Policy and Legislation

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) questions CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf on healthcare reform in this video, posted in Wyden's YouTube channel.

Peter Harbage of the Center for American Progress discusses the need for health reform, who will benefit from it, and what's at stake if Congress drops the ball.

In this video, Glenn Hackbarth, chair of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, testifies at the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee's annual MedPAC hearing.

Legislation was introduced Wednesday that would end insurance discrimination against those with pre-existing or chronic illnesses.

In this video posted in Rep. Pete Stark's (D-Calif.) YouTube channel, Commonwealth Fund President Karen Davis testifies on the need for competition in the health insurance market.

President Barack Obama has announced regional forums, patterned after the healthcare reform summit held last week at the White House, to be hosted by the governors of California, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina and Vermont in March or early April.

Gov. Jim Doyle (D-Wis.) discusses Wisconsin's initiatives in stem cell research in this video, posted to YouTube by user DemocraticGovernors.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D-Kan.), a potential pick for the open HHS post in Obama's administration, discusses children's health insurance in this video posted on YouTube by DemocraticGovernors.

In his keynote speech at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's 20th Annual National Forum on Quality Improvement in Health Care in December 2008, former Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber, MD, suggested we rebuild the US healthcare system using the objectives of IHI's Triple Aim.

Medicare programs designed to boost the care of chronically ill patients while reducing hospital admissions and saving costs have largely failed, a new government-contracted study concludes.