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Sunday, November 8, 2009
 
 
RESEARCH   AREAS
 
Health Care Policy
 

This section of the website gathers together AEI research, books, and events focused on health care policy, including health coverage and private insurance.

 
Feature: The Continuing Health Reform Debate

House and Senate leaders are preparing for floor debate to reconcile the differences in the five major health care bills. AEI scholars are analyzing the various bills--and what they will mean for the future of health care.

  • Scott Harrington responded to the summary Baucus provided in the Enterprise Blog, saying it "reflects the same basic 'government knows best' philosophy and therefore has substantially the same drawbacks as HR 3200.

  • On the Health Affairs blog, Thomas P. Miller criticizes a national health exchange, which he says "aims to route all significant health care choices through a centralized political toll booth." His article in Health Affairs examines the unsettled state of measuring hospital and physician performance.

  • Joseph Antos's AEI Working Paper and recent Health Policy Outlook argue that while market reforms will not be a panacea in terms of bringing down health care costs, market discipline is necessary for effective reform. In a Wall Street Journal article with the Galen Institute's Grace-Marie Turner, he argues that Medicare should not be seen as a good model for reform. In The American, he and former intern Jeet Guram present the reasons a public plan will eliminate private insurers, not make them better.

  • Antos and Mark V. Pauly joined other notable academics and scholars to provide an outline for reducing long-term health expenditures in a recent paper released by The Brookings Institution.

  • Prior to the president's speech on health care reform to a joint session of Congress, Newt Gingrich and Martin Feldstein offered suggestions to the president. Gingrich recommended replacing the existing reform plans with four or five health care bills that could garner bipartisan support while Feldstein raised concerns about the cost of health care. Despite the president's announcement that reform would not increase the deficit, Feldstein said "dropping the Obama health plan would significantly reduce fiscal deficits over the next decade and help restore public confidence in the ability of Congress to control spending."

  • In the Washington Examiner, Michael Barone writes that it is unrealistic to expect to save money by spending more.

  • In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Scott Gottlieb, M.D., points out that the U.S. government already does ration health care: Medicare has been rationing for years.

  • The collection of essays in Uncle Sam, M.D. (AEI Press, 2009) provides an indication of the range and depth of AEI's work in health care reform and pharmaceutical policy.

 
 
 
 
Let States Lead the Way
 
Washington's one-size-fits-all health care reform will not work.
 
Obamacare's Nasty Surprise
 
Obamacare could have the unintended consequence of raising health insurance premiums and causing a decline in the number of people with insurance.
 
Medicaid: The Forgotten Issue in Health Reform
 
Medicaid provides health care for the poorest and most severely disabled members of our society, and improving its quality should be a top priority.
 
Hitting the Sick in the Wallet
 
Taxes and other provisions in the current healthcare reform legislation will inflict the sick and the elderly with higher prices.
 
 
U.S. Markets for Vaccines Characteristics, Case Studies, and Controversies
 
This volume offers a balanced and comprehensive snapshot of the changing landscape for vaccine markets.  
 
Uncle Sam, M.D. AEI Scholars on Health Care and Pharmaceutical Reform
 
This collection of essays provides an indication of the range and depth of AEI’s work in health care reform and pharmaceutical policy.  
 
Innovation and Technology Adoption in Health Care Markets
 
Anupam B. Jena and Tomas J. Philipson argue that further use of cost-effectiveness analysis to curb health care spending may do more harm than good.  
 
 
PAST EVENTS
 
 
What are the scope and scale of problems in private insurance markets? Are private insurers angels or demons? This AEI event will discuss what is fact and what is fiction in this year's health reform debate and outline key reforms for the industry.
 
 
This event will discuss President Obama's health reform effort.
 
 
On July 22, AEI's health policy scholars provided analysis and answered questions on health care reform during a conference call.