Monthly Archives: March 2011

Obesity is one of the most challenging health crises this country has ever faced. The overwhelming number of obese adults and children represent a significant threat to our future economic wellbeing.

Health spending has grown at historically low rates for the past 28 months, and its share of the GDP has remained stable since June 2009. Are these findings evidence of a bend in the health care cost curve?

The government’s role in preventing obesity and other chronic illnesses remains to be seen, but it is overwhelmingly clear that there is plenty of room at the table for communities, businesses, and government to begin tackling the...

Some regions of the country that have been lambasted for high levels of Medicare spending actually are below the national average once the severity of patient sickness and special local expenses are taken into account.

With the delivery of the National Prevention Strategy, it is fair to wonder if long-established approaches to prevention and health promotion can truly upend their own paradigm and achieve the strategy’s goal of better health.

Prevention is one of those things that everyone can agree on, the health policy world’s equivalent of apple pie. Except that nowadays, health care is so politicized that no one can agree on anything.

Imagine that you decided to run an Accountable Car-Care Organization. The government announces that you would no longer be paid on repairs alone, but for keeping cars on the road and out of the garage. You might contract with qualified...

Some regions of the country that have been lambasted for high levels of Medicare spending actually are below the national average once the severity of patient sickness and special local expenses are taken into account, according to data...

National health reform legislation gave birth to accountable care organizations, which were touted as a model to promote quality and reduce costs of health care delivery, but are they “HMOs on steroids”?

America is waging its war against heart disease with stockpiles of statins, but some health experts are now worrying that our infatuation with statins may be spiraling out of control.