Health Policy

(WASHINGTON, DC) At an event today with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the New America Foundation released a report highlighting the hidden costs that all Californians pay due to the large number of those with little or no health care insurance coverage. Governor Schwarzenegger toured the emergency room at the California Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles to highlight the hidden costs of the 6.5 million Californians without health care insurance.

Health insurance is the primary method Californians use to access and pay for health care. However, millions of Californians have inadequate health insurance or lack coverage entirely. When care is needed, the first inclination for these families is to delay treatment that is too costly and then hope for the best. And when hope is not enough, these families are forced to seek treatment that they often cannot afford. When medical bills go unpaid, many health care providers shift the cost onto those who can pay -- the those with health insurance...

Governor Schwarzenegger has said that the top goal he will announce next year is to expand health insurance coverage to all Californians. This half-day conference was designed to provide him and others with fresh answers to the hard questions of how coverage expansion can be financed and how responsibility could be shared among families, employers, and government.

Frustrated by the lack of action or even attention at the federal level, states and local governments are looking for creative ways to expand programs to reach the 47 million Americans without health insurance. There have already been a number of creative initiatives by states and localities over the last five years to cover more of the uninsured, which deserve our review.

In the final days of this fall’s campaign, Republicans have turned to an unexpected issue: the economy. President Bush touted the nation’s prosperity last week, insisting that "a strong economy is going to help our candidates."

The safety net on which Americans once relied is fast unraveling. With retirement plans in growing jeopardy and health coverage eroding, more and more economic risk is being shifted away from government and business and onto the fragile shoulders of the American family. And no matter how well educated and hard working, many Americans fear that bankruptcy could be just one unexpected lay off or health crisis away.

America's leaders say the economy is strong and getting stronger. But ordinary Americans aren't buying it. They see what the rosy statistics hide: We are all struggling under the weight of terrifying economic instability. No matter how well educated and hard working we are, we know that the bottom can fall out at any moment. Meanwhile, the safety net that once protected us is fast unraveling. With retirement plans in growing jeopardy while health coverage erodes, more and more economic risk is shifting from government and business onto the fragile shoulders of the American family.

From sea to shining sea, many Americans agree: Our health care system is broken. The uninsured now exceed 46 million and health costs keep growing faster than incomes, facts that strain household, employer, and government budgets alike. Awareness of mediocre quality and poor safety performance is spreading beyond academic whispers to mainstream headlines. Still, Washington fiddles and tries to change the subject. Why the chasm between awareness and action?

Conflicts of interest may be endemic to American medical research, but better policy could improve the chances that we draw the right conclusions about which drugs are best for which conditions and for whom.  The New America Foundation invited Ross McKinney, M.D., Vice Dean of Research at Duke’s Medical School, and Jerry Hoffman, M.D., emergency department physician and professor of clinical epidemiology at UCLA, to join Schwartz Senior Fellow Shannon Brownlee to discuss the realities, incentives, and policy options before us.  Len Nichols, Director of the Health Policy Program at New Ameri

In the second of a series of sponsored conversations about the future of the employer-based health insurance system, Sens. Gordon Smith (R-OR) and Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) offered their perspectives on how the employer system can continue to provide coverage for American workers and their families, if appropriate bi-partisan policy actions are taken soon. Both senators are authors of legislation designed to encourage more small firms to offer insurance to their employees.