Welcome to SPF Health. The purpose of this blog is to provide:

Synthesis of

Policies, Politics, and Proposals

Focused on

Health

There is a plethora of information available about next steps in health policy, Medicare and Medicaid reform, the fate of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the political process to achieve health reform, and the potential impact of health reform proposals on access, cost, and quality.

As a health services researcher and professor of health policy, I love to make sense of these different perspectives. Given the significant uncertainty emerging around the future of health reform, this blog will contribute to our collective understanding of what might happen with the ACA, how to interpret policy proposals, what the political process allows, and what the potential impact might be. While I will aim to present a more neutral perspective when it comes to politics, note that I am guided by what the potential impact of proposed reforms will be on the widely accepted triple aim for health care: improved patient experience of care, improved health of populations, and reduced per capita costs.

Through this blog I aim to synthesize the overwhelming amount of information on health policy related topics. I consider my audience to be anyone who is interested in the future of health care, both health policy wonks and those who are interested in health care for more personal reasons such as everyday health care needs of loved ones, concerns around rising health insurance premiums, or better understanding of funding for government sponsored programs. I will offer details on both the basics of certain program elements to clarify potential misconceptions and also provide more in-depth analysis. For those of you who want to dig deeper into any particular issue, I will provide links to original sources of the proposals being analyzed so you too can make your own assessments.

I encourage you to come along for the ride.