Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Policy Positions: Health Spending Is 'The American Way'; What Becomes Of Medicare; And Does Universal Health Care Equal Freedom?
Bloomberg: Spending A Lot On Health Care Is The American Way
The U.S. has some of the most expensive medicine in the world, with health-care spending now almost 18 percent of gross domestic product. But why? And might we hope to get this spending down? Unfortunately, expensive health care is embedded in the American way of life -- more specifically, the American desire to live it up with high consumption. (Tyler Cowen, 7/20)
Forbes: How GOP Will Still Carve Up Medicare
The rehashed House GOP budget blueprint wants to reshape Medicare into more of a Medicare Advantage model, which now covers some 19 million Americans. What does that mean? Funding for the guaranteed part of Medicare would be shifted into the privatized scheme. You'd receive a fixed stipend or "premium support" to buy a private policy on an exchange. (John Wasik, 7/19)
USA Today: Dear America, Universal Health Care Is What Real Freedom Looks Like
In 1991, after nearly 10 years of recurring wracking pain in my lower abdomen, I walked into a hospital in Helsinki, Finland. I wasn't a Finnish citizen and wasn't, at that time, married to one. I was an American writer visiting my Finnish boyfriend, working temporarily in Helsinki. An admitting nurse listened to my symptoms and guessed my problem — a diagnosis that received preliminary confirmation by ultrasound within the hour. (Anne Korkeakivi, 7/20)
