The Health Wonk Review is THE top health policy roundup in the blogosphere. It’s known for only including the best and brightest, and only the keenest observations of the health policy community. The collection of articles below represent the cream of the crop of recent entries in the ongoing US health care policy discussion.

I’m honored that The Colorado Health Insurance Insider was selected to host such an important piece of the health policy debate. With the recent release of the Michael Moore film “SiCKO”, the private vs. socialized health care discussion has gone through the roof. So I started out with articles more directly related to that topic, and I arranged them in a way that should feel like it’s more of a conversation – rather than a list of articles. Make sure you give yourself time to read every one. They’re ALL the best-of-the-best! (if I overlooked your entry, let me know)
Without further ado, the July 12, 2007 edition of the Health Wonk Review:

To get us warmed up, Gary Schwitzer of the Schwitzer health news blog gives us the play by play of Michael Moore vs. 3 of CNN’s Best – Part II. “CNN realized after Monday’s on-air spat between “SICKO” documentary producer Michael Moore and anchorman Wolf Blitzer that it had a promotable controversy that, if turned into a sequel, could fill airtime on the cheap. And they did so.”

And what do you think “The Father of Health Savings Accounts“, John Goodman, thought of SiCKO? You’re not getting any hints. You’re going to have to read his post Michael and Me to find out. Oooh, the suspense!

Sarah Dine of Health Affairs Blog offers musings on SiCKO with regard to America’s historical view of the individual versus communal social contract. She links to research published in Health Affairs journal showing that nearly 50% of U.S. health care will soon be financed by the government–even without any health reform.

Michael Cannon of Cato@Liberty fame presents Who Should Ration Health Care? Michael responds to an Ezra Klein article in The American Prospect, asking “So if Klein will acknowledge that letting consumers do the rationing does not lead to worse health outcomes — and I don’t see how he cannot — then why the preference for rationing by experts?”

Ezra Klein responds to those challenging the number of uninsured with his article Your World in Charts: Uninsured Edition. “The insurance industry isn’t prone to overhyping the millions of Americans without insurance, and if they thought themselves capable of calling it 15 million rather than 45 million, they would. They don’t. And so, if you’re a denier, ask yourself: Are you really comfortable with a world in which the insurance industry is more intellectually honest than you are?”

Pamela Waymack with Healthcare Financial Management Association gives us A Dose of Reality–SiCKO and How to Address the Uninsured Crisis. Pamela warns “SiCKO should serve as a wake-up call to all of us that it is time to start addressing the issues of cost and access before our healthcare system is dismantled by those that have the simple solution like Mr. Moore.”

With his own simple solution, Mike Feehan of InsureBlog thinks we should be focusing our efforts on mandatory health care, not insurance, with his article Why isn’t health care compulsory? Thought-provoking, exasperating, or satire? Giving a quote from the article would ruin it, you’ll need to read the whole thing.

Joe Paduda presents ‘Free markets’ in health insurance just don’t work posted at Managed Care Matters. In a previous life, Joe Paduda was an insurance exec; Joe uses that experience to explain why a completely unregulated insurance market will not work. And dissects Michael Cannon in the process.

On the Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review, Robert Laszewski asks: A Canadian-Style Health Care System–How Would We Get from Here to There? He brings up some very good questions about how the single payer folks intend to flip our private system immediately into a universal coverage system: “You might want to go out on the Interstate this afternoon, get the car up to 80 in heavy traffic, and slam on the brakes–that would be good practice for what you are proposing.”

Maggie Mahar stirs up controversy with SiCKO and Healthcare Reform on The Health Care Blog. Maggie’s review of Sicko has drawn a great deal of attention and spawned an interesting comment thread (currently 94 comments!) which seems to have a life of it’s own. “For-profit-insurers spend a great deal of time designing policies that will limit their “losses” …’You’re not slipping through the cracks. They made the crack and are sweeping you toward it.’”

Richard Eskow writes about an interesting new trend: Lifestyle-Based Insurance Premiums: Somebody’s Watching You posted at The Sentinel Effect, saying, “United Healthcare is charging more for coverage based on lifestyle-related factors. Is this fair, or is it unwarranted intrusion into our private lives?… I predict a libertarian implosion as two competing impulses – the desire to live as you please and a belief in the ability of the free market to solve all ills – collide.”

Dr. Bob of DB’s Medical Rants gives his view on Michael Moore, national health care, and the medical profession in Preserving the Profession. “We do not have a perfect health care system, but I still believe that the proposed alternatives would deliver a worse system. Of course, I am expressing my opinion in this debate. I believe socialized medicine harms the profession.”

Revere of Effect Measure warns The US: a nice place to live, but don’t get sick. “Even the CongressThings so adamantly opposed to “socialized medicine” are not giving up their government health plans. They’d rather hold the average American hostage to their ideological pecadillos.”

Jason Shafrin is the Healthcare Economist with a review of SiCKO: “While Sicko has some important critiques of the American system, I am as of yet not convinced that socialized health care is best option for the U.S. Nevertheless, Sicko should be credited with putting a spotlight on the ails of the American health care system.”

David Williams has an Interview with MedRetreat’s Patrick Marsek posted at Health Business Blog. The post is just a transcript of the interview, I recommend listening to the audio. “[Medical tourism] seems to be almost doubling every year …It’s becoming more talked about and a more accepted option to U.S. health care.”

Jon Coppelman presents FMLA: Looking Back, Looking Forward over at the Workers’ Comp Insider. Jon looks at a recent Department of Labor report analyzing the Family Medical Leave Act of 1993. He notes that the DOL seems to be establishing an agenda for future legislative and regulatory adjustments, specifically in terms of adjustments to seven particular areas of ambiguity that the report highlights.

And last but not least, Roy Poses of Health Care Renewal opened my eyes to something new: Selling OTC Pharmaceuticals Door-to-Door: A New Stealth Marketing Variant? You just can’t make this stuff up. A marketing guru for the over-the-counter pharmaceuticals subsidiary of a big pharma company proposed having volunteers for charities – the Girl Scouts was the example used – pitch their products door to door, and 8% of the resulting sales would go back to the charity. The most charitable name for this practice appears to be a new form of stealth marketing. But the company got very indignant when another health care blogger first broke the story. This could get REALLY interesting!!

Bob Laszewski will be hosting the next Health Wonk Review a the Health Care Policy and Marketplace Review on July 26, 2007.