health reform

Conventional wisdom has it that print journalism (and its editorial columns) are dead. Tell it to Bob Herbert. more »

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Ezra Klein has responded thoughtfully to my criticism of him.  I felt he should have mentioned the numerous studies which challenge the assumptions behind the excise tax, given his strong support for the tax. more »

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Nothing brings the readers a-runnin' like the word "actuary" in a headline - especially at holiday time! Well, maybe not ... but this is important: An actuary with the respected Milliman firm has analyzed the excise tax and come to some striking conclusions. The tax may "sound reasonable," he says, but will have "unintended consequences." more »

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The progressive  "journo/blogospere" is sharply split over the Senate health bill.  Some, like Jane Hamsher and more »

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Our new piece on the politics and policy of the Senate's health reform deal is up at The Huffington Post, and it addresses the excise tax at several points: more »

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The pro-Senate health bill contingent keeps trotting out the example of Switzerland to buttress their arguments.  Here's a quick recap of why the comparison doesn't work:

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Business columnist and Fortune Senior Editor Allan Sloan just wrote a piece in the Washington Post about the excise tax. It's smart, cogent, and well-written. (Translation: Wish I'd written it.) By using the work of Henry J. Aaron, a highly respected health economist, Sloan shows that both Medicare and the Senate's own health plan would be treated as "Cadillac" plans and would be hit with heavy taxes under the Senate's bill even if they don't have particularly generous benefits.

Here's an interesting sentence: "A spokeswoman for Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.), who sponsored the tax, declined to discuss specifics, saying only that taxing high-cost plans is good policy."

"(I)f we're going to have a tax on health benefits," writes Sloan, "let's make it simple, broadly based, and intellectually honest. And let's not confuse Chevys with Caddys."

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Many of us admire the wealth of talent on display in the White House, so it's disappointing when there is a breakdown in the accuracy or completeness of information being put forward by members of this Administration. more »

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That somebody is Kate Pickert, who wrote about the excise tax at TIME's "Swampland" blog. Editors will be editors, so we can't necessarily blame her for the piece's misleading title: "Who Should Pay for Health Care Reform - the Rich or the Richly Insured?" But she calls the plans affected "generous." If she had read two papers published last week in the respected journal Health Affairs, she would know that many of the health plans that exceed the tax's trigger point are not "generous." A number of others factors drive a health plan's cost, and "generosity" of benefit only accounts for 3.7% of the difference. (Gabel et al.) more »

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I have a piece up on my own blog which challenges numbers-whiz Nate Silver for his takedown of progressives. He doesn't think they should be fighting for a better health bill, and that they should be delighted with the one that's expected to pass the Senate. Warning: The title may not be work-safe! more »

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