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.

Congressional Budget Office Director Peter Orszag writes that "it will be crucial to address the nation's looming fiscal gap -- which is driven primarily by rising health care costs -- as the economy eventually recovers from this current downturn."

Niko Karvounis on the Century Foundation's Health Beat Blog suggests some policy changes to address challenges facing the Medicaid program. Bob Moffit on the Heritage Foundation's The Foundry says that Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's (Ill.) "plan would increase the number of uninsured covered under Medicaid and SCHIP while reforming neither program," noting low reimbursement rates for physicians.

Jane McCabe Gorman on the Health Care Blog discusses a Kaiser Family Foundation study that documented how well viewers learn health information from entertainment television, and asks, "Are public health initiatives up to competing with global multinationals for viewers' attention? Should they be?"

Kathy Melley on Health Care For All's A Healthy Blog discusses issues at stake in an upcoming 1st Circuit Federal Court of Appeals decision on whether states can pass legislation banning the pharmaceutical industry's use of physician prescribing information for marketing purposes.

Joe Paduda on Managed Care Matters offers a proposal that involves new regulations to the nongroup insurance market, including: prohibiting underwriting, mandating community rating, requiring coverage for pre-existing conditions and establishing a minimum benefit plan. Paduda believes "comprehensive health reform will not happen in the near future" because "there is no money," but says changes to the nongroup market could "[lay] the groundwork for more comprehensive reform if and when that's feasible."

Paul Testa on the New America Foundation's New Health Dialogue discusses a new paper assessing proposals to let insurers sell their policies across state lines, noting that some groups have estimated that the cost of mandated benefits would comprise a small percentage of health premiums. Testa says any savings from such proposals "come not from dropping benefit mandates but by creating a marketplace that promotes even more risk selection and market segmentation than currently exists."