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While mainstream news insurance coverage is still a elemental source of information for the up-to-the-minute in policy debates and the health care market place, 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 provide complete insurance 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 cigaret tax, as well as the response of McCain's economic adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin (here) to questions most the candidate's "individual-market centric 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 let down health fear costs in the long run; and, because it is national, it leaves the stag party 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 will experiment with reform and coverage expansion plans."
John Joseph Leppard writes in Healthcare Manumission, "Many individuals have the misguided belief that the cause prescription drugs cost so much is simply because we do not set prices as is through 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 "make arbitrary and bureaucratic decisions -- they follow the science."
Michael Miller from the Health Policy and Communications Blog looks at how health care issues ar polling among voters and political insiders.
Jane Sarasohn-Kahn writes on Health Populi that health care cost management is out of the question "without individuals connecting the dots 'tween our individual health behaviors and health economics."
Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters outlines what he sees as a trend: "[H]ospital revenues are up more or less, profits are up much more than revenues, and this despite (mostly) compressed patient volumes and bring down surgical volumes." Paduda surmises that "[h]ospitals ar gaining power at the expense of commercial payers."
Mark Levin from the National Review Online's The Corner responds to a pillar from Paul Krugman of the New York Times about the possibility of guaranteed access to wellness care. Levin writes, "[Krugman] measures advance by the extent to which governing runs things, not by what in reality 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 blog address health care components of the principles set forth by the Democratic Party's platform committee.
Laura Meckler of the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog is moderating an ongoing debate about health care issues with Jay Khosla, a health insurance policy adviser for the McCain, and David Cutler, a health insurance adviser for presumptive Democratic presidential campaigner Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.). The questions and answers are uncommitted online.
Reprinted with kind permit from hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the full Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at hypertext transfer protocol://www.kaisernetwork.
