State of the Union redux: Reading between the lines for health policy impact

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Jan 27 2012

News reports analyze why President Barack Obama gave only scant reference to the health law in his State of the Union address, how his push for regulatory reform may play out in the health care sector and how the speech represents his return to familiar themes.

California Healthline: State of the Union: Time To Trim the Regulatory Fat In Health Care?
Obama last night discussed his executive order that federal agencies must "eliminate rules that don't make sense. ... We've already announced over 500 reforms, and just a fraction of them will save business and citizens more than $10 billion over the next five years." Here's how that effort is playing out in health care. CMS three months ago nixed several federal regulations for health care providers (Diamond, 1/25).

Medscape: Failure to Discuss Healthcare Reform Was Purposeful Lapse
President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address included many important topics, but as far as physicians were concerned, he missed a key one: healthcare reform. To Sally C. Pipes, a longtime activist for free-market healthcare reform, that was no accidental oversight. ... In her book The Truth About Obamacare, Pipes warns that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) will propel the nation into a socialist system similar to Canada's, with doctor shortages, long waiting times, ancient equipment, and older drugs (Crane, 1/25).

The New York Times: Analysis: Obama Returns To Familiar Theme In Case For 2nd Term
President Obama's election-year State of the Union address on Tuesday echoed a theme that has run through his career: Government and citizens are responsible together for the common good, even as they celebrate individualism and free markets. … Mr. Obama's argument reflects a long-standing debate, one that is especially divisive now, given Americans' polarization. … Yet voters are conflicted, as hostile toward government in the abstract as at any time in the history of polling, but demanding of government services, not least Medicare and Social Security (Calmes, 1/25).

This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.

Posted in: Healthcare News

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