Health Affairs Blog

Medicare Smackdown Had Humble Beginnings

No doubt that Teddy Kennedy’s dramatic return to the Capitol on Wednesday and the senatorial smackdown on Medicare that ensued were the stuff of legend. With Kennedy’s vote putting the Senate...

Eight Days: A Health Care Diary

PAIN (Chicago, June 19 – June 21) I sit down at a circular table in the high-ceilinged meeting room and conversationally ask the two women already there what brought them to this three-day...

Obesity Rising In China

Like the United States, China is grappling with a serious obesity epidemic, with more than 25 percent of its adults considered overweight or obese, according to a study out today in Health Affairs....

On Physician Payment, Medicare Advantage Cuts: A Game Of Chicken

Editor’s Note: Shorter versions of this post have appeared on The Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review and The Health Care Blog.  Senate Democrats and Republicans are engaged in one heck...

Health Affairs Briefing: Health In India And China

India and China have undergone major economic transformations in the past quarter-century – and each now has a middle class that is bigger than the entire U.S. population. Their health care systems...

Access Woes Intensify Cost Dilemma

For the second time in as many weeks, a respected research organization has reported sharp increases in reported difficulties with access to care for insured as well as uninsured patients. Earlier...

Bernanke’s View Of Health Care On Health Wonk Review

Today’s edition of the Health Wonk Review features a post on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s economic assessment of health care presented at last week’s Senate Finance...

Public Coverage Seen As Most Efficient For Uninsured

Covering low-income people through public programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, rather than through private health insurance, results in lower per-person...

Should FDA Regulate Nanomedicine Differently?

Editor’s Note: In an interview published this week, Health Affairs Contributing Editor Barbara Culliton asks Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Associate Commissioner For Science, Norris Alderson,...

Health Affairs Focuses On Rising Underinsurance, Massachusetts Reforms

As health coverage expansion and its attendant costs are debated on the campaign trail and in Congress and state legislatures, two recent Health Affairs articles dealing with coverage issues – one on...