If Democrats can further advance toward near-universal coverage without the life-or-death struggles of Medicare for All, they just might achieve meaningful and historic progress even as they preserve political capital to make progress on other compelling and urgent policy needs.
I haven’t had as much time to write as I would like because of other commitments. One of those commitments has been working on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Culture of Health program as it relates to the U.S. business community. That experience has deepened my interest in the corporate role in the health care […]
[Commonwealth Magazine published this analysis and commentary on May 4 2019.] Many Bay State health care cognoscenti and politicos like to brag about Massachusetts health statistics. For years now, Massachusetts has performed well, at or near the top, in surveys of key health indicators among the 50 US states. For example, the United Health Foundation’s […]
[I wrote this new commentary, “Case Studies in Medicare for All,” for the Milbank Quarterly.] George Santayana’s famous quote—“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it”—comes to mind when considering prospects for a “Medicare for All” or single-payer health system revolution. There is history here demanding attention that goes beyond President Harry […]
This post appeared in the Health Affairs Blog on March 29, 2019: “The Fairness Project: A New Kid on the Block’s Role in Voter Driven Medicaid Expansions.” One surprising outcome from the November 2018 mid-term elections was voter approval of ballot initiatives expanding Medicaid coverage in Idaho, Nebraska, and Utah. These victories were preceded by […]
[The Milbank Quarterly just published this new commentary that I wrote for their November 2018 edition.] Ever since the US Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the expansion of Medicaid as required by the Affordable Care Act (ACA) must be optional rather than mandatory for states, health care advocates have worked heart and soul to […]
[This column appeared on the Health Affairs blog on Thursday, November 1.] Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that states must have an option whether or not to expand Medicaid as authorized in the Affordable Care Act, expansion has been a long, slow slog, state by state, inch by inch. While blue […]
[I co-wrote this opinion column with Paul Hattis for Commonwealth Magazine.] SHOULD MASSACHUSETTS establish mandated nurse-to-patient ratios in law for all the state’s acute care hospitals? This 25-year-old conflict between the Massachusetts Nurses Association and Massachusetts Hospital Association will be determined at the polls on November 6 as Question 1. We think not. We are university […]
FOR THE BETTER part of this decade, Massachusetts had been on a roll regarding its health system’s performance. Since passage of the 2006 universal health insurance law, we’ve been tops in having the lowest number of uninsured the nation. Recent national surveys on cost, quality, access, and public health from the Commonwealth Fund, the United […]
