This column explores how health reform is changing the ways in which we pay for and deliver health care in the U.S. It also highlights the ways in which our current system is falling short on measures of coverage, access and affordability. On any given week, that could mean a look at how Republican plans to repeal Obamacare could reshape the individual insurance market, how the safety net system is adapting to new financial pressures, or how the trend of doctors and hospitals merging into ever-larger entities is driving up costs. We also explore health care costs and whether the Affordable Care Act or its successor plans can live up to the promise to rein them in. Throughout, we keep watch on how the goals of health reform intersect with the shaping power of markets and human behavior. Contributors include veteran health journalist Trudy Lieberman and independent health journalist Kellie Schmitt, with occasional contributions from independent journalists such as Susan Abram and Sara Stewart.
In Bakersfield, Calif., researchers found 30-day readmission rates dropped significantly when pharmacists where given a larger role in caring for patients.
Why not allow Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices? Economists such as Neeraj Sood worry such a move would hamper crucial innovations over time. But not everyone agrees.
"Our health care system remains in a crisis," writes the CEO of Molina Healthcare. "Both the AHCA and the ACA only address the funding of health care and fail to tackle the troubling rate at which health care costs are rising."
The media critic in Jost laments that "so much coverage is focused on politics within the Republican Party, to a much greater extent than on what the legislation would specifically do."
Conservative notions about the "undeserving poor" have returned with a vengeance in the debate over Medicaid, writes contributor Trudy Lieberman.
The Affordable Care Act has done far less to control health care costs than many media accounts would lead you to believe. Columnist Trudy Lieberman shows how reporters can cut through the spin.
In the age of fake news and alternative facts, party politics and the pursuit of media attention too often trump meaningful discussion and informed debate.
"We are now in another war of words over health care," writes Trudy Lieberman, "and the first casualty, as in any war, is always truth." For examples, look no further than the recent dialogue on Medicare.
Speakers Joseph Antos of the American Enterprise Institute, MIT's Jonathan Gruber, and Politico health care reporter Jennifer Haberkorn help us sort through the massive changes on the health reform horizon.
Like many middle-class Americans who do not qualify for ACA subsidies, Mike Pirner saw his health expenses rise under the law, causing him to forestall seeking care.