Newsletter

Congressional committees are working feverishly on the largest single spending bill in the nation’s history—a mind-boggling $3.5 trillion blowout that would dramatically expand the welfare state and make Americans beholden to the federal government for decades to come, “a cradle-to-grave entitlement agenda…that would transform America.” The chief architect is … [Read more...] about More expansive than Obamacare

In the heat of August, Congress often is anxious to get out of town and passes legislation that would shock the American people if they knew the details. As a public service, here is a short summary of what the Senate just passed and teed up for action by the House—all with the support of President Biden who is anxious to sign the measures into law. First, the Senate approved a $1.9 trillion … [Read more...] about Transforming America

Media attention about the Delta surge is hugely misguided and actually poses a threat to public health by diverting attention from the real problem. Headlines focus on requirements that schoolchildren and two year olds wear masks and forcing beleaguered restaurant owners to check vaccine cards.  Instead, reporters and policymakers should be focusing on the most vulnerable citizens who … [Read more...] about Focus on the Problem, Please

The more-contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus led the CDC to issue a directive yesterday that both vaccinated and unvaccinated people should wear masks indoors in higher-contagion areas. It’s not going over well. The first reaction was on Capitol Hill where the Capitol Police posted a statement saying visitors and staff members must mask up.  “Any person who … [Read more...] about What? Not again!

One of the vitally important jobs of public health experts is to locate the source of disease impacting public health to contain the spread and guard against future outbreaks.  Recall the famous story of physician John Snow who isolated the source of a serious cholera outbreak in London in 1854 to a single contaminated town well, the Broad Street pump, and convinced local … [Read more...] about Shouting in the Senate

It’s refreshing to be able to write about positive, bipartisan developments in health policy. In a new paper, Galen Senior Fellow Brian Blase explains that Biden Seeks To Build On Many Of Trump’s Health Care Policies via a new executive order issued on Friday. Brian was, of course, President Trump’s senior health policy adviser in the White House from 2017-2019 and launched a number … [Read more...] about What? Bipartisan Agreement on Health Reform?

I’m so tired of hearing that conservatives/Republicans have no plan for health reform. The narrative has persisted since Congress failed—by one vote—to get repeal-and-replace legislation over the finish line in 2017. There are lots of reasons why that happened, but it’s more productive to look instead at plans now and for the future. You know, of course, about the work of the Health Policy … [Read more...] about Ideas that work

Supreme Court: It took the court more than six months to decide (7-2) that plaintiffs didn’t have standing to challenge Obamacare’s individual mandate. The accurate headline would be “SCOTUS punts,” but instead we read, “Supreme Court upholds Obamacare for the third time.” Sigh. Since Congress had set the individual mandate penalty at zero in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, the … [Read more...] about Three Quick Takes