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A request: Our two weekly newsletters, Health Policy Matters and Consumer Choice Matters, endeavor to keep you updated on the most important developments in health policy and the health care marketplace. We are most grateful for the countless comments you send telling us that the information is valuable to you. And you know that the newsletters are only part of Galen?s many activities to promote … [Read more...] about Onward

Congressional negotiators have produced a compromise Medicare agreement that falls short of overall modernization of the program. But it does contain some important reforms that will set consumer-friendly initiatives in motion. I am convinced that negotiators have done everything they can to get as much reform as possible in this agreement. With so many conservatives on the fence, it seems … [Read more...] about The Deal

Tempers flared Thursday on Capitol Hill as Medicare negotiations appeared to hit the wall, with Chairman Bill Thomas saying publicly that a new compromise worked out by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist ?is guaranteed not to work.? Frist, believing that support of the AARP is vital to passing any Medicare deal, has quietly been meeting with the organization?s leaders to broker a deal. Thomas was … [Read more...] about Hitting the Wall

The ideological divides between the House and Senate and between Republicans and Democrats are coming to a head as Medicare negotiators move into the final stretch in drafting a bill. Opponents continued this week to criticize the bill, especially the doughnut hole in the benefit and the risks of private plan options -- criticisms which no doubt will continue next year whether or not a bill … [Read more...] about The Final Stretch

?and how much they stay the same. The health policy debates on both sides of the Atlantic are remarkably similar. There are entrenched forces determined to resist change and fight to the end for solidarity, even if it means the decline and decay of the very programs they are trying to protect. And there are new voices courting the transformative power of consumers and markets. This was the theme … [Read more...] about How Much Things Change?

Medicare conferees appear to have completed work on the specifics of a prescription drug benefit for Medicare that basically follows the House structure. And now the fun begins. Senate Democrats announced yesterday that the magic number of 41 senators ? enough to sustain a filibuster ? vowed to vote against any bill that eventually would draw Medicare into price competition with private health … [Read more...] about Down to the Wire

The bad news: Seniors learned this week that they will face their biggest Medicare premium increase in a decade ? to $66.60 a month, starting next year ? at the same time Medicare conference negotiators have plans to force higher income seniors to pay even bigger premiums. This is dangerous politics and backwards policy. The negotiators? goal is an admirable one ? to inject ?means testing? into … [Read more...] about Getting It Right

Consumer choice is poised to revolutionize the health insurance and health care markets in the U.S., and Medicare better pay attention. The 70 million Baby Boomers who will start entering the Medicare program in eight years will demand the kind of choices in Medicare they are beginning to receive through their jobs today. Join us for a Galen Institute briefing on Consumer Choice in Medicare where … [Read more...] about Innovation or Reversion