Tag: health reform

A Bipartisan “What’s Next” for U.S. Health Reform

[This past week, I was one of the co-authors of a consensus policy paper on short-term steps that would stabilize the ACA health insurance marketplaces and address some other urgent health policy priorities such as reauthorization of the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP).  The paper was authored by a group of 9 policy experts (5 on the Republican/conservative side and 4 on the Democratic/progressive side).  While the ideas are not revolutionary, we show that bipartisan consensus is possible and offers hope for saner and more balanced policy — we hope!  Here is the paper below:]

The Congressional effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) has stalled, sparking urgent questions about what’s next and whether a bipartisan agreement could be achieved to address important U.S. health reform needs. We believe that critical matters relating to health reform must be addressed quickly and that bipartisan approaches are possible.

We are health policy analysts and advocates who join in this agreement. While we hold diverse political views and policy outlooks, we believe that health reform solutions exist that can transcend partisanship and ideology.

In this commentary, we describe our bipartisan agreement on five health policy matters that should be addressed by the end of the federal fiscal year, September 30. These recommendations are designed to provide stability in markets until a longer-term resolution can be achieved and, most importantly, to protect coverage and health care access for those relying on them now. Continue reading “A Bipartisan “What’s Next” for U.S. Health Reform”

Reheating Health Stew

Health Stew John 300x300_editedAbout 12 months ago, I suspended writing this blog, Health Stew, which I had produced since late 2011. The original site for the Stew, boston.com, ended their Community Voices series, and I had some big work commitments that convinced me to take a hiatus.  I also, naively, believed that in 2014, after implementation of the big access expansions of the Affordable Care Act were done, that health policy would, finally, get boring again.  Boy, was I wrong!

So after a year off, I’m back with the Stew as an independent blogging site for me, and I hope for others looking for a nontraditional and nonaligned site for commentary and analysis on health policy and politics in Boston, Massachusetts, the US, and around the globe.

Why do this?  I do this because I feel a need to add my voice to those who seek to advance a fairer, more just, more equitable, smarter, and better health care system for all Americans.  I don’t — and can’t — pretend to be neutral when it comes to the Affordable Care Act — or ObamaCare.  I was one of an army of Congressional staff who worked on the writing and passage of the law between 2008 and 2010. I wrote a book about the ACA called Inside National Health Reform to help people understand both the process to passage and the substance of this most important federal law.  I believe in health reform as a continuous process that never ends and, we can hope, gets better.

I chose the name Health Stew because I like stew and I like the image of a lot of ingredients coming together to produce a nutritious and tasty dish with an attractive aroma.  My interests in health policy are wide ranging and include access, quality, costs, public health, health inequities and disparities, health politics, history, economics, psychology, sociology, law, finance, and much more.

If you want to catch up, you can check out all my earlier Health Stew posts by clicking here.  They are reverse chronological, and my advisers and I are trying to figure out how to make them all more easily searchable and categorized.  Stay tuned.

My special thanks to Jennifer Powell from the Excellent Writers Group for her great consultation and support, as well as to Tania Helhoski for her graphic design.

So much to talk about !  Let’s get started…