Health Care Reform Articles - December 16, 2010

December 13, 2010

Years of Wrangling Lie Ahead for Health Law

By KEVIN SACK

By contradicting two prior opinions, Monday’s court ruling in Virginia against the Obama health care law highlighted both the novelty of the constitutional issues and the difficulty of forging consensus among judges who bring differences in experience, philosophy and partisan background to the bench.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/health/policy/14legal.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

December 13, 2010

Panel Set to Study Safety of Electronic Patient Data

By MILT FREUDENHEIM

Almost two years ago, President Obama pledged $19 billion in stimulus incentives to help convert the nation’s doctors and hospitals to using a paperless system of electronic health records intended to improve the quality of care and reduce costs. But the conversion is still a slow work in progress.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/14/business/14records.html?emc=eta1&pagewanted=print

“God Help You. You're on Dialysis.”

Every year, more than 100,000 Americans start dialysis. One in four of them will die within 12 months—a fatality rate that is one of the worst in the industrialized world. Oh, and dialysis arguably costs more here than anywhere else. Although taxpayers cover most of the bill, the government has kept confidential clinic data that could help patients make better decisions. How did our first foray into near-universal coverage, begun four decades ago with such great hope, turn out this way? And what lessons does it hold for the future of health-care reform?

By ROBIN FIELDS/PROPUBLICA

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/12/-8220-god-help-you-you-39-re-on-dialysis-8221/8308/

December 14, 2010

Opposition to Health Law Is Steeped in Tradition

By DAVID LEONHARDT

“We are against forcing all citizens, regardless of need, into a compulsory government program,” said one prominent critic of the new health care law. It is socialized medicine, he argued. If it stands, he said, “one of these days, you and I are going to spend our sunset years telling our children, and our children’s children, what it once was like in America when men were free.”

The health care law in question was Medicare, and the critic was Ronald Reagan. He made the leap from actor to political activist, almost 50 years ago, in part by opposing government-run health insurance for the elderly.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/business/economy/15leonhardt.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=print

December 14, 2010

Ruling Has Some Mulling the Necessity of Mandating Insurance

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON — Though they have battled for more than a year, President Obama and the health insurance industry agree that the requirement for most Americans to obtain insurance, struck down by a federal judge, is absolutely essential to the success of the new health care law.

Without it, they say, the whole package collapses, dashing hopes for universal coverage and cost control. Ripping the mandate from the law would have “devastating consequences,” the White House said Tuesday.

But not everyone agrees. In the wake of the decision Monday, which held that the individual mandate was unconstitutional, some lawmakers and some consumer advocates are investigating possible alternatives.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/15/health/policy/15mandate.html?pagewanted=print

December 15, 2010

Health Suits Stir Concerns on Court Partisanship

By KEVIN SACK

PENSACOLA, Fla. — With a loose web of conservative plaintiffs leading the charge, and judicial rulings breaking thus far along ideological lines, the drive to scuttle the Obama health care law is once again highlighting the role of partisanship in America’s courts.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/health/policy/16health.html?pagewanted=print

After Expanding Coverage, Mass. Looks To Cut Costs

BOSTON — Four years after Massachusetts embarked on the nation's most ambitious health care overhaul, Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders are stepping up efforts to rein in spiraling insurance costs.

Those costs are threatening to undermine the 2006 health care law, which mandated nearly universal health coverage and provided a blueprint for the national health care overhaul pushed by President Obama.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/12/11/5628299-after-expanding-coverage-mass-looks-to-cut-costs

New day in court for health reform By: Jennifer Haberkorn December 16, 2010 12:10 AM EST

The health care reform law confronts its most high-profile and politically charged challenge in a Florida courtroom Thursday, just three days after a federal judge in Virginia struck down a piece of the law in a similar case. http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.cfm?uuid=ED701DDA-0B3F-976E-C54242EBE18E32BC