Hank Stern did an excellent job hosting the Health Wonk Review this week – be sure to head over to InsureBlog and check it out. His “life’s a beach” theme and pictures will have you longing for a hammock strung between some palm trees, but if that’s not available, the next best thing is some good health wonk reading, right?
Some of my favorite posts in this edition of the HWR come from Roy Poses and Harold Pollack.
Roy Poses is one of my favorite bloggers, and he has a way of pointing out the elephants in the room, particularly the corrupt ones. His article about healthcare reform advertising on television is a must-read. Over the last four years, TV ads pertaining to healthcare reform have cost $445 million, a good chunk of which has been funded by special interest groups with all sorts of conflicts of interest. No wonder so many Americans don’t understand even the broad strokes of the ACA; television ads – particularly when any sort of politics are involved – aren’t known for their in-depth, accurate portrayal of a subject.
Harold’s post is actually a video (there’s a transcript too, if you prefer to read it) in which he talks with Sabrina Corlette of Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. They discuss all sorts of issues related to the 2014 open enrollment period and how things shook out in the end – young people enrolled in large numbers, most people have paid their premiums, silver plans were the most popular choice, millions of people are newly insured… in short, the first year of real ACA implementation is shaping up to be much more successful than people might have predicted back in November last year when the exchanges were struggling to get off the ground. You can also watch or read the second part of Harold’s interview with Sabrina – it’s just as interesting, and focuses on the impact of the ACA on employer-based health insurance, job-lock, small businesses, etc.
Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend!
