Category Archives: Health Policy

Healthy Eating: What’s Your Policy?

Late last week, at the request of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission, along with partners in an interagency working group at the USDA, FDA and CDC, released for comment a set of “Preliminary Proposed Nutrition Principles for Marketing Foods to Children Ages 2-17.” Congress tasked the working group with developing a set of principles to guide industry efforts to improve the nutritional profile of foods marketed directly to children and to tap into the power of advertising and marketing to support healthful food choices.
Posted on May 3, 2011 By Tara Greco
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Competition In Health Care – What Does It Mean? It All Depends On Who You Ask

In the debate over health care reform, “competition” is one of the words used most often by both sides. Republicans and Democrats both claim to support it, want more if it and put it at the heart of success when it comes to building a better health care system. However, once you get behind the rhetoric, there is a difference between how each side defines the term.
Posted on April 18, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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Good Cop, Bad Cop – Short-Term Gain, Long-Term Risk

The Administration’s approach to implementing the new health care law has the look and feel of a traditional “good cop bad cop” routine. And while it may have some short-term political benefits, the long-term consequences could be harmful. If you’ve ever heard CMS Administrator Don Berwick speak, you’d think there was little or no disagreement between Republicans or Democrats on health care. His tone is moderate, cooperative and positive. Even HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and Nancy Ann Deparle, former head of the Health Reform Office, have been sounding much less confrontational. However, Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill continue to fight...
Posted on March 25, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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Health Care and The Supreme Court

Now that Judge Vinson has granted the Administration a stay of his ruling that the new health care law is in its entirety unconstitutional and the Administration has reacted by saying it will file an appeal with the 11th Circuit Court within the seven-day window Vinson gave the Administration, we now have some clarity. Federal and state governments must continue to implement the law. However, how this case may end up and, more importantly, when will it get to the Supreme Court, still remains a bit unclear..
Posted on March 4, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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Florida Judge Grants Stay, But With Caveats

In a thought-provoking and tightly-written decision, Vinson Stay Order, U.S. District Judge Roger Vinson granted the Obama Administration a stay of his previous decision that ruled the health care law unconstitutional. But in doing so, the Judge neither backed off his ruling nor granted the Administration much wiggle room.
Posted on March 4, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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SOTU Impact

With two exceptions -- gun control and gays in the military -- the State of the Union speech delivered by President Obama could have been given by a Republican. And unlike his inaugural speech last year (and the traditional SOTU speech), he did not recite a specific laundry list of proposals and ideas he would pursue in the coming year. Instead he presented broad themes and big ideas (“Sputnik moment,” invest in the future, reform our tax code, deficit reduction). And in those places where he did provide specifics, it was often an idea that undercut Republican ideas (veto legislation that contained earmarks, reform the tax code and freeze all domestic spending). The significance of this is that if it was not clear before, it is now -- President Obama has shifted hard to the center of the political spectrum.
Posted on January 28, 2011 By Bill Pierce
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