US Health Reform

A.  Prescription Drug Reform (39 items)

    1.  Rx Reports (7 items)

• Poorer, Sicker States Face Heavier Drug Cost Burdens--Rising Burdens Mean Pressure for Action Likely to Grow, 14 July 2004 with news release and state fact sheets. 52 pages
• How Much Would Drug Makers' Profits Rise under a New Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit?  A Response to PRI/PwC's Undocumented and Disjointed Critique of Our 31 October 2003 Report, 2nd ed., 2 April 2004 and highlights. 54 pages
• 61 Percent of Medicare's New Prescription Drug Subsidy is Windfall Profit to Drug Makers, 31 October 2003 (24 pages), and highlights (1 page)
• A Prescription Drug Peace Treaty-- Cutting Prices to Make Prescriptions Affordable for All and to Protect Research, 4 October 2000--with State-by-State Savings Estimates. 70 pages
• Cutting Prescription Drug Prices in Six Southwest States, 6 September 2000 53 pages
• Cutting Rx Prices in Eight Northeast States, 4 August 2000. 49 pages
• Affordable Medications for Americans, 27 July 1999 89 pages

    2.  Rx Papers (15 items)

• Accelerate Implementation of Law to Reduce Drug Costs, Charleston Gazette, 27 April 2006, 1 page.
• Getting a Handle on the Prescription Drug Cost Story, Minneapolis, 1 April 2005. 31 pages
• Making Today's Drugs Affordable for All While Boosting Breakthrough Research, 29 October 2004. 13 pages
• Ensuring a Supply of Affordable Drugs, Boston Globe op-ed, 21 June 2004 2 pages
• New Strategies Can Finance an Affordable and Comprehensive Medicare Drug Benefit, Pharmacists Planning Service Winter 2004 Newsletter 3 pages
• Three Possible Futures for the U.S. Pharmaceutical Industry, Oxford Biosciences Partners Biopharmaceutical Summit, Chatham, Massachusetts, 30 May 2003.77 pages
• Cover Everyone, Hold Down Cost, and Pay Drug Makers Fairly, AFL-CIO, Washington, D.C. 7 May 2003. 25 pages
• Why the Bush Medicare Drug Plan Is Reckless, Washington Post letter, 27 April 2003. 1 page
• Protecting Consumers Completely and Rewarding Drug Makers Fairly:  A prescription drug peace treaty for the U.S.A., Trans-Atlantic Consumer Dialogue on Intellectual Property, Washington, D.C. 1 November 2002. 69 pages
• Prescription Drug Policy:  Separating Fact from Fear, Albany, New York, 5 June 2002. 68 pages
• The Shape of a Prescription Drug Peace Treaty, Williams College, Williamstown, MA, 25 April 2002. 33 pages
• Provisions of a Prescription Drug Peace Treaty, Tucson, 30 January, 2002. 59 pages
• Pharmaceutical Marketing and Research Spending:  The Evidence Does Not Support PhRMA's Claims, American Public Health Association, 21 October 2001. 16 pages
• Seven Myths Impeding Prescription Drug Reform in the United States, 23 March 2001. 25 pages
• Prescription Drug Spending Is Already Enough to Buy All the Drugs All Americans Need, American Public Health Association, 13 November 2000. 27 pages
• A Fairer Prescription Plan, Boston Globe, 26 January 1999. 1 page

