Stuart Altman, Chairman and Founder of The Health Industry Forum, made numerous appearances in print and broadcast media to discuss President Obama's plans for healthcare reform.
On October 15, in a BusinessWeek article entitled Health Reform Premium Claims Generate Heat, But Little Clarity, Dr. Altman responds to a study that argues that the Senate Finance Committee's health-care bill will drive up costs by pushing family insurance premiums up hundreds of dollars, or raising the federal tax (and fee) burden on health insurers.
On September 22, 2009, Altman and other leading analysts and health policy advisers, many of them veterans of failed health overhaul efforts in the past, implored lawmakers not to give up on revamping the system now that the going has gotten tough politically. His comments are in CQ Today Online News.
On August 19th, Dr. Altman was quoted in the Los Angeles Times, on the topic of the Public Option.
On July 23rd, Dr. Altman made another appearance on television on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, "Senate Delays Health Reform as Cost Concerns Persist", discussing the questions of waste in the federal systems and changing the way we pay for healthcare.
Dr. Altman had a busy April, as he compared the Canadian and U.S. healthcare systems with "Dan Rather Reports"; graded Obama's healthcare initiatives for NPR in "Obama and Health Care: Big Hurdles Yet to Come"; and weighed the pros and cons of long-term care coverage in "Long-Term Care Gains Attention in Health Reform" on WBUR.
In March, Dr, Altman revisited the early 1990's healthcare reform efforts in "No Harry and Louise" in Newsweek. In addition, he was quoted in the New York Times article, "Massachusetts Faces Costs of Big Health Care Plan", and in the Huffington Post's blog on "Zeke Emanuel, Obama's Health Care Alchemist".
In January, he discussed retiree spending on WBUR's "Here and Now", and weighed in on fixing the healthcare crisis on PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer. He also discussed "Kennedy's 40-Year Push for Universal Coverage" on WBUR.
