Our Health Policy Matters

House Speaker John Boehner said recently that Congressional Republicans will have to face raising the debt ceiling as “adults,” echoing his March, 2010 comment that they needed to behave like “grown-ups” when health reform passed.   The passage of health insurance reform in 2010 did not solve all of our health policy problems, but passing a meaningless repeal measure in the House in January isn’t the best way for members of Congress to start putting their grown-up pants on.   What might an actual adult health policy agenda look like in 2011? First, federal and state officials would put more resources into public health.   Like computer anti-virus programs, public health programs work in the background, taking care of us even when we fail to take care of ourselves.   They make sure our water is pure, our neighborhoods clean, our hazardous wastes are disposed of properly, and our children are immunized.   People can argue over whether various prevention initiative...

House Speaker John Boehner said recently that Congressional Republicans will have to face raising the debt ceiling as “adults,” echoing his March, 2010 comment that they needed to behave like “grown-ups” when health reform passed.   The passage of health insurance reform in 2010 did not solve all of our health policy problems, but passing a meaningless repeal measure in the House in January isn’t the best way for members of Congress to start putting their grown-up pants on.   What might an actual adult health policy agenda look like in 2011? First, federal and state officials would put more resources into public health.   Like computer anti-virus programs, public health programs work in the background, taking care of us even when we fail to take care of ourselves.   They make sure our water is pure, our neighborhoods clean, our hazardous wastes are disposed of properly, and our children are immunized.   People can argue over whether various prevention initiative...