Uncategorized

In Rome last week, I debated Italian politicians on national radio, tried to explain our health system to government and industry leaders, and spoke at a conference at the Vatican about the fundamental values of health care and the common good. Some take-aways: Europeans truly believe that we have a permanent underclass in the U.S. of 47 million poor citizens who have absolutely no access to … [Read more...] about Rome 'n Schip

The big news of the week was the Census Bureau releasing its estimates of the number of people who were uninsured last year, now totaling 47 million, up by 2.2 million from the year before. The new numbers will certainly add fuel to the debate over the State Children's Health Insurance Program, especially with the Census Bureau showing that the number of children without health insurance increased … [Read more...] about The Uninsured

Several senators were poised to offer an amendment to the SCHIP bill during the Senate debate last week that reflected long hours of work on a free-market, patient-centered alternative. But they ran into a buzz-saw of opposition, not from the Left but from a friend of free markets, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform. The Senate amendment, which Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) was preparing to … [Read more...] about Differences among Friends

The battle over health insurance for children reached a crescendo this week as both houses of Congress passed their own, very different, bills. Both go far beyond reauthorizing the 10-year-old SCHIP program, and together load onto the back of this one bill major changes to the Medicare Advantage program, to physician payment schedules, to the prescription drug benefit, expansions and changes to … [Read more...] about Freedom vs. Security

Despite threats of a presidential veto, the Senate Finance Committee, with the support of a majority of its Republican members and all the Democrats, sent to the floor yesterday a five-year expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program with a $60 billion price tag. Only Sens. Trent Lott (MS), John Ensign (NV), Jim Bunning (KY), and John Kyl (AZ) voted ?no? on the bill that HHS … [Read more...] about SCHIP Redux

The State Children's Health Insurance Program is on the front burner in Congress, with the Senate Finance Committee expected to send a bill reauthorizing the program to the floor as early as next week. SCHIP will expire at the end of September unless Congress acts. The battle lines are being drawn: Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee announced this week a deal that would … [Read more...] about SCHIP Overreach

President Bush expressed renewed interest in a refundable tax credit for the uninsured during an Oval Office meeting yesterday that I was privileged to attend, and he also drew the line on ?a massive expansion? of the State Children's Health Insurance Program. ?[O]ur nation has a clear choice,? Mr. Bush said in a statement in the Roosevelt Room after the meeting. ?One option is to put more power … [Read more...] about Oval Office Meeting

So Michael Moore brought his latest film to town on Wednesday for a well-publicized preview. SiCKO seems to have pushed most other serious health policy discussions off the agenda this week, even while key congressional committees were voting on more than a dozen important health care bills on prescription drug safety and health spending. Heaven forbid that we would wind up making policy by … [Read more...] about SiCKO. Need We Say More?