Our Health Policy Matters

There’s a new disease this year along with the winter flu.  It is called Secession Fever.  Secession Fever has reached epidemic stage across the south.  As of Monday, there were more than 25,000 cases in each of eight southern states – North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas.  A ninth, Arkansas, had over 23,500.  Collectively, these states had almost 402,000 cases, and the number was still growing. Secession Fever is a self-reportable disease.  People who have it signed a petition on the White House website .  Secession Fever is characterized by the irrational belief that the federal government does more harm than good, and that states would be better off if they seceded from the Union. So what if these nine states did secede and form a new Southern Confederacy?  Would their citizens be better off?  Some data from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Central Intelligence Agen...

There’s a new disease this year along with the winter flu.  It is called Secession Fever.  Secession Fever has reached epidemic stage across the south.  As of Monday, there were more than 25,000 cases in each of eight southern states – North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Texas.  A ninth, Arkansas, had over 23,500.  Collectively, these states had almost 402,000 cases, and the number was still growing. Secession Fever is a self-reportable disease.  People who have it signed a petition on the White House website .  Secession Fever is characterized by the irrational belief that the federal government does more harm than good, and that states would be better off if they seceded from the Union. So what if these nine states did secede and form a new Southern Confederacy?  Would their citizens be better off?  Some data from the Kaiser Family Foundation and the Central Intelligence Agen...

President Reagan gave his first speech on the AIDS epidemic almost twenty-five years ago on May 31, 1987.  This was after 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS, 20,849 had died, and over a quarter of a million had been infected with HIV. For years, he had been criticized for ignoring and underfunding the worst public health crisis of the late 20 th century.   So he began his speech with a joke: “A charity committee approaches the wealthiest man in town for a contribution.  ‘Our book shows that you haven’t contributed any money this year,’ they tell him.  ‘Does your book also show that I have an infirm mother and a disabled brother?’ he replies.  ‘Why no,’ they say, ‘we didn’t know that.’ ‘Well, I don’t give them any money.  Why should I give any to you?’” The bad joke was an inadvertent punctuation mark on a presidency too fondly remembered by both republicans and democrats today. On matters of health, Reagan took us ...

President Reagan gave his first speech on the AIDS epidemic almost twenty-five years ago on May 31, 1987.  This was after 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS, 20,849 had died, and over a quarter of a million had been infected with HIV. For years, he had been criticized for ignoring and underfunding the worst public health crisis of the late 20 th century.   So he began his speech with a joke: “A charity committee approaches the wealthiest man in town for a contribution.  ‘Our book shows that you haven’t contributed any money this year,’ they tell him.  ‘Does your book also show that I have an infirm mother and a disabled brother?’ he replies.  ‘Why no,’ they say, ‘we didn’t know that.’ ‘Well, I don’t give them any money.  Why should I give any to you?’” The bad joke was an inadvertent punctuation mark on a presidency too fondly remembered by both republicans and democrats today. On matters of health, Reagan took us ...

Thirty years ago, AIDS was a total mystery to us. Six years into what CDC already termed an epidemic, 358 AIDS cases in twenty states had been confirmed and 136 people had died.  No one knew why. Several people I knew were probably already infected with HIV.  I learned this only as they died over the next few years.  One was a popular Connecticut Congressman, Stew McKinney, who was a moving force behind federal funding for services for homeless people.  Another was a lawyer named Jim Hurley. I first met Jim when we were high school debaters.   His school debated against my school at several local and regional debate tournaments.  I remembered him as bright, easy-going, and friendly. We reintroduced ourselves during our first year in college, when we crossed paths in his dormitory one day.  He hadn’t changed much.  He was personable, still friendly, and happy to exchange a few stories about Catholic high schools and debating...

Thirty years ago, AIDS was a total mystery to us. Six years into what CDC already termed an epidemic, 358 AIDS cases in twenty states had been confirmed and 136 people had died.  No one knew why. Several people I knew were probably already infected with HIV.  I learned this only as they died over the next few years.  One was a popular Connecticut Congressman, Stew McKinney, who was a moving force behind federal funding for services for homeless people.  Another was a lawyer named Jim Hurley. I first met Jim when we were high school debaters.   His school debated against my school at several local and regional debate tournaments.  I remembered him as bright, easy-going, and friendly. We reintroduced ourselves during our first year in college, when we crossed paths in his dormitory one day.  He hadn’t changed much.  He was personable, still friendly, and happy to exchange a few stories about Catholic high schools and debating...

Implementing health reform in the states is a governmental responsibility.   But Kaiser Health News reported this week that states are turning to foundations to help them with the costs of implementing these reforms.   Financing governmental duties has not traditionally been the role of a foundation.   Governmental programs should be implemented efficiently, but asking foundations to pay for this implementation is drawing dollars away from the most important work of foundations. This important work involves investing resources in promising initiatives that aren’t yet “government ready.”   Foundations are uniquely equipped to provide seed funding to experimental and innovative programs before they are ready for governmental action. On the other hand, funding governmental obligations leads to two unintended consequences.   First, it relieves governments of their obligation to justify to the public the expenditures they need to make to implement their prog...

Implementing health reform in the states is a governmental responsibility.   But Kaiser Health News reported this week that states are turning to foundations to help them with the costs of implementing these reforms.   Financing governmental duties has not traditionally been the role of a foundation.   Governmental programs should be implemented efficiently, but asking foundations to pay for this implementation is drawing dollars away from the most important work of foundations. This important work involves investing resources in promising initiatives that aren’t yet “government ready.”   Foundations are uniquely equipped to provide seed funding to experimental and innovative programs before they are ready for governmental action. On the other hand, funding governmental obligations leads to two unintended consequences.   First, it relieves governments of their obligation to justify to the public the expenditures they need to make to implement their prog...