The New Health Dialogue

A Blog from New America's Health Policy Program

IN THE STATES: Pennsylvania County Tries Talking Instead of Suing

  • By
  • Joanne Kenen
March 4, 2008

Malpractice reform has an honored place on the long list of health issues that Congress remains stalemated on, year in and year out. There are legitimate disagreements about the extent of the problem and how to address it -- and there are some political advantages in keeping malpractice reform on the political "red meat" menu. <!--break__-->[slideshow] Encouraging more mediation and arbitration (instead of more lawsuits) has some appeal on both sides of the spectrum, but it hasn't gotten a lot of federal traction. One county in Pennsylvania has begun a pilot program.

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CULTURE BEAT: "Critical Condition" Shows Care Quality Gap for the Uninsured

  • By
  • Joanne Kenen
March 4, 2008

We saw a preview the other night of "Critical Condition" a new documentary that shows how for the uninsured, access to health care is too little, too late. The film will air on PBS's "Point of View" next Sept. 30, shortly before the presidential election, but before then filmmaker Roger Weisberg is screening it at town meetings and policy forums across the country. :

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POLITICS: Hardball Host Says Health Reform "No Cloud of Dust" Football Game

  • By
  • Paul Testa
March 4, 2008

One model that won’t work for national health reform: Big 10 football. At least that’s what Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC’s Hardball With Chris Matthews, told America's Health Insurance Plans, the leading health insurance trade group, at its annual policy forum.

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POLITICS: The Great Mandate Debate

  • By
  • Joanne Kenen
March 4, 2008

The big health policy difference between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is, naturally, the question of the individual mandate. We here at New America do support the idea of requiring everyone to be insured (with adequate subsidies for low-income people). But we are glad that the dispute is increasingly being seen as a disagreement about means, not a war about ends, that can be resolved reasonably amicably when Congress takes up health reform next year.

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COVERAGE: Next Station, A Healthier America

  • By
  • Paul Testa
March 4, 2008

The other day, we hopped on the Red Line Metro to Union Station where the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation unveiled its Commission to Build a Healthier America to examine non-medical determinants of health in America. RWJF knows how to unveil a commission—reports in color, coffee in porcelain—but the take -home piece for us was a small map showing that in the 30 miles from Union Station in Washington, D.C. to the end of Red Line in Shady Grove, Md., the average life span of residents varies from 72 years to 81.3 years.

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