I had a long flight today, which gave me the chance to catch up on some neglected reading. I was a little upset that my seatmate took my New York Times when I had stepped away, then gave it to the flight attendant as trash when he finished with it –and before I’d had a chance to read it! In any case it gave me more time to dig into the June issue of Health Affairs, which is all about the health care reform law and its implementation.
While finishing up a relaxing vacation in Los Angeles last week I saw Costs for individual health plans soar in the USA Today outside my hotel room door. More people are buying individual plans as they get laid off and lose their corporate coverage. Prices are high and rising so the pain is intense.
Health insurer Humana hired some creative types to do a cutesy series of informational videos to post on YouTube and then to promote the videos to bloggers and presumably other media. Health Policy and Communications Blog author Michael D. Miller MD doesn’t like what he sees. I had a look at the videos myself and tend to agree with his conclusions.
Remember a few years ago when everyone was lamenting the low voter turnout and level of engagement in the US? That seems to be done with now. No matter who wins today, I’m very pleased with the level of involvement of voters during this election cycle.
John McCain touts his reputation as a maverick, willing to buck his party when it’s the right thing to do. Barack Obama says McCain isn’t much of a maverick, that he follows President Bush’s lead the vast majority of the time.