    3.  Rx Testimony (11 items)

• Testimony on the S.375, Prescription Drug Importing, with recommendations to establish a single Rx buyer for Massachusetts, written and verbal testimony, 24 October 2005. 10 pages
• Legislative Briefing on Prescription Drug Reform, State House, Boston, 23 November 2004. 4 pages
• Affidavit Supporting Illinois Petition to the FDA to Permit Prescription Drug Importing, 8 April 2004. 17 pages
• Testimony on the Pharmaceutical Availability and Affordability Act of 2004, H.B.4084, West Virginia Legislature, 19 February 2004. 34 pages
• Crafting an Affordable Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit:  Lessons from the Veterans Administration Experience, U.S. House Government Reform Committee, Subcommittee on National Security and Veterans Affairs, 22 July 2002. 8 pages
• AMERICANS WOULD SAVE $38 BILLION IN 2001 IF WE PAID CANADIAN PRICES FOR BRAND NAME PRESCRIPTION DRUGS:  How to Win those Savings and Use Them to Protect All Americans against High Drug Costs without Hurting Drug Makers or Drug Research, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, Subcommittee on Consumer Affairs, 5 September 2001. 26 pages
• 1-page summary of U.S. Senate testimony, 5 September 2001.
• Affordable Medications for New Yorkers--without Spending More Money or Harming Drug Research, New York Senate testimony, 31 May 2000. 40 pages.
• Winning Affordable Medications for All Citizens of Nevada, 2 April 2001. 9 pages
• US House Ways and Means Committee, Subcommittee on Health, 15 February 2000. 7 pages
• Joint Economic Committee, US Congress, 4 October 1999. 6 pages

    4.  Rx Data Briefs

• Let them Eat Coke?  Cocaine and Heroin Become Cheaper While Prescription Drugs Become Costlier, 12 April 2006, 6 pages.
• 2003 U.S. Prescription Drug Prices 81% Higher than in Other Wealthy Nations, 28 October 2004. 4 pages
• Do Drug Makers Lose Money on Canadian Imports?  15 April 2004.  Highlights 20 pages
• New Yorkers Would Save $4.6 Billion (35 percent) on Brand Name Prescription Drugs in 2004 by Paying Federal Supply Schedule Prices, 26 January 2004. 6 pages
• Lower U.S. Prescription Drug Prices Are Vital to Both Patients and Drug Makers--But Instead, U.S. Prices Have Been Rising Rapidly Relative to Those in Other Wealthy Nations, 24 July 2003. 10 pages
• Windfall Profits Despite Discounted Price:  Small Manufacturing Cost for Cipro Yields Estimated $70 Million Windfall, 28 June 2002. 8 pages
• Drug Industry Marketing Staff Soars While Research Staffing Stagnates, 5 Dec 2001. 6 pages

    5.  State Prescription Drug Fact Sheets

•  Fact Sheets  -July 2004 and September 2001

B.  Hospital Survival and Configuration (18 items)

    1.  Urban Hospital Closings

• The Survival of Lachine Hospital, Montreal, 15 January 2006 (51 pages).
• Closing Hospitals in New York State Won't Save Money but Will Harm Access to Health Care, 20 November 2006, 53 pages.
• "Why Urban Voluntary Hospitals Close," Health Services Research, 1983, posted by permission http://www.pubmedcentral.gov/picrender.fcgi?artid=1068770&blobtype=pdf.  Also see HSR, Vol. 18, nos. 3-4, for two-part special issue on hospital closings.

    2.  Massachusetts Hospitals

• Testimony Opposing the Relocation of St. Margaret's Hospital from Dorchester to Brighton, 22 February 1990, 4 pages.

    3.  Washington, D.C. Hospitals       

• Lessons from the Fight Over D.C. General Hospital, American Public Health Association, 23 October 2001. 14 pages
• Flaws in the 12 April 2001 Contract Transferring Care to Greater Southeast, 30 April 2001. 8 pages
• Threats to Urban Public Hospitals and How to Respond to Them, 30 March 2001. 20 pages
• D.C. General Must be Resuscitated, Op-Ed, Washington Post, 3 December 2000. 1 page
• Saving D.C. General Hospital:  Why and How, 5 October 2000. 49 pages
• D.C. General Hospital Should be Renewed, Not Closed or Converted, D.C. City Council Testimony, 18 September 2000. 23 pages
• Supporting maps

    4.  New Hampshire Hospitals

• Report on Optima Health Care's $35 Million CoN Application, July 1996, 46 pages.
• How Can Catholic Medical Center be Saved?, October 1995, 22 pages
• Report on Elliot Hospital's Application for a CoN for a New Obstetrical Service, July 1990, 37 pages
• Report on Elliot Hospital's Application for a CoN for a New Obstetrical Services, June 1989, with supplement on Free Care, 41 pages.

