John Goodman, PhD

The Oregon Health Plan was considered by many to be a masterpiece of health care delivery for the poor. It attracted international attention when its plan of explicit rationing of care promised to provide basic health care to virtually every Oregonian living in poverty. Did the plan live up to its promise?

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, ObamaCare) purports to control healthcare spending. Is starting a pilot program the answer?

Almost everyone says that it is. Conservatives. Liberals. Republicans. Democrats. A vast swath of the health policy community. With near unanimous agreement among everybody who knows anything about health economics, how could we even ask the question?

Did you know there is going to be a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation? The authority comes from the new health reform law. And it appears to give the Health and Human Services Secretary enormous discretion to try almost any new idea she finds interesting.