Health Care Reform

If you are struggling understanding all the terms being tossed around in the debate.  These sources may help.

• Rand Glossary
• Definitions of Health Care Terms -- from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

House Bills

• HR 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act  -- as introduced in the House
• HR 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act  -- with amendments as passed out of the full committee
  • Congressional Budget Office estimates of change in Medicare Part D under HR 3200
    

Senate Bills

• "America's Healthy Future Act of 2009"  -- Bill proposed by Max Baucus, Senate Finance Committee-- "Gang of Six".   On 9/16 Baucus released the text of his proposed bill, which was the result of lengthy negotiations with Republican Senators on the Finance Committee.  However, it was released without endorsement from anyone in the GOP.
  • Congressional Budget Office (CBO) Analysis
  • Joint Committee on Taxation Analysis
  • Markup of the bill began on Sept 22nd.  Follow amendments on the Senate Finance Committee Web Site
    
• Affordable Health Choices Act (S. 1679) from the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.  Summary

Analysis of the bills

• National Journal -- A highly respected news source recognized for non-partisan analysis.  Click on
  
• CQ Weekly Report -- another excellent source for objective analysis

Government Sources

• Congressional Budget Office -- Cost analysis of legislation being proposed as well as frequent updates.
• HealthReform.gov - the Administration's agenda

Political Parties

• Democratic Party
• Republican Party  -- Republicans have not introduced a formal bill.  However, the House Republican Conference produced a "Handbook" with their positions.

Stakeholders

The following are a number of the major industry groups directly involved in the health care debate.

Think Tanks

   Health Care Think Tanks

• Kaiser Family Foundation -- allows you to do side by side comparisons of the various proposals.
• Lewin Group -- considered by many to produce well thought out and balanced reports on health care issues.  They have been critical of current bills.  The Lewin Group is owned by Ingenix, a wholly-owned subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group, a major health insurance company. 
• Robert Woods Johnson Foundation -- a pro health care reform group, they recently published a survey of doctors responses to the need for health care.
  
• Rand Compare  -- COMPARE is a transparent, evidence-based approach to providing information and tools to help policymakers, the media, and other interested parties understand, design, and evaluate health policies.

  COMPARE has four objectives:

  • Synthesize what is known about the current health care system.
  • Describe policy options that have been proposed to address one or more existing challenges.
  • Analyze the effects of different health care policy options on multiple dimensions of health system performance.
  • Identify gaps in our knowledge about the effects of policy changes.

  Rather than constructing specific policy proposals, COMPARE offers objective analyses of policy options currently being used, considered, or discussed by public and private policymakers.

• Institute of Medicine, National Academies of Science

  Others

• PolicyFile -- for additional perspectives on health care issues. This database indexes policy papers from organizations across the political spectrum.

• Health United States, 2008.   Basic source of health data on the U.S. Population including access to health care
   
  
• Census data on Health Insurance Coverage
   
• Center for Disease Control.  Health Data Interactive. -- generate your own tables on health insurance and access. 
   
• Andrew P. Wilper, Steffie Woolhandler, Karen E. Lasser, Danny McCormick, David H. Bor, and David U. Himmelstein.  Health Insurance and Mortality in US Adults ireleased as a prepublication draft  on September 17th.  It will be published later this year in the American Journal of Public Health.  This study, which was broadly cited in the news media, estimates that 45,000 people die each year from lack of health care insurance.
   
• The Uninsured in America -- from PBS NewsHour.  One of the main goals of health care reform proponents is to ensure health care for all.  This PBS site looks at the uninsured and their access to health care.
   
• America's Uninsured Crisis:  Consequences for Health and Health Care. by the Committee on Health Insurance Status and Its Consequences, Institute of Medicine.  National Academies Press, 2009
   
  

  When policy makers and researchers consider potential solutions to the crisis of uninsurance in the United States, the question of whether health insurance matters to health is often an issue. This question is far more than an academic concern. It is crucial that U.S. health care policy be informed with current and valid evidence on the consequences of uninsurance for health care and health outcomes, especially for the 45.7 million individuals without health insurance.
  From 2001 to 2004, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued six reports, which concluded that being uninsured was hazardous to people's health and recommended that the nation move quickly to implement a strategy to achieve health insurance coverage for all.
  The goal of this book is to inform the health reform policy debate--in 2009--with an up-to-date assessment of the research evidence. This report addresses three key questions:

  1. What are the dynamics driving downward trends in health insurance coverage?
  2. Is being uninsured harmful to the health of children and adults?
  3. Are insured people affected by high rates of uninsurance in their communities?

Helen M. Sheehy

Subject Specialist
Political Science

hms2@psu.edu

814-863-1347