Jeffrey Young
Jeffrey Young is a staff writer at The Hill, the newspaper for and about Congress, where he covers health care, lobbying, politics, and the intersection thereof for the "Business & Lobbying" section. He's been covering health policy in Washington for a decade and still hasn't heard that one good idea that will fix everything. Email Jeffrey at jeffrey.young.atlanticbusiness@gmail.com
Recently by Jeffrey Young
Jul 2 2009, 9:30AM
Is Wal-Mart Using Health Reform To Target Target?
This intriguing blog post by Michael Cannon, the libertarian Cato Institute's resident healthcare guy, got me thinking more about the news Tuesday that Wal-Mart supports a federal mandate that most employers provide health insurance. According to Cannon, it isn't all that surprising.
First, a recap: After a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Wal-Mart released a letter it delivered to President Obama backing the mandate. Wal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern and Center for American Progress President John Podesta signed the letter.
Naturally, this raised some eyebrows in Washington. It also undoubtedly raised some folks' blood pressure in the corporate headquarters of Wal-Mart's competitors.
First, a recap: After a meeting with White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Wal-Mart released a letter it delivered to President Obama backing the mandate. Wal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern and Center for American Progress President John Podesta signed the letter.
Naturally, this raised some eyebrows in Washington. It also undoubtedly raised some folks' blood pressure in the corporate headquarters of Wal-Mart's competitors.
May 12 2009, 9:44AM
Healthcare: $2 Trillion Saved, But Not Penny Lost?
Organizations representing the biggest players in the health care market promised President Obama on Monday that they'd find ways to cut national health spending by an astonishing $2 trillion over the next 10 years. Later that day, executives from these industries told the press that their companies' bottom lines would not suffer as a result. Whatever happened to Alfred E. Neuman's Cosmic Health Care Equation?
Among other things, this seems to be the latest example of health care industry lobbyists and executives trying to reassure investors that the sweeping reform plan being assembled by the Obama administration and the Democratically controlled Congress isn't going to put them out of business.
Among other things, this seems to be the latest example of health care industry lobbyists and executives trying to reassure investors that the sweeping reform plan being assembled by the Obama administration and the Democratically controlled Congress isn't going to put them out of business.
Apr 24 2009, 6:52PM
Selling pharmaceuticals ain't what it used to be
The pharmaceutical industry isn't at the top of its game these days. Some of the big players are having real problems developing new drugs, more generics keep entering the market, Democrats run the Food and Drug Administration and the Congress, the dollar is weak and the economy's in the tank, to name a few reasons.
Apr 22 2009, 3:53PM
Better Off Dead: The Looming Battle Over Survivors' Costs
As Congress and the Obama administration try to design a new and improved American health care system that covers everybody, improves the quality of the medical care we receive, and slows down or reverses unsustainable cost escalation, they're confronted with a very long list of challenges. Democrats in the White House and on Capitol Hill have made a political calculation that's making their job even harder: They've promised that their plan for health reform -- which no one can contest will cost more than $1 trillion in new government spending over 10 years -- will pay for itself.
Mar 30 2009, 1:14PM
Will Comparing Drugs Destroy America?
Some conservatives might be shouting from the rooftops that federal funding for comparative effectiveness research on drugs, medical devices, surgeries, etc., will lead our nation inexorably toward government rationing of health care. One pharmaceutical executive I recently spoke with says he just doesn't see it.
The economic stimulus bill signed into law by President Obama earlier this year provides $1.1 billion for scientific research on the comparative effectiveness of medical treatments. The idea behind it is to develop a better body of knowledge about whether, say, one cholesterol medicine works better than another one in a certain type of patient.
To critics, though, it conjures up a nightmare scenario in which Uncle Sam uses the results of this research to decree that we can only take the drug that "wins" in the study and/or is less expensive. Countries with nationalized health care systems, such as the U.K., have government agencies that make these kinds of decisions (though it's not nearly as simple as that).
The economic stimulus bill signed into law by President Obama earlier this year provides $1.1 billion for scientific research on the comparative effectiveness of medical treatments. The idea behind it is to develop a better body of knowledge about whether, say, one cholesterol medicine works better than another one in a certain type of patient.
To critics, though, it conjures up a nightmare scenario in which Uncle Sam uses the results of this research to decree that we can only take the drug that "wins" in the study and/or is less expensive. Countries with nationalized health care systems, such as the U.K., have government agencies that make these kinds of decisions (though it's not nearly as simple as that).
Mar 30 2009, 10:47AM
You'll Be Required to Get a Health Plan?
In a major development in the push for national health care reform, a diverse coalition of interest groups announced they had agreed to endorse a controversial proposal to mandate that everyone in America obtain health coverage.
Or did they? (No, they didn't.)
The so-called Health Reform Dialogue, an ad hoc coalition of business and health care organizations that had been negotiating for six months with the help of a professional mediator, released a report Friday spelling out their consensus principles for health reform. If you'd read any of the news coverage, you'd be within your rights to be a little confused.
Or did they? (No, they didn't.)
