Policy: The California Plan

If you've been listening to NPR, reading the NYT or the WSJ - you've been inundated with information about California's new health initiative.

In short, the plan would (WSJ, January 9):

1) Mandate coverage for all Californians,
2) Employers with more than 10 workers who don't provide medical coverage would pay 4% of their payroll into a state fund to offset costs to the State,
3) The plan would levy a tax of 2% on doctors and 4% on hospitals to further fund the State's insurance plan.

The only problem is we still don't know how much the program will cost, how they will cover the large number of illegal immigrants in the region, and how - exactly - this will ensure costs are contained over the long run. Given the major supporter of the program is Blue Cross of California...who called the plan "bold and visionary"...I think it's fair to say that insurers plan to do pretty well in the deal...unlike the providers being asked to foot part of the bill.

So who's got a reasonable plan underway?

I still think Tennessee may lead the pack (with the Governor a former Health Plan Exec)...and Vermont as a sleeper pick. Any others out there?

I'm still looking for a plan that deals with controlling costs and helping insure the uninsured...

I'm Back

My apologies to everyone who has had to drop me from their RSS feeds or has been diligently visiting only to see the aging posts on this blog. I had committed myself to finishing a paper for publication before further "blogging"- but, unfortunately, between work and the holidays - I only recently got it out the door.

For those interested, the paper is entitled "In-sourcing and Out-sourcing: Designing a Path Forward for Graduate Medical Education in Lower Income Countries," and while currently under review by a certain journal, I will be presenting my findings at the Comparative and International Education Conference in Baltimore, February 25th - March 1st.

Since most of the readers here are domestic to the US, I've haven't posted many international topics related to health and society - but if someone is particularly interested in the topic - let me know and I'll broaden the context of the site.

Again, my apologies for the extended delay. While things will be busy this quarter, I hope to at least post weekly.

Thanks for your patience!