With the launch of our new blog, Capsules, we鈥檝e also resurrected Blogwatch, where we鈥檒l track聽a variety of聽health policy blogs and give you the highlights聽in easy-to-swallow bites. I鈥檓 your new host, Andrew Villegas. Read your favorites or add to the conversation below:
This week, bloggers are sounding off about the demise of Google Health, the Internet behemoth鈥檚 version of the personal health record. They鈥檙e also talking about shifting state liabilities in Medicaid and the movement among some聽states to cut off funding for Planned Parenthood because of聽the abortions that group provides at its clinics.
Katherine Hobson at says that the WSJ blog wrote when Google Health first launched in May 2008 that it could be a tough sell until more medical practices got their own electronic medical records going. Hobson quotes a Google release that explains: 鈥淭here has been adoption among certain groups of users like tech-savvy patients and their caregivers, and more recently fitness and wellness enthusiasts. But we haven鈥檛 found a way to translate that limited usage into widespread adoption in the daily health routines of millions of people.鈥�
In the meantime, 鈥榮 Marie Diamond talks about the ongoing fight in several states to cut funding for Planned Parenthood because聽of their funding for聽abortions. Wisconsin is the latest to do so, she says, and in doing so could be denying preventive care, not just abortions, to thousands of women: 鈥淭he Department of Health the BadgerCare family planning program saves Wisconsin nearly $140 million per year and prevented 11,064 unplanned pregnancies in 2008. By denying so many residents access to preventive care, Wisconsin may see an increase in unintended pregnancies, the spread of STDs, and a rise in undetected and untreated cervical and breast cancer cases 鈥� 鈥榓ll of which would then聽cost the state millions of dollars聽in future medical costs.鈥欌��
In the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families鈥� , Martha Heberlein and Jocelyn Guyer write in support of West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller鈥檚 recent letter to Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch slamming Hatch鈥檚 proposed repeal of the maintenance-of-effort requirement in Medicaid and the Children鈥檚 Health Insurance Program: 鈥淚f you鈥檙e a regular reader of Say Ahhh!, I鈥檓 sure we don鈥檛 have to tell you that we agree with Senator Rockefeller鈥檚 assessment that repealing the stability protections聽would create enormous issues for the nation鈥檚 children.聽聽As he put it, 鈥楤y repealing these provisions, this bill could jeopardize the country鈥檚 remarkable progress in covering children and unravel one of the Congress鈥檚 most successful bi-partisan initiatives.鈥欌��
As states struggle with Medicaid costs, others are latching onto the idea of using block grants to fund Medicaid. 聽Daniel J. Mitchell, writing in the blog, says that block-granting Medicaid promotes federalism and good fiscal policy. 鈥淥ne of the key observations of the video is that Medicaid block grants would replicate the success of welfare reform. Getting rid of the federal welfare entitlement in the 1990s and shifting the program to the states was a very successful policy, saving billions of dollars for taxpayers and significantly reducing poverty. There is every reason to think ending the Medicaid entitlement will have similar positive results.鈥�
Finally, John Goodman, in his , provides a on how much a Medicare beneficiary can expect to get out of the system per dollar they contributed. A slice: 鈥淎 typical 85-year-old is going to get back $2.69 in benefits for every dollar paid into the system in the form of premiums and taxes鈥攁 good deal by any measure.鈥