As the CUTGO Congress attempts to return to the spending ways of 2001-2008, the parallels grow clearer. A simple table to allow easy comparison of the major initiatives of 2001 and 2011 is presented below.

From Open Congress Nov 15, 2009 The Most Important Health Care Reform Provision You’ve Never Heard Of For months, Bruce Webb has been tracking a provision in the House’s health care bills that has flown mostly under the radar. He calls it the “most important and most overlooked” aspect of the bills, and he may […]

The International Federation of Health Plans released its 2010 report today. (PDF here.) The good news is that the problem is clear: Americans pay too much for the same services. The bad news is (1) we’ve known that for years and (2) the factions who are gaining these excessive rents want to keep their sinecures. […]

Brad DeLong notes an experiment subject (as is the wont of the Obama Administration to date) to regulatory capture: In a surprising move, the Obama administration will extend special bonus payments meant to reward top-performing Medicare Advantage insurers to those that score only average ratings….The law says bonuses, which start in 2012, would go to […]

On Econbrowser last week: The Impact of Health Insurance Reform in Massachusetts The use of emergency rooms for routine care fell, as did hospital admissions for treating preventable conditions, and the proportion of uninsured among hospital inpatients (by 36%), while there was no increase in the growth of hospital costs. From the NBER Digest article […]

There was a question on what ACO meant for health care practices and as part of reform of current practices. Rusty sends two links he thinks might help: A guide to Accountable Care Organizations… from Health Reform Watch offers a glimpse: Specifically, their findings illustrate that there exists wide variations in the cost of care […]

There’s a reason for this. After the (wholly justified, understated) bitterness of my last post, a moment of cheer:  An old friend of mine is in the process of losing his job. Now, normally I wouldn’t celebrate anyone—let alone a friend—losing a job, but, you see, he sells medical insurance in Texas and Indiana.  And […]

When the question is asked whether the Obama Administration are fools or liars—and a certain Chicago mayoral candidate is often nominated as both—you can be certain discussion of “the public option” will come up. It doesn’t come up directly in today’s FT (page 4 of the print edition; no link; I get the paper edition, […]

by Bruce Webb There is a great deal of chatter these days about how Obama lost ‘Progressives’, what Robert Gibbs derisively called the ‘Professional Left’ or the ‘Left of the Left’, and as an example you could read this from Peter Daou How a handful of liberal bloggers are bringing down the Obama presidency and […]

I am late to the news, but so far reported on healthcare law implementation: 1. www.HealthCare.gov, a new online portal where anyone can go to find insurance options in their state, went live. It’s a very handy resource for information that used to be difficult to find. It’s available to help millions who need insurance […]