The so-called Health Reform Dialogue, an ad hoc coalition of business and health care organizations that had been negotiating for six months with the help of a professional mediator, released a report Friday spelling out their consensus principles for health reform. If you'd read any of the news coverage, you'd be within your rights to be a little confused.
Mar 6 2009, 8:09AM
Big pharma's top lobbyist said what?
Everybody knows that Big Pharma is in bed with Republicans and is biding its time to join forces with them to kill Obama's health plan. Everyone also knows that Obama and the Democrats are really going to stick it to Big Pharma.
Everybody, apparently, except Billy Tauzin, the pharmaceutical industry's top representative in Washington.
Everybody, apparently, except Billy Tauzin, the pharmaceutical industry's top representative in Washington.
Mar 2 2009, 7:04AM
Health reform: Dog Bites Man edition
Health insurance company stocks tanked this week last week on the news that President Obama wants to slash their Medicare payments. Except that doesn't even remotely qualify as "news."
There's a lot more to Obama's budget and his plans for health reform than this but he wants to cut $177.5 billion from the subsidies the government pays to private insurers over the next ten years and to subject the plans to a new bidding process to win the right to service beneficiaries in the Medicare Advantage program.
That's no small amount of money and the market reacted accordingly. The folks at the Wall Street Journal took a snapshot after the budget came out Thursday:
There's a lot more to Obama's budget and his plans for health reform than this but he wants to cut $177.5 billion from the subsidies the government pays to private insurers over the next ten years and to subject the plans to a new bidding process to win the right to service beneficiaries in the Medicare Advantage program.
That's no small amount of money and the market reacted accordingly. The folks at the Wall Street Journal took a snapshot after the budget came out Thursday:
Feb 20 2009, 9:07AM
Do you care where the money comes from?
Physicians already draw a huge portion of their income from government programs. Should it matter if more were to come from the federal coffers under President Obama's health reform plan? Rex Morgan, M.D., has some thoughts on the matter.
Feb 13 2009, 9:53AM
Getting ugly? It's ugly already.
I've been telling people that the partisan debate on health reform was going to get ugly. I said so during a panel discussion a couple of months back and got labeled a cynic by several audience members. Still, I was caught off guard this week by nasty politicking over an obscure provision in the economic stimulus bill.
Feb 13 2009, 7:03AM
Costly leaps of faith on health care
Assuming that President Obama is able to move past the rocky first weeks of his presidency -- starting with naming a Health and Human Services secretary to replace Tom Daschle -- we're going to be hearing a lot about how to solve the endemic problems in the American health care system. Along with those proposals, we're going to hear a lot of numbers being thrown around. Be skeptical.
Feb 10 2009, 2:36PM
Supplementary education
This scary story
in The New York Times about contaminated, celebrity-endorsed diet pills
highlights a particularly egregious example of "when dietary
supplements go bad" but also provides an opportunity for me to share
some fun facts about these popular products. I covered this industry
full-time for The Tan Sheet
(expensive subscription required) when I was a puppy and I'm still
surprised how little people seem to know about what they're popping.
Feb 2 2009, 12:45PM
Physician, heal thy reimbursement formula
The way Medicare pays doctors for treating elderly and disabled patients is deeply flawed and fixing it is going to cost a bundle.
In response to steadily rising Medicare spending on physician services, in 1998 Congress replaced the old formula that sets the pay rates every year with what's called the sustainable growth rate. Since then, only the "growth" component of that name has been operative. The formula and the fees it calculates are demonstrably unsustainable and the system frankly doesn't rate.
In response to steadily rising Medicare spending on physician services, in 1998 Congress replaced the old formula that sets the pay rates every year with what's called the sustainable growth rate. Since then, only the "growth" component of that name has been operative. The formula and the fees it calculates are demonstrably unsustainable and the system frankly doesn't rate.
Feb 2 2009, 7:11AM
What, me lobby?
If I were to affix an epigraph to my space on this blog, it would be this, courtesy of Princeton University health economist and raconteur Uwe Reinhardt:
Reinhardt calls this the "Alfred E. Neuman's Cosmic Health Care Equation" (which is probably some sort of Princetonian inside joke).
"Every Dollar Health Spending = Someone's Health-Care Income"
Reinhardt calls this the "Alfred E. Neuman's Cosmic Health Care Equation" (which is probably some sort of Princetonian inside joke).
Jan 26 2009, 10:16AM
A little more on the Pfizer-Wyeth merger
At the risk of making this blog too self-referential in its first week, I'd like to weigh in on the merger of the pharmaceutical giants Pfizer and Wyeth, a subject my fellow contributor Derek Lowe ably tackled on Friday.
Jan 22 2009, 12:38PM
Pay up, or Grandma gets it: the perils of Medicare reform
How hard will it be for President Obama to fulfill his campaign promise to reform the health care system by the end of the first term?
The answer, of course, is "very." In large measure, this is because reform requires trade-offs and nobody's volunteering to make them. When the ball gets rolling, look for Big Insurance, Big Pharma and their ilk to push back the hardest against reforms that threaten their bottom lines (or even their entire business models).
But let's not forget Big Durable Medical Equipment Suppliers.
A little obscure, I know, but bear with me.
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