Category Archives: National Health Policy

Health Reform Realism

Posted on August 3, 2018 by

[I wrote this new commentary for the Milbank Quarterly.] In noticeable ways our current health reform period resembles the 2005-2006 era when political leaders, stakeholders, and think tanks began formulating proposals to prepare for a future national effort to achieve … Continue reading →

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Revisiting the Land of the Individual Mandate

Posted on May 4, 2018 by

[This new commentary was just published by the Milbank Quarterly.] The years 2013 through 2016 were excruciating for the Massachusetts Health Connector. In 2013, the Connector was among the nation’s most troubled federal/state health insurance exchanges, as it endured an … Continue reading →

Posted in Affordable Care Act, Health Policy, Health Politics, Health Stew, Massachusetts Health Care, National Health Policy, States | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Looking Back on the Desegregation of U.S. Hospitals in 1966

Posted on March 24, 2018 by

[Last summer, I wrote the following review of  The Power to Heal: Civil Rights, Medicare, and the Struggle to Transform America’s Health Care System by David Barton Smith.  The review just came out in The Common Reader.  I still think … Continue reading →

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Mad About States

Posted on February 9, 2018 by

[This column was just published on the website of the Milbank Quarterly.] A consistent theme in 2017 Republican Congressional efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was the intent to empower the 50 states to use federal … Continue reading →

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Pray for the Dead and Fight like Hell for the Living.

Posted on December 21, 2017 by

[The Washington Post’s Health 202 Column offered a set of “eulogies” on the fate of the ACA’s individual mandate — the mandate penalty was reduced to zero by the Republican’s newly approved tax-cut legislation.  I had the last word…]  … … Continue reading →

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The Republican Tax Cut’s Silver Linings Playbook

Posted on December 21, 2017 by

[I’ve been super busy this fall and unable to keep up with writing about the ACA.  I’m back in the saddle and here I go again.  This commentary was just published on the Commonwealth Magazine website.] A CORE TENET of … Continue reading →

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Questions for New Single Payer Advocates

Posted on October 4, 2017 by

[This commentary was posted by the Milbank Quarterly this week.] Seeing, hearing, reading, and feeling the new grassroots ferment among progressive Americans for a single-payer health care system, my gut reaction is: I get it. As newly documented in Elizabeth … Continue reading →

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