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Congratulations to Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida for putting forward a bold plan to bring consumer choice and competition into the state's struggling Medicaid program. The plan he announced this week would give Medicaid recipients a choice of private plans that will offer basic care, catastrophic coverage, and an option for funded flexible spending accounts that can be used by the recipient to buy … [Read more...] about Bold Plans

The new Congress now has convened, and President Bush has been certified by the Electoral College so we're off and running with a fresh, new policy debate. The White House economic summit in December set an agenda for the next year and beyond that will begin with a debate over Social Security and move into tax reform and tort reform. Will health care fall by the wayside? Not likely. In his first … [Read more...] about Off and Running

The White House Conference on the Economy, held this week in Washington, was a huge success, vividly demonstrating how public policy affects real people and emphasizing the serious need for tax, health, and entitlement reform so America can ?stay on the leading edge of innovation? in a 21st century global economy. The president joined in two of the six panel discussions (on Social Security and … [Read more...] about The Summit

Three noted economists writing in The Wall Street Journal this week claim to have found the silver bullet to solve the problems in the health sector. The answer, they write, lies in allowing ?all health care expenses - employee contributions to employer-provided insurance, individually purchased insurance and out-of-pocket spending? to be tax deductible to everyone. Click here to read the … [Read more...] about No Silver Bullet

The California Medical Association devoted its annual Leadership Academy in La Quinta November 19-21 to exploring Access, Quality and Cost in the Era of Consumerism." Greg Scandlen and I were among the speakers addressing consumer-directed health care, and Greg did a splendid job of setting the stage with his historical overview of how the market in the health sector has become so distorted. Click … [Read more...] about Meetings Galore

This is a special combined edition of Health Policy Matters and Consumer Choice Matters. We want to draw attention - and discussion - to a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bring essential change to health care financing. It would be a shame to let this opportunity slip through our fingers. President Bush has made a fundamental rewriting and simplification of the tax code a priority of his second … [Read more...] about The Importance of Tax Reform

There was a quickening of interest this week in our work on consumer-directed care, with medical associations, investment groups, and others who may have been taking a wait-and-see approach to the election results suddenly wanting to learn more. The election was consequential in determining whether this new approach to engaging consumers as partners in managing health costs will indeed be … [Read more...] about New Interest

One lesson learned over the last several decades of health policy battles is that bi-partisan action is key. While health care never became a top-tier issue in the presidential campaign, exit polls showed that 70% of voters were ?very concerned? about health care costs and availability. Several newly-elected legislators from both sides of the aisle, such as Democratic Senator-elect Barack Obama … [Read more...] about Health Care Unity: The Top Ten List