such as coining the term "socialized medicine," - the American Medical Association is now supporting Democrats' overhaul efforts, as well as taking on a few one taboo social issues, NPR's Health Blog reports.

13 Nov 2009

Business and insurers' groups back health reform, but not all legislation

A group of CEOs, the Business Roundtable and America's Health Insurance Plans, the insurance industry group, separately expressed qualified support for health overhaul efforts Thursday.

13 Nov 2009

Study confirms that people with severe mental disorders more at risk of dying from heart disease

A large new study confirms that people with severe mental disorders — such as schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders — are 25 percent to 40 percent more prone to die from heart disease than people without mental illness are.

13 Nov 2009

Senate aides: Reid considering Medicare payroll tax increase on wealthy

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pondering a proposal to increase the Medicare payroll tax on high earners "to help offset the costs of providing health insurance to millions of Americans, Senate aides said Thursday," The New York Times reports.

13 Nov 2009

Overhaul could leave kids' hospitals strapped for cash

Industry advocates say health reform could place a disproportionate burden on children's hospitals, because they will face cuts along with other hospitals, but do not stand to benefit from expansions in insurance coverage, USA Today reports.

13 Nov 2009

In rural Kentucky, an unexpected take on the health debate

Frank Browning reports for Kaiser Health News on how the health reform debate is playing out in rural Kentucky. "From a strip-mined bluff at the edge of this famous mountain town you can see one of the most concentrated and diverse sets of medical facilities in rural America: a general hospital, a psychiatric hospital, a university-based rural health care center and clinics for primary care, cancer, urology, cardiology, addiction and ear-nose-and throat problems.

13 Nov 2009

First Edition: November 13, 2009

On this Friday the 13th, the headlines offer an array of health policy views -- from the possibility of including a Medicare payroll tax in health reform legislation to continuing analysis of the overhaul's winners and losers as well as the CDC's new estimate of the far-reach of the swine flu.

13 Nov 2009

Health Insurer tells its employees to directly lobby U.S. Senators for weaker health reform and higher insurer profits

The nation's largest health insurance company, United Healthcare, launched a new push this week to get employees to directly lobby U.S. Senators for weaker health reform and higher insurer profits. The new campaign, in an e-mail sent to all employees Nov. 10, offers employees template letters to send from company computers on company time and urges them to write grassroots-style letters to the editor to local newspapers. Consumer Watchdog, which obtained the letters, called on the Senate and newspapers to reject this deceptive corporate-directed campaign.

13 Nov 2009

Key components of health care reform slow down the growth of health care costs, shows report

A new report released today by Business Roundtable, an association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies, shows that key components of health care reform could slow the growth of health care costs and offer real savings for companies and their employees.

13 Nov 2009

Timeline, vote counting continue to be central To Senate health overhaul

The Associated Press reports that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is considering higher payroll taxes on "upper-income earners to help finance health care legislation.

13 Nov 2009

Businesses at risk from health reform, or status quo, depending on source

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Employment Policies Institute and other friends of business have joined to launch a national television ad campaign, beginning Thursday, that will warn against the health care overhaul, The Boston Globe reports. The $10 million ad blitz "features June O'Neill, former director of the Congressional Budget Office, arguing that the bill would deepen the national debt and hurt job creation."

12 Nov 2009

Will the health bill bend costs?

One cause for health reform anxiety is that no one is sure whether the legislation would achieve one of its most critical goals: lowering health care costs.

12 Nov 2009