Health stories in the news – July 6

Health reform is within reach says New York Times columnist

New York Times columnist and Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman cites the latest analysis by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to back his claim that substantive health reform is within reach of Congress this summer.

“…last week the budget office scored the full proposed legislation from the Senate committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP). And the news — which got far less play in the media than the downbeat earlier analysis — was very, very good. Yes, we can reform health care.”

Supporters of the HELP legislation argue that the CBO’s analysis shows it is possible to provide health insurance to 97 percent of Americans without busting the budget, though skeptics say the final cost of the legislation will be much higher.

But Krugman says “serious health economists have known all along: on general principles, universal health insurance should be eminently affordable,” and he points to the French system, which provides care at half the cost of the U.S. health-care system.

The last remaining obstacle, Krugman argues, are “the ‘centrist’ senators, most of them Democrats, who have been holding up reform can no longer claim either that universal coverage is unaffordable or that it won’t work.”

That CBO analysis shows that universal coverage is, indeed, affordable, Krugman says.

“The only question now is whether a combination of persuasion from President Obama, pressure from health reform activists and, one hopes, senators’ own consciences will get the centrists on board — or at least get them to vote for cloture, so that diehard opponents of reform can’t block it with a filibuster.”

To learn more:

• Read Paul Krugman’s column HELP is on the way.
• Read the Congressional Budget Office’s analysis.

Virginia Mason CEO cited in New York Times op-ed

In an New York Times op-ed, former Secretary of Treasury Paul O’Neil cites Virginia Mason’s CEO Dr. Gary Kaplan as an example of one of the doctors who are improving healthcare and cutting cost by reducing hospital infections.

O’Neil argues that quality improvement measures that reduce medical errors and hospital infections and increase the health system’s overall efficiency could save $1 trillion over a decade.

“Let’s consider that $1 trillion of waste. If we could capture all of it, the savings over 10 years would be five times what President Obama has said he will extract from insurance companies over the same period.”

“…Among those doctors showing the way are Brent James at Intermountain Health in Utah, Gary Kaplan at Virginia Mason Clinic in Seattle and Richard Shannon at the University of Pennsylvania, who have helped bring infection rates down drastically at their own hospitals and at others.”

To learn more:

Read Paul O’Neill’s op-ed: Health Care’s Infectious Losses.

Seattle Times applauds Court’s special education ruling

The Seattle Times editorial page has endorsed the U.S. Supreme Courts decision that public school districts must pay for special-ed students schooling in private schools if the districts cannot provide adequate services in district schools.

The decision, Times’ editors argue, levels the playing field so that parents now have more clout when negotiating with schools for special education services:

“Parents still shoulder the burden of proving school officials failed to meet their legal obligations. But now parents stymied by a district that stubbornly refuses to offer adequate services has another route.”

To learn more:

• Read the Seattle Times editorial: Fair Play on Special Education.
• Read Washington Post’s “On Parenting” blogger Stacey Garfinkle’s analysis of the Court’s ruling.

Category: Health Insurance, Health-care Policy, Healthcare Reform, Insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, Virginia Mason