Maggie Mahar, Healthcare Fellow at The Century Foundation and author of the path-breaking book Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much, writes one of the most up-to-the-minute, authoritative blogs on healthcare reform on the web, the Health Beat blog. Read her most recent posts by clicking below:

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• A Longer-Term Fix For Medicaid?
  The news on Monday that one in six Americans are now enrolled in government poverty programs (Medicaid, food stamps, unemployment insurance and welfare) was an unsettling reminder of the economic fix we currently are in. Medicaid, as I’ve written before...
  
  
• Rick Scott: A Great Makeover, But Still the Same Guy – Part 2
  Summary: Rick Scott, the former hospital executive who is now a candidate to become Governor of Florida epitomizes the power that concentrated wealth now has to influence American politics—and, perhaps, buy elections. As Jane Mayer explains in her superb New...
  
  
• Implementing Health Care Reform: The Health Wonk Review Highlights Posts that Raise Questions
  The most recent Health Wonk Review, hosted by Joe Paduda at Managed Care Matters, raises provocative questions about making health care reform a reality. You’ll find Paduda’s round-up of some of the meatiest health care posts that have appeared on...
  
  
• I Remember Rick Scott: A Great Makeover, but Still the Same Guy Part-1
  Summary: When I wrote Money-Driven Medicine, the Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much (Harper Collins, 2006), Rick Scott stood out as one of the more memorable characters in a rogues’ gallery of CEOs who helped create the stock market...
  
  
• Rick Scott’s “Inner Voice”
  Below, an excerpt from an imaginary dialogue between Rick Scott and Rick Scott’s “inner voice” from Warren Langer’s blog “Still liberal at 83” http://stillliberalat83.net/2010/06/28/rick-scott-republican-candidate-for-florida-governor-talks-to-rick-scott/ It seems, to me, to capture Scott’s inner spirit in an important way. Rick Scott, Republican...
  
  
• New Studies Highlight Unintended Consequences of Medicare Drug Benefit
  In 2006, when the government began offering prescription drug coverage for seniors through Medicare Part D, the goal was to increase utilization of prescription drugs by the elderly who may not have been able to afford them before, and also...
  
  
• EMR Technology Experiences Growing Pains: Resistant Doctors, Computer Glitches, and Unrealized Benefits
  Last week I had my first visit with my new primary care doctor. I picked him based on recommendations (plus he’s one of the few that accepts my insurance), and also because he seemed to be an eager adopter of...
  
  
• Is There A Doctor On The Plane?
  Over at Wachter’s World, Bob Wachter, M.D., Associate Chairman of the Department of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco relates what it’s like to be on a plane and hear the airplane’s PA system ask: “If there’s a...
  
  
• Putting a Lid on HealthCare Inflation Is Possible
  Summary: Could we bring our nation’s health care bill down from 17% of GDP to 12%? An intriguing study from Milliman, the independent consulting and actuarial firm, says”yes.” Looking at actuarial date from some of our best and most efficient...
  
  
• On Regulating Insurers
  Over at the New Republic, Jon Cohn reports that the Affordable Care Act gives Kathleen Sebelius great latitude in regulating insurers. And Cohn thinks that she is likely to use it. “It's not impossible,” to regulate private sector insurers, Cohn...