By
With 258 House and 57 Senate Democrats, it’s almost certain that major health
reform will be passed, right?
Actually, that was the number of Democrats Bill Clinton started off with in 1993 and we know what happened to health care reform in that Congress.
With similar Democratic majorities, I do not expect a major health care reform bill like the one President-Elect Barack Obama called for during the campaign–in 2009 or 2010.
When Obama takes office in January, the economy will be his first
priority, followed by the war in Iraq. Health care will follow as his
next major issue to address. What will he do? I imagine
he’ll take a phased approach to ensuring all Americans have access to
health care. Given the change management needed to accomplish this, it
will take a while. FULL POST
A year ago, health care held a solid lead in the polls as the number
one concern of the American people. But by the time the Iowa caucuses
closed, and Barack Obama surged to his unexpected win, it had been
supplanted by the economy … FULL POST
In the recent past, some progressives have warned that liberals made
a mistake when they reached out to minorities, new immigrants, and
gays, "ignoring" the mainstream middle class. But in fact,
"mainstream" America is no longer one recognizable culture. FULL POST
On THCB today Maggie Mahar basically tells the health reform crowd to be patient. But two members of the unreconstructed left in other venues don’t agree. In the NY Times Paul Krugman says that deficit spending is OK, and correctly points out that Obama has a real mandate to fix the underlying problems of middle America — and yes, that would include health care. FULL POST
Sermo has very quickly become the big Kahuna in the physician social
network space. So big in fact that its rivals trumpet how different
they are from it in their models and approach. VIDEO
In a letter of congratulations,
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus told Obama he’s already
got health reform on his radar.
THCB regular Michael Millenson doesn’t understand Baucus’ strategy.
Here’s Millenson’s two theories on what this could mean:
Scenario No. 1: The Republicans in Congress, chastened by their election losses, join in a lame-duck effort with Democrats who, in the a spirit of forgiveness and comity, help pass a bipartisan health care reform plan before Christmas. President Bush, fresh from long weeks of prayer and repentance, signs the bill on the morning of January 20 with President-elect Obama looking on. Bush hands him a pen, and then they step out onto the Capitol Rotunda for the swearing-in.Alternative scenario: Baucus holds a press conference and Obama aides wonder silently why a *!# Democratic senator is upstaging a guy from his own party who just won a resounding and historic victory with health care at the very center of it. Republicans, meanwhile, encourage Kennedy to introduce his own plan, and maybe Bernie Sanders wants to try his hand at a real socialist version and, by gosh, it sure is great to see the Democrats being Democrats.
On HealthBeat, I have talked about social solidarity as the key to meaningful health care reform.
In his victory speech, President-elect Obama sounded that theme repeatedly, reminding his audience that he had been elected “by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled—Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals…”
In the recent past, some progressives have warned that liberals made a mistake when they reached out to minorities, new immigrants, and gays, “ignoring” the mainstream middle class. But in fact, “mainstream” America is no longer one recognizable culture. It is fast becoming a “magnificent mosaic,” the phrase Mario Cuomo used when he ran to become mayor of New York City in 1977.
Barack Obama won, not because he managed to win over the white middle-class, or the white working class, but because he managed to put together a coalition from so many groups—including white voters. Many thanks to Ezra Klein for breaking down the vote: 31.82 percent of voters who chose Obama were white, just as 31.57 percent of the voters who stood for John Kerry in 2004 were white. But Obama won. What was the difference?Continue reading…
By John Halamka
When Obama takes office in January, the economy will be his first
priority, followed by the war in Iraq. Health care will follow as his
next major issue to address.
What will he do?
I imagine
he’ll take a phased approach to ensuring all Americans have access to
health care. Given the change management needed to accomplish this, it
will take a while.
However, Health care Information Technology
has broad bipartisan support and is his best strategy to reduce
health care costs, reimburse providers for quality instead of quantity,
and to ensure coordination of care. Here are my predictions for
health care IT in the first year of the Obama administration:
By 
Continuing his series of interviews about the business care for Health 2.0, here Scott Shreeve interviews Anna-Lisa Silvestre, the VP of Online Services for Kaiser Permanente.
SS: Anna-Lisa, nice to meet you. Tell me a little about your background?
AL: I started out with Kaiser Permanente 23 years
ago as a health educator. I was fortunate to be able to transition into
the interactive technology unit that was created in the mid 1990’s. We
had a singular focus on developing online capabilities back in the good
old HTML days. However, things have dramatically changed since then and
we now have over 2.5M members who have activated an online account; 60%
of those users signed on two or more times last year.
Sermo has very quickly become the big Kahuna in the physician social network space. So big in fact that its rivals trumpet how different they are from it in their models and approach. Yet it was only two years ago that Sermo was still putting a little votive candle in a net for every doctor who signed up—and the major problem it was facing was corralling the packs of dogs charging around its office in a basement in Cambridge, MA. A lot has happened in under two years, but I understand animal control is still a major function! So we thought that having Daniel Palestrant tell us where Sermo is now would be a great way to kick off day two at Health 2.0 and to talk about the new deal with Bloomberg. (The net broke at around 12,000 candles I believe, and no dogs were mentioned in the making of this video, sadly!)
By Robert Laszewski
President-Elect Obama, and about every candidate for Congress, has said he wants to change the partisan tone in Washington. Obama, the Democratic Congressional leadership, and the Republicans have a terrific opportunity to do just that on health care when they all come to Washington early next year.
As I posted earlier, I do not believe there is any chance we can see the enactment of the comprehensive Obama health plan in the near term.
But there are a number of important steps that can be taken next year and each of them have enjoyed strong bipartisan support during the past year:
By 
We know the name of the 44th President of the United States: Barack Obama. As the next President’s supporter Oprah Winfrey is known to ask, "What do you know for sure?" When it comes to health, there are a few things we know about a President Obama.
First and foremost, addressing challenges in U.S. health care will require a multi-pronged strategy which brings stakeholders together. The key health-aches to address will be:
This is not a one-man job, and Senator Obama knows that. He has surrounded himself with a cadre of experts who understand these Big Hairy Health Issues and are on the forefront of solutions. He has, thus far, made smart choices in his campaign staff and advisers. This is the concept known as "judgement."
By CHARLIE BAKERI’m pretty sure that most public policy types believe they are doing
the right kinds of things to encourage a greener and more resource
sustainable economy. And in many cases, I’m sure that translates into
a set of initiatives, laws and regulations that put the arm on private
sector organizations to do “better.” I was thinking about this
yesterday as I was looking at the massive, paper, perfect
bound provider directories Harvard Pilgrim is required by MA state law
to produce.
I then started to think about all the paper we are required to
produce under various state and federal statutes and regulations, and
all the mailings and letters we are required to send out to various
constituents – providers, employers, members – under other state and
federal statutes. I took a picture a couple of years ago of the amount
of paperwork – it covered a monstrous board room-like table in a very
large conference room – that the state of Massachusetts required us to
file to maintain our license to sell insurance in Massachusetts. I
remember thinking then, “what a waste.”
THCB's Podcasts
Listen to them on Itunes or Spotify
