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.

George Miller and Charles Roehrig of Altarum's Online Health Policy Forum discuss presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama's (D-Ill.) health care proposal and whether it would address the availability of health insurance and make the health system more sustainable.

Peter Harbage on the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room writes that a Wall Street Journal editorial, which stated that advisers to Obama "support plans much like" Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.), uses advisers' statements "out-of-context and completely ignores the fundamental differences" between McCain's plan and the advisers' approach to health reform. Harbage continues, "Ending [the] employee tax deduction without additional reforms -- reforms opposed by Sen. McCain -- will weaken our health care system."

Merrill Goozner on Gooz News discusses a recent New York Times opinion piece by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane that recommends the development of a comparative effectiveness agency. Goozner writes that "objectivity, independence and eliminating conflicts of interest must be the watchwords of the new comparative effectiveness agency" or it "will become just another shouter in the health information marketplace."

Hannah Kim Quach on the Health Access Weblog looks at articles about people struggling to pay for medical care and says that "no one polled on the street would likely guess that a family with a $400,000-a-year income would also have to worry."

John Igleheart on the Health Affairs Blog examines efforts in the U.S. to strengthen primary care services using a medical home model, as well as coalitions supporting the model and challenges to implementation.

The Health Care Blog's Christopher Weaver notes health care moved up to the third-most-covered election issue by the media in the last week, on par with the rank voters have given it in public opinion polls. Weaver also provides excerpts from some of the coverage.

The Healthcare Economist's Jason Shafrin assesses the tax implications of McCain's health care proposal on individuals with different insurance costs and income tax rates.

Health Populi's Jane Sarasohn-Kahn responds to a new survey from the Medical Group Management Association that found trends in operating costs exceeded revenue growth in many medical practices in 2007, saying, "Just when America needs primary care at the nexus of patient-centered care, primary care physicians are being hard hit."

Managed Care Matters' Joe Paduda concludes it is unknown whether McCain's health care proposal "would result in a rapid decline in employer-based coverage," but adds, "In a soft job market, employers will find it easier to drop coverage, and once it's gone, it isn't likely to return."

Marilyn Werber Serafini of the National Journal's Health Care Expert Blog asks, "What are the essential components of incremental or phased-in reform, and in what order must they be implemented, to build the infrastructure that a reformed system requires?" Responses follow from Karen Davis, John Goodman, David Kendall and Robert Reischauer.