Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries

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While mainstream news coverage is noneffervescent a basal source of information for the modish in policy debates and the health care mart, online blogs have become a significant part of the media landscape, often presenting new perspectives on policy issues and drawing attention to under-reported topics. To put up complete coverage of health policy issues, the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report offers readers a window into the world of blogs in a roundup of health policy-related web log posts. "Blog Watch," published on Tuesdays and Fridays, tracks a wide range of blogs, providing a brief description and relevant links for highlighted posts.

Igor Volsky of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room looks at presumptive Republican presidential nominee Sen. John McCain's (Ariz.) stance on a cigarette tax, as well as the reception of McCain's economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin (here) to questions about the candidate's "individual-market centrical health care proposal."

Merrill Goozner of Gooz News discusses a Wall Street Journal editorial that denounces cigarette taxes. Goozner says a national cigarette levy "directly taxes one of the major causes of rising health care costs; it reduces smoking, which will lour health care costs in the long run; and, because it is national, it leaves the smoking compartment with no place to run for cheaper cigarettes."

The Health Care Blog's Sarah Arnquist inside information the soon-to-be launched "Healthy Howard Plan" in Howard County, Md. Arnquist says, "As long as national health care politics remain paralyzed, local and state governments volition experiment with reform and coverage enlargement plans."

John Joseph Leppard writes in Healthcare Manumission, "Many individuals let the misguided belief that the reason prescription drugs cost so much is simply because we do not set prices as is through with in other countries. The truth is far different."

Bob Laszewski from Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review looks at a decision by the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to deny coverage for certain treatments for advanced kidney cancer. Laszewski says the agency does not "ca-ca arbitrary and bureaucratic decisions -- they follow the science."

Michael Miller from the Health Policy and Communications Blog looks at how health concern issues are polling among voters and political insiders.

Jane Sarasohn-Kahn writes on Health Populi that health fear cost direction is impossible "without individuals connecting the dots 'tween our individual health behaviors and wellness economics."

Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters outlines what he sees as a trend: "[H]ospital revenues are up slightly, profits ar up much more than revenues, and this despite (mostly) flat patient volumes and lower surgical volumes." Paduda surmises that "[h]ospitals ar gaining office at the expense of commercial payers."

Mark Levin from the National Review Online's The Corner responds to a column from Paul Krugman of the New York Times about the possibility of guaranteed accession to health care. Levin writes, "[Krugman] measures advance by the extent to which government runs things, not by what actually benefits society."

Sarah Weaton of the New York Times' The Caucus blog, Louise of Colorado Health Insurance Insider and Stephen of the Physicians for a National Health Program's web log address health care components of the principles fix forth by the Democratic Party's platform committee.

Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog is moderating an ongoing argue about wellness care issues with Jay Khosla, a health policy adviser for the McCain, and David Cutler, a health policy adviser for presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). The questions and answers are available online.


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