Health care reform: Navigating the maze

Source: Marty Nemko

If you need help keeping track of current Congressional efforts to reform health care, check out this website: Side-by-Side Comparison of Major Health Care Reform Proposals. The content is provided by the Kaiser Family Foundation, an independent, highly respected organization that studies major health care issues and provides information to policymakers, the health care community, and the media. Both the Foundation and the HMO Kaiser Permanente trace their financial roots back to the original Henry J. Kaiser, but other than that, they’re not related.
The site makes great use of the web as an interactive medium. You can select from seven different proposals for health care reform, such as the eight principles that President Obama outlined in February or the national health insurance program that Representative John Dingell has been proposing since 1957. You can simultaneously view as many proposals as you wish.

You can select the topics you want to compare, including who will be covered, how the proposal affects employers and the insurance industry, where the money will come from, and improving the quality of care. There are 15 topics in all. Again, you can select one, many, or all.
The information on each proposal comes from government supplied documents. There are reference links to the sources, but the idea behind the site is that someone has already digested and summarized this lengthy reading material so you won’t have to. Aside from the unavoidable political clichés, such as “waste, fraud and abuse,” the policy descriptions are written with such clarity that the site definitely provides a rapid and relatively painless education, even for newbies coming up to speed on the complexities of health care reform.

Looking for up-to-minute discussions of health care reform?

The Kaiser Family Foundation site summarizes the current version of official proposals. It’s not meant to present the latest opinions and speculations. If you’re interested in following current health care reform discussions, here are a few recommendations:
• The Health Care Blog – Thoughtful presentations by intelligent, informed individuals who are interested in many aspects of health care. The blog is hosted by Matthew Holt, but most entries are provided by a range of authors. The comments, which you can view separately, often generate an interesting discussion.
• The Health Beat – Maggie Mahar is the author of Money-Driven Medicine, an extremely clear presentation of how we ended up in the quagmire that is now health care in America. Mahar writes most of the posts, with occasional guest bloggers. Like The Health Care Blog, the posts are intelligent, thoughtful and thought-provoking.
• Gooznews on Health – Merrill Goozner is a seasoned journalist and the author of The $800 Million Pill: The Truth behind the Cost of New Drugs. Almost all entries are by Goozner, and they provide an in-depth analysis of current health care issues. Read it for free while you can. He may soon be selling his thoughts to policy makers and health care professionals.
• Kevin MD – If you want to listen in on doctors talking to doctors, check out the Kevin MD Blog. The topics, such as “Should specialists be re-trained as primary care physicians?” and “Is House M.D. bad for medicine?“, are interesting and timely. Dr. Kevin Pho, a primary care physician in New Hampshire, writes multiple posts seven days a week, and those in turn generate many comments, which he reads and features. I don’t know how he finds time to practice medicine. Be forewarned: This is a very active blog.
Related posts:
Health care reform in the US 2009
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Why is it so hard to reform healthcare? Rugged individualism
Why is it so hard to reform health care? National identity
Why is it so hard to reform health care? Political structure
Why is it so hard to reform health care? The issues are complex