Health Policy Program: Latest Articles

Twenty-five years ago, 49er quarterback Joe Montana connected with Dwight Clark on a last-minute miracle pass that changed the history of pro football forever. The metaphor for saving California health-care reform in 2007 resides in that memory.

Several national media reports of the death of reform are premature. But we are truly down to the final minute. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s original plan was good, but not perfect. Those for whom the perfect is the enemy of the good have effectively… more

On the Crow Indian Reservation this month, U.S. Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND), and Sen. Jon Tester (D-MT), led a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, addressing the severe lack of federal funds and management for the Indian Health Service. IHS officials, including acting chief medical officer Dr. Charles North, and tribal members testified to the shortage of qualified health professionals, closure of health facilities and cancellation of programs midway through the fiscal year.

A bipartisan collection of senators primarily from… more

Paul Levy, CEO of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and author of the taboo-busting Running a Hospital blog, wrote recently about a dilemma he faced involving the "da Vinci Surgical Robot." Levy has been advised that without purchasing a new da Vinci robot, the hospital’s prostate surgery volume will plummet because others will market this new treatment even if it’s not superior to current procedures -- and it might not be.

Last year, Levy reported that less invasive robotic… more

What do John Edwards, Ron Wyden, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Mitt Romney have in common? They each studied our health care mess and concluded that an individual mandate (along with reformed insurance markets and subsidies for people with low incomes) must be part of any comprehensive solution. This growing consensus makes it all the more puzzling that Barack Obama chose not to make mandates part of his initial health care proposal for the 2008 campaign, which he unveiled last week.

Americans… more

Abstract: Before the crucial upcoming debate over reauthorization of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) and all of the 10,000 general health reform questions that this discussion will engender, we should consider one fundamental moral question, for our answer will reveal the kinds of policies we actually want to pursue: Who should be allowed to sit at our health care table of plenty?

This essay sketches an answer to this question, drawing on the literature of various faith traditions as… more