Essay Examines Health Care, Economy; Statehealthfacts.org Posts Updated, New Information on Medicare, Medicaid

• "Health IN the Economy," Kaiser Family Foundation: The essay by Kaiser Family Foundation President and CEO Drew Altman looks at the implications of the economy rising and health care falling as political issues in polls of the public. Drawing from the Foundation's latest polls and analyses, it concludes that health care "should be seen as part of the public's broader and rising economic concerns" and that "the rise of economic worries and problems, rather than becoming a reason to defer action on health, could present an opportunity to reframe the issue as the public sees it: as a single overarching problem of the affordability of care." The essay is the third in a new Foundation series, called "Pulling it Together ... from Drew Altman." Previous essays examined the fundamental differences between Democrats and Republicans and liberals and conservatives on health reform and described steps that could lead to or impede the first major national discussion on health reform since the 1990s (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 5/1).
  
  
• New and updated data, Statehealthfacts.org: Statehealthfacts.org has added new and updated data on Medicare and Medicaid. New data from the CMS Office of the Actuary on Medicare on Medicare spending estimates by state of residence for 1995 through 2004 are available for all states. These estimates are based on where individuals reside and include total Medicare spending; spending on hospital care, physician services, dental services, home health care, drugs and nursing home care; total per enrollee spending; per enrollee spending by service type; and the average annual percent growth in Medicare spending from 1995 to 2004. New data on total Medicaid spending estimates by state of residence for 1995 through 2004 also are available for all states (Kaiser Family Foundation release, 5/1).