Politicians, practitioners and experts agree that the health care workforce in the United States is inadequate to meet the primary care needs of our nation. There are simply not enough doctors, nurses and other providers to meet the needs of the growing and aging United States population.
May You Live in Interesting Times: The Challenges of Health Policy Analysis in a Turbulent Period
A purported Chinese curse -- “May you live in interesting times” -- seems apt for this current chaotic period of American public policy. (It appears that the quote does not actually have Chinese origins and was simply coined by an English politician in the 1930s to sound sagacious.) As a student (and teacher) of health policy, there is no question that the past year, during which Congress and President Trump tried repeatedly to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), had high political drama, with fingernail-biting day by day acti
Health Information, Technology, & Innovation
Safeguarding Patient Data is a Key Component of Patient Care
The healthcare sector of the economy has traditionally lagged behind other sectors in terms of technology use and the infrastructure it requires. Unwanted publicity over cyber-attacks and data breaches are causing healthcare businesses to finally wake up to the reality that their data are extraordinarily sensitive. Data breaches and leaks can happen in many industries, but healthcare data breaches and associated abuse can have catastrophic consequences on people’s lives.
Health Reform
Health Economics
Blog: Ending Healthcare Payments: Bursting the Balloon or Just Squeezing It?
President Trump has threatened to cancel federal health insurance payments called “cost-sharing reductions.” He hopes this collapses the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance exchanges, creating leverage for further repeal negotiations with recalcitrant Senators and Congressmen. However, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported that ending these payments would actually increase federal costs by $194 billion over ten years and cause a million people to lose health insurance next year.