News

In November 2010 we released an issue brief on the cost of prematurity in Michigan. In that issue brief we noted that in 2008/2009, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan spent a total of more than $46 million on preterm infants in the first year of life. The average cost of medical care for a preterm baby in its …

Well, the polling data are in! And, the results: people are just as confused about health reform today as they were when it passed a year ago; maybe, more so. In fact, 22 percent of those polled by the Kaiser Family Foundation believe health care reform has already been repealed and another 26 percent aren’t sure. How could it be …

The Affordable Care Act uses a number of terms that could never have been field tested by a marketing team. One that is very confusing to most people is the term “essential benefits” – a concept key to the way health insurance exchanges will work and the health benefits people will actually get under health reform. Health insurance exchanges will …

Despite the “Strum und Drang” over health care reform in Congress these days, there is actually some interesting bipartisan activity occurring. While the stridency on health care reform often gets the most notice, the bipartisan activity offers some hope that challenging problems can move forward in a constructive way. Not surprisingly, this activity is taking place principally in the Senate …

The Affordable Care Act is a complicated law, in part because it builds off the current health care system to achieve some far reaching goals: significantly expanded access to care and control over the rate of cost increase. Though some describe the Act as a federal takeover of health care, in fact, much of the law is to be carried …