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Columbia Journalism Review content tagged Health Reform

1. June 25, 2012 06:50 AM

   Romney’s ‘job killer’ narrative: time for an X-ray

   Some reporters are asking: Does Obamacare really destroy jobs?

   By Trudy Lieberman

   ONNtv.com, which bills itself as Ohio’s channel for news, is one of the latest media outlets to casually pass along one of Mitt Romney’s favorite campaign messages—the one that blames Obamacare for "killing jobs." ONN reporter Jim Heath, traveling with Romney on his campaign bus, sat down for a one-on-one with the presumptive nominee. Romney told Heath: “Get rid of...

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2. February 25, 2011 11:02 AM

   “Tweaking” Health Reform

   Who pays the price for the changes?

   By Trudy Lieberman

   Lost in MSM coverage of the president’s budget and hype over a government shutdown has been reportage about the various “tweaks” to the health reform law. Kudos to Merrill Goozner of the Fiscal Times, Megan McArdle at The Atlantic, and Timothy Jost writing for Kaiser Health News, for their enlightening commentaries. Who will pay the price for these changes? Why,...

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3. June 27, 2011 05:13 PM

   Globe Delivers its Verdict on Romneycare

   A good—if imperfect—example of policy-oriented reporting

   By Greg Marx

   On Sunday, the Boston Globe published the second installment in its two-part series on “Romneycare,” the Massachusetts health care overhaul passed in 2006. Though not as buzz-worthy as the first part of the series — which tracked the back-room negotiations in which then-governor Mitt Romney came to support the program, and particularly the controversial individual mandate — the article offers...

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4. February 6, 2012 11:57 AM

   USA Today Touts the Government’s Good News on Medicare

   But was it the full story?

   By Trudy Lieberman

   A few days ago USA Today trumpeted some health policy news: enrollment in Medicare Advantage plans is up and premiums are down. The paper reported that premiums for the controversial Medicare Advantage plans, which provide private benefits for Medicare seniors through managed care arrangements, had dropped an average of seven percent during 2011, while enrollment had grown on average by...

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5. January 31, 2012 11:15 AM

   A Laurel to The Record

   For a disturbing tale of sickness and medical expense

   By Trudy Lieberman

   Lindy Washburn’s piece in the Bergen Record about medical debt and how it can cripple even those people with health insurance offers a troubling preview of the future. The story should be required reading for health reporters and anyone else interested in the likely health care casualties even after the health reform law takes full effect in 2014. Washburn, who...

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6. April 4, 2011 12:29 PM

   A Missing Health Policy Story

   A “study says” piece gets short shrift

   By Trudy Lieberman

   The most underreported health story of this past week was, in my view, one that came out of the RAND Corp., the Santa Monica think tank known for its thorough, leading edge research on health policy. Before the words “health policy” throw you into a snooze, dear reader, let’s look at what the study showed and its implications for how...

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7. March 29, 2011 04:23 PM

   A New Entry in the Health Care Lexicon

   Beware of “centralized medical planning”

   By Trudy Lieberman

   Lawrence Hunter, a contributor on Forbes.com, took on President Obama the other day, listing a number of White House initiatives that he apparently doesn’t like. The post is predictable, given Hunter’s pedigree—he once worked for conservative former New York congressman Jack Kemp, was an advisor in the Reagan administration, and is a former vice president and chief economist for the...

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8. December 21, 2011 04:26 PM

   A Rate-Regulation Case Study in Pennsylvania

   When insurance rates are news—and when they are not

   By Trudy Lieberman

   What’s so interesting about insurance rate regulation, and why is it worth reporting on? The topic has everything to do with the ultimate fate of the national health reform law and the media’s unfortunately diminishing role as a watchdog over state government. Campaign Desk has kept an eye on rate coverage in hot spots like Maine, California, and Connecticut, where...

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9. July 20, 2011 02:32 PM

   A Shout Out to The Palm Beach Post

   A rare glimpse into the ways of for-profit health care

   By Trudy Lieberman

   The Palm Beach Post deserves kudos for exposing how Florida governor Rick Scott conducted the business of his urgent care clinics in the state, and what his actions reveal for health care to come. Scott is something of health care’s bad boy, having gotten into trouble running Columbia/ HCA, the giant for-profit hospital chain owned by the Frist family of...

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10. November 17, 2011 01:23 PM

    A Shoutout to MarketWatch

    For a report that examined the future of long-term care

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Last week, MarketWatch did the kind of report we have been urging the media to do on a subject they’d prefer to avoid—paying for long-term care. We’ve called long-term care the stepchild of health reform, and noted what little coverage there had been of the of the now-departed CLASS Act, and effectively killed off by the Obama administration last month....

