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Debate Over Taxing Health Benefits Picks Up
"As the debate on how to fix health care picks up pace, so does discussion about one of the most lucrative ways to pay for it:" taxing employer-provided health benefits, CNN reports. The "tax-free arrangement" in which an employer"s contribution to employee health benefit "is treated as tax-free to the employee in terms of income tax and payroll tax," was "born during the days of wage control in 1943." According to Paul Fronstin, director of the health research program at the Employee Benefit Research Institute, employers were not allowed to "attract workers on the basis of better pay," so instead they offered the benefits "as a way to compete for the best talent." Over the past 66 years, employees have come to expect it. But "tax and health experts say it"s inequitable. High-income workers and those with the most expensive health insurance plans enjoy the biggest break as a result of the tax exclusion."
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Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report Feature Highlights Recent Blog Entries
"Blog Watch" offers readers a roundup of health policy-related blog posts.Bloggers are tentatively reacting to a report and blog post released by the Congressional Budget Office that summarizes the agency"s approach to estimating the cost of any health overhaul bills. At issue is how CBO will count different stipulations of legislation -- like an individual mandate or a public plan -- and whether their conclusions will result in a heftier price tag. Douglas Elmendorf explained on the Director"s Blog: "In CBO"s view, the key consideration is whether a proposal would be making health insurance an essentially governmental program, tightly controlled by the federal government with little choice available to those who offer and buy health insurance -- or whether the system would provide significant flexibility in terms of the types, prices, and number of private-sector sellers of insurance available to people. The former -- a governmental program -- belongs in the federal budget (including all premiums paid by individuals and firms to private insurers), but the latter -- a largely private-sector system -- does not." Janet Adamy of the Wall Street Journal"s Washington Wire notes that the report doesn"t address the cost estimates of the scenarios. Alan Katz on his Health Care Reform Blog concludes, "the message is clear: the looser government"s hand grips the new health care system the smaller its budgetary impact." Liberal bloggers had a variety of reactions -- some found the report too vague, while others saw it as good news. The New Republic"s Jonathan Cohn says, "you may need a Talmudic scholar to figure out what those implications are." Cohn continues, "Other passages in the briefing are [similarly] vexing and, for what it"s worth, the reactions I"ve gotten from insiders familiar with the report have ranged from sighs of relief to statements not suitable for a family blog." Ezra Klein agrees the report lacks specificity, but says, "Even so, I"m cheered by the simple existence of this ruling. The fact that CBO is explaining its thinking before legislation arrives [is] yet more evidence that CBO appears, insofar as it can, to be trying to help out on health reform. ... That"s an important change from past years." Interesting Elsewhere:
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Advances In Lab-Grown Motor Nerves Can Lead To Cures For Diabetic Neuropathy And Help Further Understand Multiple Sclerosis And Related Conditions
In the July issue of Biomaterials, published by Elsevier, researchers from the University of Central Florida (UCF) report on the first lab-grown motor nerves that are insulated and organized just like they are in the human body. The model system will drastically improve understanding of the causes of myelin-related conditions, such as diabetic neuropathy and later, possibly multiple sclerosis (MS). In addition, the model system will enable the discovery and testing of new drug therapies for these conditions.
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10 Students Receive Scholarships For Outstanding Work In Public Health Systems Research

AcademyHealth and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have awarded ten scholarships to graduate students who demonstrate outstanding potential to contribute to the field of public health systems research (PHSR). Scholarship recipients each receive $1,000 for registration and travel to attend AcademyHealth"s Annual Research Meeting and the PHSR Interest Group Annual Meeting, June 28-July 1, 2009 in Chicago. Scholarship winners will present their research during a poster session at the PHSR Interest Group meeting. The following students received scholarships: Maya Babu, Harvard Medical School and the Harvard Business School; Nancy Baum, University of Michigan School of Public Health; LeConte Dill, University of California, Berkeley; Carl Foreman, Portland State University; Justin Hall, Queen"s University and the University of Waterloo; Melissa Higdon, The George Washington University; Tracy Marie Hilliard, University of Washington; Jonathan Keeling, Columbia University; Natalie Privett, Stanford University; and Joanna Zablotsky, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Scholarship recipients are masters and doctoral students engaged in research that shows potential to advance the understanding of public health systems by highlighting the diversity of research interests that broadly constitute the field. Applicants were required to submit an abstract of their work in addition to two letters of recommendation from faculty. PHSR is a field of inquiry examining the organization, financing, performance, and impact of health systems-defined as the constellation of governmental and non-governmental actors that influence population health, including health care providers, insurers, purchasers, public health agencies, community-based organizations, and entities that operate outside the traditional sphere of health care. Kristin Rosengren AcademyHealth


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