Commentary

The Kansas Health Institute was created to provide timely, reliable and unbiased information to policymakers and the public.
We’ve done that for years in research reports and issue briefs and more recently in KHI News Service articles.

Now, we want to offer this page and the rest of our website as a venue for respectful exchange of ideas and perspectives. We will feature columns and blogs from various contributors of differing views.

And you will find throughout the site opportunities to comment on news stories, research reports, op-ed pieces and other posted items. Unlike some websites, however, we will not allow anonymous posts by readers. We believe people are more thoughtful and respectful when their names are attached to their words. So, we urge you to register, read, react and contribute to the lively discussions surrounding health policy.

Featured Columns

One thing to NOT worry about: paying for health care (in France)

One thing to NOT worry about: paying for health care (in France)

0 | Commentary

The themes I discuss here are just in the background of the film Le Havre. I imagine they are not even noticed by French audiences. Or Finnish ones. Being able to afford medical care is not an issue in those places. Which is as it should be.

A broken promise to our children

A broken promise to our children

1 | Commentary, Letters

Out of the $160 million collected annually from tobacco-generated revenue in this state, only $1 million or 0.6% is being spent on tobacco prevention. What is even more appalling is that for every dollar in tobacco revenue, Kansas is spending less than a penny to fight tobacco use.

Pushing marriage won't end poverty

Pushing marriage won't end poverty

0 | Commentary

I believe that children thrive in families with two married, fully participating and emotionally healthy parents. But not everybody has that kind of marriage.

One thing to NOT worry about: paying for health care (in France)

0 | Jan. 24, 2012 | Commentary

The themes I discuss here are just in the background of the film Le Havre. I imagine they are not even noticed by French audiences. Or Finnish ones. Being able to afford medical care is not an issue in those places. Which is as it should be.

A broken promise to our children

1 | Dec. 08, 2011 | Commentary, Letters

Out of the $160 million collected annually from tobacco-generated revenue in this state, only $1 million or 0.6% is being spent on tobacco prevention. What is even more appalling is that for every dollar in tobacco revenue, Kansas is spending less than a penny to fight tobacco use.

Pushing marriage won't end poverty

0 | Nov. 17, 2011 | Commentary

I believe that children thrive in families with two married, fully participating and emotionally healthy parents. But not everybody has that kind of marriage.

Blogs from here and there

Dear Readers,

Nov. 30, 2011

See Naomi’s note below. I urge you to visit her new blog. I also am no longer working at The Century Foundation. Please note: This website no longer accepts Comments . It may appear that you comment has been accepted,...

"Premium Support" Is Just Another Way To Privatize Medicare

Nov. 30, 2011

Note: This post comes from my new blog reforminghealth.org I have left The Century Foundation and can be reached at nfreund2@gmail.com Out of the rubble of the failed budget deficit negotiations, it seems a new movement is afoot to transform...

You Heard It Here First: Medicare Spending Slows

Nov. 22, 2011

Sunday, a New York Times editorial confirmed that "Since January 2010 the growth in Medicare spending has actually slowed to an annual rate of about 4 percent, less than half the annual rate for the previous decade. No one is...

HealthBeat Readers

Nov. 21, 2011

For some reason, HealthBeat is not recording comments. If you would like to reach me directly, e-mail me at Maggiemahar@yahoo.com Thanks, Maggie

The State of Heatlhcare Reform--and the Challenges

Nov. 20, 2011

Health Beat readers may be interested in listening to the speech that Dartmouth’s Elliott Fisher delivered at the Lundberg Institute’s inaugural event at the Commonwealth Club of California on October 25. Fisher does an excellent job of summing up where...

Hospitals Competing for Patients

Feb. 3, 2012

Not on price. Or on quality. Just amenities. (See our previous explanation here, here and here.) Botsford Hospital in Farmington Hills, Mich., started issuing free “Very Important Patient” cards in 2010. The program got its start as a referral service to link potential patients with Botsford doctors. The cards entitle VIP members to free parking [...]

EHRs May Break the Bank in San Francisco

Feb. 3, 2012

The San Francisco Department of Public Health says it is ahead of the curve in rolling out databases that keep tabs on tens of thousands of patients across a citywide network of clinics and hospitals. The rollout is needed not just to make a local form of “universal health care” work, but also to meet [...]

Is ObamaCare’s Medicaid Expansion Constitutional?

Feb. 3, 2012

This is actually a more interesting question than I originally thought. Here is Robert Book at the Apothecary: The health reform law passed in March 2010 provides for a substantial expansion of the “must cover” population – essentially anyone from a family with income below 138% of the federal poverty line (an amount that varies [...]

Who Gets Welfare?

Feb. 3, 2012

Source: Census Bureau The chart shows the percent of households receiving a benefit in each of the education categories. For example: Over a third of households with heads whose formal education was limited to a high school diploma — the most common type of household — received at least one of these types of assistance [...]

It’s Worse than Nixon

Feb. 3, 2012

It’s more like Franklin Roosevelt, who didn’t hesitate to use the power of government to crush his enemies. (See Amity Shlaes.) This is Ted Olsen, writing in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal: How would you feel if aides to the president of the United States singled you out by name for attack, and if you were [...]

Why a Banker Is Good for the Global Fund

Jan. 30, 2012

By Amanda Glassman - For a long time, the Global Fund focused on disbursing money, and disbursing as quickly as possible. The philosophy was something like: move the money and the recipient knows what to do. Yet several studies showed that funds were not allocated in a manner that maximized health results. And over the last year, in the [...]

Sound Bites from PopPov

Jan. 27, 2012

By Kate McQueston - Total fertility has been decreasing in many African countries—from 5.9 in 2001 to 4.6 in 2009 in Ethiopia and 5.5 in 2001 to 4.9 in 2009 in Senegal, though still high in comparison to many parts of the world (for more data on total fertility trends see here).  This decline has come with both health benefits and [...]

Love Thy Neighbor(s): The Need for Herd Immunity

Jan. 26, 2012

By Denizhan Duran - As we posted recently, India had its first polio-free year, despite significantly lagging behind in other vaccinations. The economic losses of vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD) to developing countries are tremendous: investing in vaccines in low- and middle-income countries would save 6.4 million children until 2020 – an investment valued at $231 billion. The same is true [...]

Why Are People Hesitating to Get Vaccinated? Distinguishing Context vs. Individuals

Jan. 26, 2012

By Amanda Glassman - This is a joint post with Victoria Fan. Vaccine uptake in several countries is stagnating or even declining (see here and here for example). What explains this poor uptake and coverage? Public health researchers have recently begun to apply the concept of  ‘vaccine hesitancy’ and ‘vaccine refusal’, largely focusing on individual knowledge, attitudes, and practices [...]

Nice Job on Polio, but Don’t Forget the Other Diseases

Jan. 14, 2012

By Victoria Fan - This is a joint post with Rachel Silverman Yesterday the global health community celebrated a much anticipated anniversary: one year has passed since India’s last reported case of polio. While still tenuous, this achievement is an important milestone for the international effort to attain polio eradication. If India can maintain this progress, then only three [...]

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