Brookings Press Blog

"Primary Politics" author argues “Health care could help climate bill” on Politico.com

Conventional wisdom has it that the angry and protracted health care debate killed the chances of a climate change bill. Neither side has the energy or the will to come back to the table, according to this view. But Primary Politics author and U.S. Climate Task Force co-chair Elaine Kamarck takes a contrarian view. “While everyone was focused on health care, environmental and energy legislation advocates had time to rethink their policy,” she contends. Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Susan Collins (R-ME), John Kerry (D-MA), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and Joe Lieberman (I-CT) are among those outlining new proposals. As a result, Kamarck concludes, “Chances have now increased substantially that, in spite of everything, a climate bill can be passed.”

- Read “Health care could help climate bill.”

- Learn more about Primary Politics.

The Cost of Doing Nothing: Not Enacting Health Care Reform Comes with a Hefty Price Tag

An op-ed in the Boston Globe argues that Congress failing to deliver on health care reform carries a significant economic cost. Linda Bilmes, coauthor of The People Factor, and Rosemarie Day, deputy director of the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector Authority of Massachusetts, write:

Less health insurance equates to more premature deaths, and shorter life expectancy. It also impairs the quality of life—and hence the productivity—of those who are living. This is evident in comparing the health of Americans who live in states with high levels of insurance with those who do not.

Bilmes and Day argue that the current debate over whether the country can afford the estimated $850 billion price tag of health care reform misses the point. Doing nothing comes with a hefty cost, as well, because the uninsured impose big financial and economic costs on the United States.

- Read the op-ed

- Learn more about The People Factor

Darrell West to Lead Discussion on Digital Technology and Health Care

On Thursday, October 8, Digital Medicine author Darrell West will moderate a policy forum at the Brookings Institution on “Consumer-Driven Medicine: How Digital and Mobile Technologies Can Improve Health Care.” Ellen Blackler, executive director of public policy for AT&T, and Dr. Karen Rheuban, medical director of the Office of Telemedicine at the University of Virginia Hospital, will join West to discuss the role that digital and mobile technologies can play in creating a more personalized system of health care that both improves quality and reduces costs.

- Register for the event.

- Listen to Darrell West’s conversation with David Kibbe and Rebecca Roberts on The Kojo Nnamdi Show, WAMU 88.5 FM.

Steven Kelman and Henry J. Aaron: Authors in the News

In the realm of research, Washington Post writer Joe Davidson asserted that many studies on how to improve the federal government “plow the same ground and can be as dull as a worn rug.” However, in the July 8 article “Leaders Who Succeeded – And Those Who Didn’t”, Davidson cites one recent study led by Steven Kelman, author of Unleashing Change: A Study of Organizational Renewal in Government for its innovation. The study, titled “What It Takes to Change Government” [pdf], breaks new ground by examining failed, rather than successful, government leaders. Kelman and others found that failed politicians “spent too much time hobnobbing with other bigwigs and not enough time with people on the shop or office floor,” according to Davidson.

On the same day, the Washington Post published an article titled “In Retooled Health-Care System, Who Will Say No?” regarding the ever-evolving health care debate. One of the largest questions looming seems to be, as staff writer Alec Gillis puts it, “In a country where ‘rationing’ is a dirty word, who will say no?” In his study of the issue, Gillis turned to Henry J. Aaron, co-author of Can We Say No? The Challenge of Rationing Health Care. According to Gillis, Aaron said that “real cost reform would mean giving all physicians incentives to leave behind the fee-for-service model for accountable care networks,” a transition that could take some time. Asserting the reality of the situation, Aaron claimed, “We're just not going to be able to all have everything . . . regardless of cost.”

- Learn more about Unleashing Change

- Read Joe Davidson’s article “Leaders Who Succeeded – And Those Who Didn’t”

- Read "What It Takes to Change Government," the report co-authored by Steven Kelman [pdf]

- Learn more about Can We Say No?

- Read Alex Gillis’ article “In Retooled Health-Care System, Who Will Say No?”

Darrell West on Huffington Post

Digital Medicine

Today’s Huffington Post featured “Expanding Health Information Technology" by Darrell West:

"Armed with $19 billion in new money from America's Recovery and Reinvestment Act, [President Obama's] administration hopes to employ health information technology to improve medical treatment, cut costs by reducing errors and redundancies, and empower patients by giving them control over their own medical records."

West is VP and Director of Governance Studies at Brookings and co-author with Edward A. Miller of the newly released Digital Medicine: Health Care in the Internet Era.

- Read "Expanding Health Information Technology" on HuffPo

- Learn more about Digital Medicine, the book

Rx: Medicare Reform

The need exists. Does the cure?

Older and disabled Americans are sick—sick of skyrocketing health care costs. Medicare spending, for example, exceeded $400 billion last year. Whether they hang up their badges at 62 or 65 (see post below on Working Longer), the baby-boomers are beginning to retire. Soon they will experience worrisome symptoms, such as insufficient income and hefty medical bills. What should be done about this growing epidemic?

A bill reexamining Medicare is currently making its way through Congress. Though President Bush vetoed the bill on the basis that it would harm beneficiaries, his veto was overridden last week. The consensus stands: Medicare demands assistance and attention. But because the Medicare debate is politically charged, it is highly unlikely that any single remedy would be approved and implemented in full.

Brookings authors Henry Aaron and Jeanne Lambrew write out their prescriptions in their new book, Reforming Medicare. These healthcare policy experts identify and analyze the three leading options to approaching reform:

1. Updated social insurance
2. Premium choice
3. Consumer-directed health care.

In a mortar-and-pestle approach, Aaron and Lambrew describe incremental strategies that blend elements of each plan. The result? Sound hybrid policies for Congress to consider in the future.

