The Health Wonk Review is up at Health Business Blog. The Health Care Blog has an astute commentary on the state of the nation and how lobbying by special interest groups basically eliminates the possibility for meaningful reform in health care and a range of other issues. There’s a great graphic about obesity around the world too - go check it out.

Amateur Economists has a post about the right to health care versus the right to choice. There are some good fundamental points here - in a system with government funded universal health care, you don’t have as much choice or buying power when it comes to your own health care. And that’s a major negative for a lot of people. But nothing is free. There’s no such thing as a perfect solution that will please all of the people all of the time. The ideal that drives the call for universal health care is that everyone compromises a bit (giving up some of their freedom of choice when it comes to their own health care) in order to guarantee that everyone has access to the same level of care. Good food for thought - would you be willing to make compromises in order to live in a country that made health care for all citizens a national priority?

Health Access Weblog has an account of a comedian talking about his health insurance, and how confusing it is to buy an individual health insurance policy or choose from a range of employer-sponsored options. Even for people in the health insurance industry, the options are complicated. I’d equate it to investing for retirement - how aggressive or conservative do you want to be, what’s your risk tolerance (does anybody really have a good answer to that one? - nobody likes to lose money, everybody likes to earn money…) do you want an HMO or PPO, a high deductible or a low one, an HSA or a copay plan… The choices are mind numbing when it comes to individual health insurance. We try to be a bit more helpful for our clients, and break down the options in plain English, and include worst case scenarios and total financial exposure (premiums plus out of pocket costs) on a variety of plans. But it’s true that in the end of the day, the choice is the consumer’s to make.

The Colorado Health Insurance Insider article about birth control pills and health insurance was included in the Health Wonk Review this week. Be sure to check out Health Care Policy And Marketplace Review for the next edition of the HWR.