Health Policy Matters Newsletter

High Stakes

What's New

Paperwork Would Impede Health Reform

Nearly 98,000 Iowans with health insurance that's compatible with a health savings account could get slapped with new paperwork requirements from Congress. Created in 2004, HSAs are a proven way to make insurance more affordable and to give people more control over their health spending. Today, more than 6 million Americans have these plans, and thanks to HSAs, 1.6 million Americans have left the ranks of the uninsured.

How Good Is Our Health Care System?

Bashing the American health care system has become a cottage industry. On the big screen, we've seen John Q and Sicko. At the bookstore, highly touted best-sellers lambasting the system seem to hit the shelves every month. On the opinion pages and on the cable news networks, pundits declare that the American system is in crisis and an embarrassment.

It's Hard to See Doctors Favoring Less Pay, Care, More Paperwork

Nearly six in ten U.S. doctors say they now favor legislation to establish national health insurance, according to a new survey, but doctors may be a bit less enthusiastic if they knew more about where such a system would take us. Touted as the “largest survey ever conducted among doctors on the issue of health care financing reform,” the results were published in the prestigious Annals of Internal Medicine and have since garnered a great deal of media attention.

Massachusetts Health Reform

Hidden Health Costs

The Times' lead article, "Even the Insured Feel the Strain of Health Costs" (May 4), perpetuates the myth that employers are largely paying for their workers' health insurance. This benefit is actually part of a worker's overall compensation package, but if the employer writes the check, it doesn't show up as taxable income to the employee (courtesy of Section 106 of the Internal Revenue Code).