Join us at the Brookings Institution on July 30^th, 10 AM to noon, for an illuminating and provocative discussion. Aaron and Lambrew will be joined by an advocate of each option to debate Medicare reform.

- See who will be representing each strategy at the event.

- Read more about Henry J. Aaron and Jeanne M. Lambrew’s book Reforming Medicare: Options, Tradeoffs, and Opportunities.

Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America's Next President

Brookings book launches an intense focus on issues, not partisanship

The book Opportunity 08 emerges from a special bipartisan project created by Brookings, in partnership with ABC News, to offer solutions to America’s most pressing policy challenges. This new book will help candidates, the media, and voters focus on the critical issues at stake in the first presidential election since 1928 that does not include an incumbent president or vice president.

The diverse roster of contributors to Opportunity 08 reflects an impressive breadth of expertise, opinions, and political beliefs. This team of experts addresses voters’ demand to hear more about issues and less about partisan politics by presenting authoritative analysis and innovative policy solutions on a wide array of domestic and foreign policy questions.

Furthermore, this volume contextualizes these crafted plans for action by explaining not simply what should be done but why it should be done. This framework serves as a launching pad for a sharp focus on specific issues, which shapes the three distinct sections of the book. Part One of the book is titled "Our World," and its topics include the challenge of dealing with Iran, the rise of China, climate change, oil dependence, Middle East peace and the future of Iraq. Part Two, "Our Society," features accessible treatment of domestic issues such as voting reform; housing policy; poverty, inequality, and upward economic mobility. Part III, "Our Prosperity," tackles vexing problems such as the budget deficit, health care access and quality, retirement security, and the challenge of strengthening information technology in the United States.

- Learn more about Opporunity 08.

- Learn more about the Opportunity 08 Research Project.

The Results Are In: Climate Change Tops the Charts

Our “issues election” at BookExpo America 2007 focused on the issues that most concern this year’s attendees

This year at BookExpo America, we polled the attendees about which issues were most important to them. In keeping with the idea of the forthcoming book Opportunity 08: Independent Ideas for America’s Next President, the poll focused the discussion on today’s pertinent issues rather than the presidential candidates and their views. Members of the Press whittled the 26 topics presented in Opportunity 08 down to 5: climate change, health care, homeland security, immigration, and Iraq.

Our booth at BEA had five canisters, each labeled with one of the five topics. Attendees were asked to place a marble in the canister for the issue that was of most importance to them; this type of voting eliminated the possibly partisan stance of the voter and solely measured the amount of interest in the topic itself. Climate change, the winner of our marble poll, received 31.55% percent of the votes, beating out Iraq by 3 percentage points. Health care came in third with 26.13% of the votes. Surprisingly (to us, at least), immigration received just 7.82% of the votes and homeland security garnered only 6.04%.

The goal of our issues election was to focus on the issues that matter to voters in this unusually wide-open presidential election. The results indicate substantial interest in more dialogue on climate change, the situation in Iraq, and the health care system.

Citizens are clearly saying they want to hear more from candidates about the issues and less about partisan politics. Opportunity 08 aims to help presidential candidates and the public focus on critical issues facing the nation, providing ideas, policy forums, and information on a broad range of domestic and foreign policy questions.

- Learn more about Opportunity 08, the book.

- Learn more about Opportunity 08, the project.

- Learn more about BookExpo America.

Washington Post Op-Ed Denounces Bush Budget

Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007 Helps to Understand the Issues

In today’s Washington Post, op-ed columnist and Brookings Senior Fellow E.J. Dionne Jr. called President Bush’s budget a “collection of artificial numbers” and claimed that “The cutbacks in health coverage for lower-income working families are among the most egregious of the president's fiscal choices.” If you’re as disconcerted by President Bush’s budget as Dionne, or if you’re just plain confused by it, you might be interested in Alice M. Rivlin and Joseph R. Antos’s forthcoming book, Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007: The Health Spending Challenge. In clear, concise language, the book offers readers an explanation of the $2 trillion per year health spending crisis and the consequences every American will face if it is left uncontrolled. Focusing on policies that do not shift costs to the states or the private sector, the authors suggest reforms in federal programs that have the potential to reduce the growth of spending for the entire health system, increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the care provided, and enhance health outcomes.

Both editors boast years of experience in economics and public policy. Rivlin was director of both the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Congressional Budget Office, and has served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve Board. Antos has held senior positions at the Congressional Budget Office, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Council of Economic Advisers, and the Office of Management and Budget.

(Photo by Ron Sachs, washingtonpost.com)

- Read “Budget Games That Hurt Children” on washingtonpost.com.

- Learn more about Restoring Fiscal Sanity 2007.

Author Insight

Patashnik Discusses How Government Can Promote the General Welfare

Erik Patashnik, coauthor (with Alan Gerber) of Promoting the General Welfare, appeared yesterday on Insight, an hour-long talk show produced by NPR affiliate WRMA.  In the segment entitled "Sham Surgery," Patashnik discussed why some popular surgical procedures are not necessarily backed up by sound science, and what alternative approaches the U.S. government should take in dealing with matters involving science and health care.

Promoting the General Welfare takes on health care, transportation, education, and housing, as examples of areas where the government often fails to promote the common good, despite great possibilities for doing so.  But this innovative book also carries a more hopeful message. By identifying possible solutions to the problems created by weak incentives, poor information, and inadequate institutional capacity, it offers real solutions to improve government performance.

- Listen to "Sham Surgery" on WRMA.

- Learn more about Promoting the General Welfare.