Health Care

The Senate "Gang of Six" is nearing a final draft of health care bill.   Though reports suggest there are still disagreements on mandates dealing with the private purchase of insurance, the Senate Finance Committee is getting closers and a final draft could be forthcoming at any time. While there will certainly be changes and adjustments to the legislation, it is fair to say that the ... read more

Terrifying statistic of the day: the CDC says that the national spike in obesity will result in one out of every 3 kids born in the year 2000 developing type 2 diabetes at some point in their lives. If the number of fatal auto accidents rose 40% in less than 10 years it would be considered a national crisis with Congressional hearings and loud calls for changes in auto and driver ... read more

This Kaiser Family Foundation report should be required reading for anyone seriously interested in the health care debate and the uninsured. It provides important details about who actually is without health insurance in America.  While much in the report is common sense (the poor are less likely to be insured than the non-poor), there are a few less obvious findings, such as 8 in 10 uninsured ... read more

Bettors say there will likely be no public option for health care. The Intrade electronic market allows people to 'bet' on a variety of outcomes, anything from elections to the weather to even how movies do at the box office. After a brief spike in the odds a few weeks ago, the current bid on Intrade pegs just a 1-in-4 chance a public option will get passed. Notice how health care ... read more

Pass laws now and worry about details later.   The success or failure of anything lies in the details, but details are what Congress is famously short on.   This cannot happen with something so vital as health care. To date, most of the debate of a government run public option for health care has been macro in nature.   Topics such as the acceptable level of government in the private ... read more

With so much talk about the town hall meetings and the quality of the health care debate, this story on Politico this morning caught my eye: Faced with a souring public mood on health care reform, and the Democrats and their supporters are launching a national grassroots push Wednesday to show lawmakers that the majority of Americans still support overhauling the system. Regardless that the ... read more

Free speech not only isn't free, it may end up proving pricey for Whole Foods Market. CEO John Mackey, once considered a more kind and gentle example of the 'new' corporate model (bizarre alter-ego blog posting bashing a rival aside), is under personal and professional attack for doing nothing more than expressing his views about health care reform in a recent op/ed in the Wall Street ... read more

Interesting interview with the head of Sac-Osage Hospital tiny Osceola, Missouri. Jeff Speaks details how they are underpaid vs. costs by about 7% by Medicare and Medicaid. ... read more

Fascinating opinion piece in today's Wall Street Journal.   It lays out why the "public plan" will result in higher costs for those already insured, basing its findings on a few of the U.S. states currently implementing a similar plan to what the Obama camp is proposing. From the piece: Mr. Obama wants to wave away this reality with new regulations that prohibit "discrimination against the ... read more

"No one will force you to be a part of the government plan." "If you have health care you like, you can keep it." Quotes we heard often today, as the President sold his health plan at a "town hall" meeting in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.  The meeting was definitely a win for the President, who pushed his plan effectively, albeit to a (mostly) favorable crowd. That said, my biggest ... read more