Best Recent Articles on Health Care Reform

Since I am way behind in my intended Blogs, here is a list highlighting recent articles and editorials on the hot topic of health care reform. The list starts with the most recently published, but they are all still quite current. These articles are all from The New York Times. Please send me suggestions for other ones.

• In “Drug Makers Raise Prices in Face of Health Care Reform” (11/15/2009), Duff Wilson wrote, “Even as drug makers promise to support Washington’s health care overhaul by shaving $8 billion a year off the nation’s drug costs after the legislation takes effect, the industry has been raising its prices at the fastest rate in years. In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992. The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index, which has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year. Drug makers say they have valid business reasons for the price increases. Critics say the industry is trying to establish a higher price base before Congress passes legislation that tries to curb drug spending in coming years […].”
• The editorial “Reform and Medical Costs” (11/14/2009) says that “Americans are deeply concerned about the relentless rise in health care costs and health insurance premiums. They need to know if reform will help solve the problem. The answer is that no one has an easy fix for rising medical costs. The fundamental fix — reshaping how care is delivered and how doctors are paid in a wasteful, dysfunctional system — is likely to be achieved only through trial and error and incremental gains. The good news is that the bill just approved by the House and a bill approved by the Senate Finance Committee would implement or test many reforms that should help slow the rise in medical costs over the long term.” The rest of this editorial provides an overview of the “the important proposals in the House and Senate bills.” The following issues are discussed: Cadillac Coverage, Simplified Forms, Electronic Medical Records, Reform of the Delivery System, Independent Commission, Managed Competition, a Public Plan, Comparing Treatments, Negotiating Drug Prices, and Malpractice Reform.
• In “America’s Defining Choice” (11/11/2009) Op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof wrote, “President Obama and Congress will soon make defining choices about health care and troops for Afghanistan. These two choices have something in common — each has a bill of around $100 billion per year. So one question is whether we’re better off spending that money blowing up things in Helmand Province or building up things in America. […] So doesn’t it seem odd to hear hawks say that health reform is fiscally irresponsible, while in the next breath they cheer a larger deployment of troops in Afghanistan? Meanwhile, lack of health insurance kills about 45,000 Americans a year, according to a Harvard study released in September. So which is the greater danger to our homeland security, the Taliban or our dysfunctional insurance system? […] So where’s the best place to spend $100 billion a year? Is it on patrols in Helmand? Or is it to refurbish our health care system so that people like Sue don’t die unnecessarily every 12 minutes?”
• In “Trading Women’s Rights for Political Power”  (11/11/2009) Op-Ed contributors Kate Mitchelman and Frances Kissling wrote, “A GRIM reality sits behind the joyful press statements from Washington Democrats. To secure passage of health care legislation in the House, the party chose a course that risks the well-being of millions of women for generations to come. House Democrats voted to expand the current ban on public financing for abortion and to effectively prohibit women who participate in the proposed health system from obtaining private insurance that covers the full range of reproductive health options. Political calculation aside, the House Democrats reinforced the principle that a minority view on the morality of abortion can determine reproductive health policy for American women. […] The Democratic majority has abandoned its platform and subordinated women’s health to short-term political success. In doing so, these so-called friends of women’s rights have arguably done more to undermine reproductive rights than some of abortion’s staunchest foes. That Senate Democrats are poised to allow similar anti-abortion language in their bill simply underscores the degree of the damage that has been done. […]”
• In “Unhealthy America” (11/4/2009) Nicholas D. Kristof wrote, “The moment of truth for health care is at hand, and the distortion that perhaps gets the most traction is this: ‘We have the greatest health care system in the world. Sure, it has flaws, but it saves lives in ways that other countries can only dream of. Abroad, people sit on waiting lists for months, so why should we squander billions of dollars to mess with a system that is the envy of the world? As Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama puts it, President Obama’s plans amount to “the first step in destroying the best health care system the world has ever known.’ That self-aggrandizing delusion may be the single greatest myth in the health care debate. […] The United States ranks 31st in life expectancy (tied with Kuwait and Chile), according to the latest World Health Organization figures. We rank 37th in infant mortality (partly because of many premature births) and 34th in maternal mortality. A child in the United States is two-and-a-half times as likely to die by age 5 as in Singapore or Sweden, and an American woman is 11 times as likely to die in childbirth as a woman in Ireland.[…]”