What’s up with the single-payer health insurance plan Vermont?

Can one state take over its entire health insurance industry? We'll find out in Vermont. Here are some links w/ more details From The Rutland Herald: MONTPELIER — Health care advocates and Democratic politicians on Thursday cheered a Supreme Court decision that preserves the foundation on which Gov. Peter Shumlin plans to build the nation’s first single-payer health …

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Harvard video: The Supercommittee Collapse and America’s Healthcare Future

Harvard School of Public Health Panel

Mass. single-payer advocates take on limits of state health reform

Before you write off these folks, note that a recent survey of doctors by the Massachusetts Medical Society found that a growing number of doctors support the idea of a single-payer system. More than 40 percent, up from  34 percent last year. So do a lot of folks at Occupy Boston. Massachusetts Health Reform in Practice and The Future of …

New Yorker: How Mitt Romney came around to Massachusetts style health reform

Watching New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza on MSNBC on Wednesday night got us thinking – is this a repeat? Since we recently watched four innings of a rain-delay repeat of a Red Sox game before realizing we had already seen it, we were suspect.  Lizza struggled through his explanation of Health Reform 101 -- we …

Maine senators join health reform lawsuit

 The Portland Press-Herald reports: Snowe was concerned with the concept of government mandating an individual purchase of something, especially because she did not believe health insurance would be sufficiently affordable, her office has said. Snowe and Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., tried to amend the reform to reduce the number of people subject to the mandate …

NHS: Maybe they fund fruit fly research too

Not to knock  my UK colleagues, but --would it be fair to say that maybe the headlines of some British newspapers are not the best source of information about England's National Health Service?  More demonizing of CMS nominee Donald  Berwick – who has said he “loves” the UK plan -- in a column in today’s Globe, …

Tipping point for health costs in Mass?

BHN is not a fan of the overused term "tipping point."  But, it works here. Let's connect the dots.  The Globe‘s reports on back room deals at Partners, the hospital giant that helps fuels the regions high health care costs high. The ever-looming high costs of care in Mass.  The state’s – and now the public’s …

Scott Brown speaks as health reformers rally

Just to be clear, Brown didn't speak at the rally -- he spoke to a group of insurance execs across town. Since protests are often seen as staged events, they don’t get much news coverage. Take the reports on yesterday’s protest in Washington DC at a meeting of health insurers, compiled here by Kaiser Health …

Bad side effects of the Massachusetts health plan

First a bit of business.  RECONCILIATION: If you are wondering was reconciliation really means, check out this primer from the ever-reliable Bill Erwin at the D.C.-based Alliance for Health Reform  The Health Wonk Review is up at the Health Policy Analysis blog. This week’s edition is hosted by D. Brad Wright, a grad student at …

Protests planned for insurance industry meeting

Looks like there will be some civil disobedience on the agenda at next week’s America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) meeting.  The insurance industry will be meeting for a “National Policy Forum”  At a time when the nation may face major changes in the financing and delivery of health care, AHIP’s 2010 National Policy Forum provides …