"Blog Watch" offers readers a roundup of health policy-related blog posts.
The American Prospect's Ezra Klein looks at a new Lewin Group study of a public insurance plan option and says the "actual news" is the cost difference between a public plan using Medicare rates and a public plan that bids for rates, as private insurers currently do. Conn Carroll of the Heritage Foundation's The Foundry says that if the Lewin Group's predictions are correct, "we would find ourselves well on our way toward a single-payer, government-run health care system." In a related post, Igor Volsky of the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room looks at a new report from Jacob Hacker on a public plan.
Judith Graham of the Chicago Tribune's Triage looks at a new survey from Catholic Healthcare West on health reform and says it suggests that health reform is "tricky" because the majority of respondents are satisfied with their doctors.
Louise of Colorado Health Insurance Insider says that forbidding underwriting could help people with chronic or serious illnesses gain access to health insurance on the individual market, but it "won't make much of an impact for the millions of people who can't afford health insurance."
Trudy Lieberman of Columbia Journalism Review's Campaign Desk interviews Medicare expert Marilyn Moon as part of a series designed to "offer journalists more options for their stories and encourage a deeper conversation."
James Capretta of Diagnosis says President Obama and congressional Democrats' ideas for health reform are not "inevitable" because Congress still must find sufficient funding.
Arnold Kling of Econlog responds to a Los Angeles Times opinion piece on some countries' rationing of health services, saying, "My view of the American health care system is that it hardly rations health care at all. That is why we spend so much more than other countries."
John Joseph Leppard IV of Health Care Manumission critiques the idea of increasing government spending on health programs and setting quality standards for physician care.
Insure Blog's Bob Vineyard looks at so-called "No-Insurance Clubs," or physician practices that accept uninsured patients for an annual fee. Vineyard says that the arrangements can provide a false sense of security and that a catastrophic insurance policy might be a better option.
Joe Paduda of Managed Care Matters compiles a list of the current 10 most common objections to universal health coverage.
Jacob Goldstein of the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog looks at a new analysis that found prescriptions for generic drugs rose by 12% per year from 2004-2008 while prescriptions for brand-name drugs fell by 6% per year.
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