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11. October 25, 2011 01:18 PM

    AP Gives Half a Loaf on Long-Term Care

    More reporting needed from the wire service

    By Trudy Lieberman

    When the CLASS Act, a part of the health reform law that would have begun to establish a national program to pay for long-term care, died two weeks ago, we urged that the media use its demise as a way to broaden the discourse on the topic. “There was scarcely a nod to the problem the act had been meant...

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12. December 31, 2010 11:37 AM

    Best of 2010: Trudy Lieberman

    Lieberman picks her top stories from 2010

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Social Security in the Heartland series: All year the media ignored how “fixes” to Social Security pushed by political elites would affect ordinary folks. The nine profiles of people living in Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, tell the tale. Our New Year’s wish is for the media to pay attention to people like them. More Words of Wisdom from Alan Simpson: As co-chair...

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13. March 22, 2012 04:16 PM

    Birthday Coverage for the Affordable Care Act

    The two faces of health reform

    By Trudy Lieberman

    The health reform law celebrates its two-year anniversary tomorrow. There are myriad ways to report on the Affordable Care Act and its sure-to-be-tumultuous future. Two stories showed up this week that illustrate two sides of health reform. The AP, which reaches zillions of ordinary people, reported—not surprisingly—on how the law has helped ordinary people. Politico, which reaches the Beltway types,...

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14. April 19, 2011 09:47 AM

    Chipping Away at Health Reform

    Some not-so-great news for consumers

    By Trudy Lieberman

    The health reform law, aka the Affordable Care Act, took a hit last week. Many journos, though, were apparently snoozing. In a talk at the annual meeting of the Association of Health Care Journalists, Washington and Lee University law professor Timothy Jost revealed that the president had just signed a bill giving the business community a present it had been...

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15. April 20, 2011 10:08 AM

    Chipping Away at Health Reform, Part II

    Ron Wyden’s lost program

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Throughout the health care debate, Oregon senator Ron Wyden worried whether Americans who will be required to buy health insurance would be able to afford it. In an interview with Campaign Desk a few months before the law passed, Wyden told us that many people will have no choice but to take the penalty for not buying coverage because they...

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16. March 24, 2011 01:00 PM

    CJR Holds a Town Hall at NYU

    Students know little about the health law

    By Trudy Lieberman

    It is birthday week for the Affordable Care Act, the official name of the health reform law passed a year ago. Previous CJR town halls have suggested that ordinary people, millions of whom are supposed to be helped by the Act, know little or nothing about it. But what about young adults who will benefit from one of the Act’s...

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17. October 12, 2011 11:11 AM

    CJR’s Assignment Desk, Part I

    Hospitals sell emergency room care

    By Trudy Lieberman

    This summer, Phil Galewitz of Kaiser Health News wrote an intriguing piece published in The Washington Post about hospitals that market their emergency room services to potential customers. The story narrative seemed out-of-whack with the conventional wisdom about hospital ERs. How many times during the run-up to health reform and during the Great Debate itself did politicos and advocates tell...

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18. September 14, 2011 12:01 PM

    Deep Health Care Problems under Rick Perry’s Watch

    Deep in the heart of Texas

    By Trudy Lieberman

    With the media hyper-focused on Texas governor Rick Perry’s not-too-flattering comments about Social Security, health care in his state seems like a woeful orphan in Medialand. That’s why Noam Levey deserves a shout-out for his recent Los Angeles Times story dissecting what’s really happening in Texas when it comes to caring for the sick. Levey presents a devastating account of...

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19. March 15, 2011 02:56 PM

    Disaster in Japan

    And thoughts on its national health system

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Images of the devastation in northeastern Japan reminded me of the time I rode the Shinkansen—the bullet train that raced through Sendai, now torn by the earthquake, and on to the city of Morioka, where I was to learn how the country cared for its older citizens. I was a Fulbright Scholar studying why the Japanese health care system was...

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20. February 14, 2012 11:47 AM

    Don Berwick, Press Critic

    Observations from Medicare’s former top guy

    By Trudy Lieberman

    Don Berwick, something of a folk hero to journos covering health care, had a heart-to-heart with the Association of Health Care Journalists the other day, and the story deserves a close read. The idea apparently was to vent about his short tenure heading the vast agency that oversees Medicare and Medicaid. Berwick, you may recall, had a recess appointment from...

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