The New Health Dialogue

A Blog from New America's Health Policy Program

COVERAGE: Can "Concierge Care" Cure What Ails the Poor?

  • By
  • Joanne Kenen
April 2, 2008

The terms "concierge medicine" "Palm Beach" "poverty" and "free medical care" don't necessarily go hand in hand but a group of Florida "VIP" physicians are starting an interesting initiative aimed at showing that close doctor-patient collaborations with an emphasis on wellness and good management of chronic disease can work for the poor and sick, not just the rich and healthy.

COVERAGE: Bipartisan Bill Addresses Small Business' Concerns

  • By
  • Elizabeth Carpenter
April 2, 2008

Left, right and center know that more than 80 percent of small businesses owners say finding affordable health care is a challenge. But lawmakers have been stalemated for years about a solution. Four senators took a bipartisan step forward today offering a bill called SHOP - the Small Business Health Options Program.

POLITICS: Across the Spectrum, Some Common Goals at the AMA

April 2, 2008

Ten years ago we couldn't even agree on the ultimate goal for health reform. Just a day ago, at the American Medical Association's National Advocacy Conference, I heard a whole lot of agreement on where we want to be -covering all Americans, providing better care, and reducing costs.

QUALITY: "Improving Care for Chronic Conditions" Event

  • By
  • Tom Emswiler
April 1, 2008

People are not getting the health care they need in America. They aren’t getting enough of the treatments that we know work and they may be getting too much of treatments with questionable value.

Issues:

COST: Crossing the Border for Better Health Care Value

  • By
  • Joanne Kenen
April 1, 2008

Medical tourism is no longer just the province of the uninsured and desperate. As health care costs soar in the United States, it is also the insured and their insurers who are scouring the globe for quality at a bargain. This is further evidence that one of our main tenets is true: reforming our delivery system to increase the value of our health care dollar is just as important as covering all Americans.

COST: Dealing With Financial Crises in Our Trauma System

April 1, 2008

Increasing financial strains are pushing Level I and II trauma centers to the point of breaking, according to a recent article on Grady Memorial Hospital— the only Level I trauma center serving Northern Georgia, which loses over $40 million a year on trauma care.

VOICES FOR REFORM: Preaching Hope to Health Care Journalists

  • By
  • Julie Barnes
April 1, 2008

Call us optimistic cheerleaders if you must, but our mission is to preach hope and dispel fears about the possibility of national health care reform.

QUALITY: In Good Company: Dennis Quaid and Preventing Medical Errors

  • By
  • Joanne Kenen
March 31, 2008

Imagine if your newborn twins, already hospitalized with an infection likely acquired at another hospital, were given two potentially fatal overdoses of a blood thinner. Imagine if your pediatrician (now your former pediatrician) did not call to tell you. Imagine if the night nurse told you everything was fine when you phoned to check on the babies. Imagine if you learned the truth when you arrived at the hospital at 6 a.m. to see your kids and were met by Risk Management.

VOICES FOR REFORM: Let a Thousand Health Care Flowers Bloom

  • By
  • Joanne Kenen
March 31, 2008

Dr. John Kitzhaber, physician, former Oregon governor, health researcher and prophet of comparative effectiveness, ended a provocative speech about health care not with graphs and charts and reams of numbers but with a photograph of flowers and the words of a poet, tending his garden for the last time. He wanted the flowers to bloom, he said, for the next generation.

BY THE NUMBERS: The Starting Nine Numbers You Need to Know for Health Reform

  • By
  • Paul Testa
March 31, 2008

Health care, like baseball, is in many ways a game of numbers. And so, in honor of Opening Day festivities across America, we've taken the liberty of drafting our own roster of the starting nine numbers you need to know to understand what's driving health reform in the U.S.

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