Our Health Policy Matters

2010 was the most significant year in health policy since the 1960s.   It dominated the policy agenda for the first few months of the year, and it stayed in the news throughout the election season.   As the year drew to a close, conflicting lower court decisions about the constitutionality of the individual mandate foreshadowed a continued policy debate into the foreseeable future.   What makes a health policy story big in a time of change?   It’s not just the attention it commands in the media.   It’s the impact it has on our lives.   This week and next, I’ll countdown ten.     Using the impact criterion, there were actually some that weren’t part of health reform!     Here are my choices for numbers ten through six. 10. The Election of Senator Scott Brown.   It is hard to remember that as we entered 2010, the Democrats seemed to be putting the finishing touches on a bill that could pick up 60 votes in the Senate.   Linco...

2010 was the most significant year in health policy since the 1960s.   It dominated the policy agenda for the first few months of the year, and it stayed in the news throughout the election season.   As the year drew to a close, conflicting lower court decisions about the constitutionality of the individual mandate foreshadowed a continued policy debate into the foreseeable future.   What makes a health policy story big in a time of change?   It’s not just the attention it commands in the media.   It’s the impact it has on our lives.   This week and next, I’ll countdown ten.     Using the impact criterion, there were actually some that weren’t part of health reform!     Here are my choices for numbers ten through six. 10. The Election of Senator Scott Brown.   It is hard to remember that as we entered 2010, the Democrats seemed to be putting the finishing touches on a bill that could pick up 60 votes in the Senate.   Linco...

If you watched HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on November 12th, you heard Mike Huckabee propose a public option as part of a health reform fix.   With “repeal, revise, and replace” stories in the news every day, shouldn’t this be worth at least one national headline?   Governor Huckabee didn’t just flirt with the public option; he married it to his opposition to requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions.      Defending his position, Huckabee argued “when you buy insurance you’re buying something in the private sector.   Now maybe there’s a place to say if you’re really, really sick and you can’t access a traditional marketplace then should we have some form of safety net?   Yeah. I’ve said that; I did that when I was Governor.”    He called for “a partnership between government and the private sector” to insure people with pre-existing conditions. So what did Mr. Huckabee propose?   He cited the Arkansas TEFRA pro...

If you watched HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher on November 12th, you heard Mike Huckabee propose a public option as part of a health reform fix.   With “repeal, revise, and replace” stories in the news every day, shouldn’t this be worth at least one national headline?   Governor Huckabee didn’t just flirt with the public option; he married it to his opposition to requiring insurers to cover people with pre-existing conditions.      Defending his position, Huckabee argued “when you buy insurance you’re buying something in the private sector.   Now maybe there’s a place to say if you’re really, really sick and you can’t access a traditional marketplace then should we have some form of safety net?   Yeah. I’ve said that; I did that when I was Governor.”    He called for “a partnership between government and the private sector” to insure people with pre-existing conditions. So what did Mr. Huckabee propose?   He cited the Arkansas TEFRA pro...