While mainstream news coverage is still a primary source of information for the latest in policy debates and the health care marketplace, online blogs have become a significant part of the media landscape, often presenting new perspectives on policy issues and drawing attention to under-reported topics. To provide complete coverage of health policy issues, the Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report offers readers a window into the world of blogs in a roundup of health policy-related blog posts. "Blog Watch," published on Tuesdays and Fridays, tracks a wide range of blogs, providing a brief description and relevant links for highlighted posts.

Michael Cannon of Cato@Liberty responds to criticisms of his opinion piece in which he argued that Medicare has stifled innovations that could lead to reductions in medical errors, which would lead to fewer unnecessary deaths. Cannon says, "The point is not whether Medicare's new payment policy is better than the old one. We need experiments with different payment policies to see which produce the best outcomes for patients, and the rigidity that government brings to that process is downright harmful."

HealthBlawg's David Harlow hosted the most recent edition of Health Wonk Review, a biweekly compendium of more than two dozen health policy, infrastructure, insurance, technology and managed care bloggers. A different participant's blog hosts each issue.

Susan Denzter on the Health Affairs blog authors eulogies for three figures in the health policy world: Allan Rosenfield, Paul Rogers and Michelle Mayer.

Niko Karvounis on the Century Foundation's Health Beat Blog discusses an upcoming Supreme Court case, Wyeth v. Levine, which centers on the question of whether FDA approval of a drug warning label pre-empts product safety suits brought in state courts. Karvounis says, "It's about transparency and accountability, about industry's hold on the federal government, and about patients' right to protect themselves."

Brian Klepper and David Kibbe on the Health Care Blog question why health plans have not moved beyond pilot projects to raise reimbursement rates for primary care physicians. Klepper and Kibbe write, "We won't have real change in the delivery of care until the health plans either voluntarily change their relationship with primary care or are forced to do so."

Bob Laszewski of Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review writes that proposals to remove the tax exemption for employer-sponsored health insurance "will likely recede from the national health policy debate whether John McCain wins or loses the presidency" because of opposition by Democratic politicians during the primary and presidential elections and because Republican politicians "[fumbled] the argument."


Health Populi's Jane Sarasohn-Kahn discusses a new IMS Health report that finds the U.S. pharmaceutical industry will experience slow growth of 1% to 2% in 2009. Sarasohn-Kahn says, "This is not good news."

Insure Blog's Bob Vineyard notes his agreement with a suggestion from Washington state gubernatorial challenger Dino Rossi (R) to remove some state coverage mandates to lower health costs. Vineyard says, "Mandates cost money. Everyone pays even though only a few will benefit."

Louise of Colorado Health Insurance Insider discusses contributors to rising health care costs, saying, "all of our health care excesses have a cost, and for insured Americans that cost is showing up in the form of ever-higher health insurance premiums. For those without health insurance, the cost is putting health care further outside the realm of possibility."

Paul Testa on the New America Foundation's New Health Dialogue rounds up challenges some states are facing funding Medicaid because of budget shortfalls.

Jonathan Cohn on the New Republic's The Plank discusses a New York Times article that reported women face more expensive health insurance premiums than men on the individual market. Cohn says the news "has significant implications" for the presidential candidates because "McCain's health care proposal would, over time, move people out of employer coverage and into the individual market, where this disparity would affect them."

Igor Volsky on the Center for American Progress Action Fund's Wonk Room points to recent comments by Elizabeth Edwards on the administrative cost of private health insurance. Volsky says Sen. McCain's health proposal would increase administrative costs because "marketing, medical underwriting, rescission, and increased paperwork for individuals leads insurance companies in the individual market to spend 29 percent of premium dollars on administrative costs, more than double the average amount in the group market."

Jacob Goldstein on the Wall Street Journal's Health Blog reports on strategies physicians are employing to maintain patients during the economic downturn.

Don McCanne on the Physicians for a National Health Program Blog discusses challenges facing California's high-risk pool, saying, "We really need to end this game of juggling unaffordable premiums amongst fragmented, inequitable risk pools. It's time to establish one single risk pool for all of us."