    5.  California Hospitals

• Closing Rancho Los Amigos Endangers the Health of Disabled Medi-Cal Patients in Los Angeles, 3 April 2003. 41 pages

    6.  For-profit Hospitals

•  Comments on Jack Needleman's "Nonprofit to For-profit Conversion by Hospitals and Health Plans:  A Review,"  Pioneer Institute Forum, 18 February 1999. 7 pages

    7.  Identifying and Protecting Needed Hospitals

• Graduate Medical Education Financing in the U.S.A.--and its importance to urban teaching hospitals, 18 August 2003. 62 pages
• Too Many Local Hospitals on Life Support, Boston Globe, 3 March 2002. 2 pages

    8.  Other Hospital

• Report on the Relocation and Expansion of Princeton, New Jersey's Hospital, 1 February 2005. 31 pages

    9.  Baseball Stadium Relocation

• Sager and Culbert, Why Baseball Teams Move:  Racial, Financial and Other Predictors of Relocation, Cooperstown, New York 1993.

C.  Health Care for All (14 items)

For work on Massachusetts, see AAMP page.

• Shaping Affordable Health Care for All Patients and Caregivers, 20 March 2006, 70 slides.
• Conceiving an Elephant but Giving Birth to a Mouse, WBUR-FM Commentary on Massachusetts Efforts to Insure More People , 20 March 2006, 3 pages.  You can listen to the Commentary at http://realserver.bu.edu:8080/ramgen/w/b/wbur/wburnews/2006/me_0320_2.rm
• Cape Care:  Winning Health Care for All and Cost Containment on Cape Cod, 11 March 2006, 92 pages.
• Health Care for All in Massachusetts Requires Cost Control, 3 March 2006, 74 pages
• All the Money We Need, 23 January 1999, 26 pages

2005:

• U.S. Uninsured Rate 3rd Highest Ever:  Comments on New Census Bureau Data, 30 August 2005. 2 pages
• State Universal Coverage Initiatives--Designing Plans that Could Both Work and Pass, 13 May 2005, Rekindling Reform, Fordham University. 129 pages
• Is our Health Care Sustainable?  Board of Visitors, Boston University School of Medicine, 5 May 2005. 44 pages
• Health Crisis Index Rose 37 Percent, 1987-2003:  Higher Spending Associated with Growth in Uninsured Share of Americans, Data Brief No. 9, 25 March 2005. 13 pages
• Health Costs Absorb One-Quarter of Economic Growth, 2000-2005; Recent Federal Report Unintentionally Obscures Massive Rise, Physicians' Decisions Key to Controlling Cost, 9 February 2005 with summary and exhibits. 56 pages
  • For a related op-ed, please see "Shooting at The Wrong Target", published by TomPaine.com, 21 March 2005.

2003:

• Fixing Our Broken Health Care System Requires Both Incremental and Comprehensive Change, 25 October 2003. 12 pages
• Vast Sums of Money Are Stolen from What We Spend to Delay Death, Treat Pain and Overcome Disability, Newsday, 3 August 2003. 4 pages

2002:

• Rhode Island Health Care for All report, November 2002
  • Report to the Rhode Island General Assembly. 31 pages
  • Questions and Answers about Consolidated Financing for Rhode Island 15 pages
  • Detailed Tables 11 pages

2001:

• Raising the Money for Health Care for All:  Traditional Single Payor Financing versus Pooled Financing, 2 February 2001. 2 pages
• Issues for States in Planning for Universal Coverage, 2 February 2001. 3 pages

2000:

• Winning and Retaining Durably Affordable Health Care for All, American Public Health Association, 14 November 2000 18 pages

• Massachusetts Can Afford Health Care for All,  2 Nov. 2000 (Co-authored with Solutions for Progress)

  • Press Release                                                

  • Summary                                                   

  • Report, with Summary and Appendices I and II

  • Appendix III A – Summary Spreadsheets 

  • Appendix III B – Calculations and Notes 
     

• All the Money We Need, 23 January 1999, 26 pages
• Nine Lessons for National Health Reform from the Failure of the 1988 Massachusetts Universal Health Care Law, American Public Health Association, 26 October 1993. 12 pages

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