The independent source for health policy research, polling, and news.
Pulling It Together: Predicting the Future
A fair amount of attention was given recently to projections made by the Chief Actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) about the new health reform law, and how they compare to previous estimates by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). No doubt the various projections will be…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling It Together: Implementation Is Forever
Now that historic health reform legislation is law, everyone is rightfully focused on implementation. There are two very different ways to look at implementation. One is the more legalistic worm’s eye view, which sees implementation largely as the process of putting into effect what was written in the law. In…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling it Together: When Premiums Go Up 39%
Our group that works on health care cost issues just updated an analysis that sheds light on what’s really happening to people in the individual health insurance market, the issue Secretary Sebelius, a former Kansas insurance commissioner, and others have put in the spotlight by calling on Anthem and other…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling it Together: An Actuarial Rorschach Test
Drew Altman, Larry Levitt, Gary Claxton My colleagues have worked on this column with me and I invited them to join me as authors. As with pretty much every other discussion of health care going back to the days of Roosevelt, the great reform debate of 2009 (and now 2010)…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling it Together: Anticipating the Polls about Health
Tuesday, February 2nd marked a milestone of sorts in the health reform debate: there was no story on health reform in the New York Times (national edition). I haven’t done a study, but as a professional New York Times (NYT) reader, I am virtually certain that this is the first…
Policy Insights Read PostPulling It Together: The Message from Massachusetts
The Massachusetts special election has roiled the political world and profoundly affected the prospects for health reform just when it looked like passage was a lock. Efforts are underway to put health reform legislation back together again on Capitol Hill, but not since powerful Ways and Means Chair Wilbur Mills fell into…
Policy Insights Read Post