Editor’s Note: This column appeared in Bridge Magazine. In 1990, 14.1 percent of Michigan’s population was considered obese. Twenty years later, that rate was at 30.3 percent and has stayed fairly constant for the last few years. Michigan is one of the 10 “fattest” states in the country – one of the few northern states in the top 10. This …

Editor’s Note: This column appeared in Bridge Magazine. Soon, many hundreds of thousands of Michigan citizens will be obtaining mental health coverage through the Affordable Care Act—coverage that many have never had before. Our Center wanted to understand what Michiganders might be facing in terms of the need for these services and access to care. To find out, we surveyed …

On November 4, our Center—along with the Knight-Wallace Fellows at Michigan, Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, and Michigan Radio—held a symposium at the University of Michigan on communication of the Affordable Care Act. The symposium was energetic and the panelists thoughtful. But, what has been most striking to me has been the reaction we have received from those who …

When I was at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, we used to say that you couldn’t sell any products without having all key providers included in them. But, that was at a time when health benefits were considered “fringe benefits,” unions were powerful drivers of benefit designs and employers covered most of the health insurance premium. Times, however, are …

Like everyone I know who is a health policy junkie, I have been very excited about the launch of the health insurance exchanges. But, my excitement is not just because of my professional interest—and wanting to see how these things actually work and how health care changes as a result—it is also for personal reasons. My 27-year-old goddaughter had to …

Health care reform is indeed a journey—not a destination. And, judging from all of the requests that our Center is getting to explain the Affordable Care Act, it is probably going to be a journey for a very long time (assuming, of course, that it doesn’t get “defunded”/ delayed/repealed or otherwise stopped in the next few couple of weeks!). So, …

Editor’s Note: This column appeared in Bridge Magazine. About six months after the Affordable Care Act (ACA) was passed in 2010, our Center hosted a symposium in Ann Arbor on the future of the health care safety net. Sara Rosenbaum, an expert on both the ACA and federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), spoke at the event and her remarks emphasized …

Patient engagement is a hot topic in health care right now. Providers, regulators and health plans are all trying to figure out how to better involve patients in their own medical care. Shared decision making—a concept that grew out of Jack Wennberg’s work on regional variation in the use of health care services—is a tool that fits right into the …

The debate about the Affordable Care Act (ACA) rages on as we get closer and closer to the big coverage changes that take effect starting on January 1, 2014 (with open enrollments for the health insurance exchange beginning in just a few months). The nature of the debates indicates that there is some misperception about who will be helped by …

In 1999, The Institute of Medicine (IOM) issued a seminal report on the safety of health care in the U.S.: To Err is Human. The IOM noted that up to 98,000 deaths occurred annually as a result of errors in the health care system. They recommended systemic change to improve the safety of the system. One of the recommendations included …