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We are so very pleased to announce that Joel White, former staff director of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, is joining the Galen Institute as a visiting senior fellow. In his new role, Joel will advance our work on the key areas of health and tax policy and will promote free-market ideas for health reform through speeches and writing. Joel is president of JCWhite Consulting, a firm … [Read more...] about The Good News

The Census Bureau has reported that more Americans have health insurance than it had previously reported. It says about 1.8 million more people had health insurance in 2005 than it reported last August, bringing the uninsured number down to 44.8 million. It turns out that the undercount was largely for dependents. Our colleague Doug Badger points out that these new numbers should be discussed in … [Read more...] about Making Choices

We have sent you two reports about government programs -- my commentary in The Wall Street Journal on SCHIP and an important Fact Sheet on Medicare Advantage, which I co-wrote with 16 of our colleagues. Why this focus on government programs? Because they are the nexus of important decisions being made about the future of our health care system -- decisions that are setting the stage for the … [Read more...] about The Nexus

Advocates of universal health coverage are stepping up the pace. A few examples: The Senate Finance Committee on Wednesday began a series of five hearings on "Moving toward Universal Coverage." Committee Chairman Max Baucus set the stage by saying, "I believe health care should be a right, and I believe America is big enough and rich enough to guarantee that right." Peculiarly, Stuart Altman … [Read more...] about Universal Coverage

Our health sector is like a giant ship: It takes a great deal of effort to change direction, but even a small change can lead to a very different destination over time. For the last six years, the health sector has been moving toward more free-market solutions, introducing patient choice and competition into a system that had been largely dominated by top-down, centralized management. A few very … [Read more...] about The Real Agenda

President Bush devoted the week to making a big push for his health reform plan, starting with his Saturday radio address, then a meeting on Tuesday at the White House, and a hospital tour and a roundtable discussion in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Wednesday. All of this sends a strong signal about the importance that the White House attaches to health care and to energizing a positive conversation … [Read more...] about Health Care Week

The upcoming debate over health insurance for children will send a strong signal about the direction that the health policy debate will take in the new Congress. The State Children's Health Insurance Program must be reauthorized this year or it will expire. And some states are running out of money and have their hands out to Washington for more. When Congress created SCHIP 10 years ago, it set … [Read more...] about Cover Kids First

The steady pace of new health reform plans continues, teeing up for the 2008 presidential debates, with two more proposals released this week. Compare and contrast these two: An unusual partnership including Wal-Mart, labor unions, AT&T, and several policy groups this week announced four principles to create ?a new American health care system by 2012.? They call for universal coverage and … [Read more...] about You Decide