Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

While mainstream news coverage is still a primary source of information for the latest in policy debates and the health care marketplace, online blogs have become a significant part of the media landscape, often presenting new perspectives on policy issues and drawing attention to under-reported topics. To provide complete coverage of health policy issues, the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report offers readers a window into the world of blogs in a roundup of health policy-related blog posts. "Blog Watch," published on Tuesdays and Fridays, tracks a wide range of blogs, providing a brief description and relevant links for highlighted posts.

The American Prospect's Ezra Klein, citing a recent Commonwealth Fund study that estimates 14% of the population was underinsured in 2007, writes that health insurance in the U.S. is not "binary," wherein people are insured or uninsured, but it "exists on a continuum, with some folks being totally insured, some folks being half insured and half uninsured, some folks being totally uninsured but having access to emergency rooms."

Merrill Goozner of Gooz News notes that hospital risk-adjusted death rates often do not distinguish between preventable and unpreventable deaths, which diminishes the value of hospital quality "report cards."

The Health Affairs Blog posts an extended discussion from consultant and blogger Bob Laszewski on negotiations over the scheduled 10.6% Medicare physician fee cut and proposed changes to Medicare Advantage. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) on The Hill's Congress Blog urges lawmakers to "act quickly" on the cut, saying that "at a minimum, Congress should approve a 31-day extension of existing physician payment law."

The Health Care Blog's Matthew Holt writes that physicians are "on the verge of getting politically active" online and have written a sort of "manifesto" on Sermo, an online community for physicians, that cites health insurers, government regulation and malpractice litigation as "factors [that] have made our current health care system unsustainable" and that has garnered more than 5,000 signatures.

Conn Carrol from the Heritage Foundation's The Foundry writes that "too much government regulation" plays a role in health care funding problems in New Jersey, in response to a Washington Post article about the state.

Len Nichols on the New America Foundation's New Health Dialogue discusses a new survey from the National Association of Evangelicals that finds many churches are facing challenges obtaining health insurance, leaving a significant number of pastors uninsured.

Jonathan Cohn from The New Republic's The Plank discusses a new Center for American Progress Action Fund paper on presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) health care plan, saying that the plan is a "crude and ineffective way of controlling costs" and that an approach that starts with guaranteeing coverage would control costs more effectively. Michael Cannon from Cato@Liberty disagrees with Cohn, writing, "If you're going to use 'universal coverage' and 'cost-containment' in the same breath, you'd better tell me where you're going to cut." The Center for American Progress' Action Fund's Wonk Room blog also has two posts (here and here) about findings from the paper.