Monthly Archives: April 2012

China’s Health Care Reform: A Long March with Many Miles to Go

While China’s sweeping reforms to upgrade the nation’s health care system are well-publicized and acknowledged by China watchers and the media alike, the overall context and achievements of the reforms to date often get less attention and praise. To share these lessons with a wider audience, I’d like to contextualize here the recent calls for continued reform efforts by China’s leadership by providing a brief background into those efforts and examining the objectives for the next phase of reform.

Posted on Monday, April 16th, 2012 By Amy Wendholt
Catogories Health Policy | Tagged China, Health Care, reform, universal coverage | Leave a comment

Trimming the Fat in Health Care Spending: It’s not Easy, but It’s Simple

Throughout what has been an ever-evolving, multi-year health care “debate,” we’ve heard lots of numbers and stats tossed around. One that is getting more and more play is the “waste and inefficiency” data point: specifically, that 30 percent of the $2.3 trillion spent on health care is wasted. Like many statistics, though impressive, the 30-percent stat doesn’t tell us much at face value. To most people, even a fraction of such a large number is still a really, really big number. Where is the waste coming from? Who is wasting all the money? What does “waste” even mean in this context? It’s a rather loaded term, after all. Identifying where the inefficiencies are in the health care system and why certain activities driving cost are, in fact, “wasteful” is a key to eliminating the waste and creating a more streamlined system that is driven by value and quality.

Posted on Thursday, April 12th, 2012 By Katie Payne
Catogories Health Policy | Tagged Health Care, NEHI, reform, spending | Leave a comment

When to Panic About a Pandemic?

Erica DeWald is an associate director in APCO's Washington, D.C., office specializing in vaccines and communicating complex scientific issues. “It’s a bird!” “It’s a plane!” “No, it’s bird flu on a plane!”It just wouldn’t be flu season without a panic about a pandemic, would it? The fuss usually kicks up around September and, depending on the [...]

Posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2012 By Erica DeWald
Catogories Infectious Disease | Tagged bird flu, influenza, public health | 1 Comment

The Financial Crisis in Europe: the Perfect Pharmaceutical Storm

Tresja Bolt is a senior director in APCO Worldwide’s Brussels office and heads the company’s health care practice in EIMEAIt is fair to say that the pharmaceutical industry has not had an easy time during the economic crisis. Cost-containment aimed at controlling public health care spending has been an issue for high-income countries in Europe [...]

Posted on Tuesday, April 10th, 2012 By Tresja Bolt
Catogories Health Policy | Tagged austerity, European health care, pharmaceutical industry | Leave a comment

A New Look at How We Count Calories

Melissa Musiker is a registered dietician and a member of APCO’s Washington, D.C., health policy team.Last week the American Society for Nutrition released a consensus statement on energy balance and implications for body weight regulation. In general, the statement supports much of the currently held notions about the importance of maintaining appropriate energy balance over [...]

Posted on Monday, April 9th, 2012 By Melissa Musiker
Catogories Chronic Disease Nutrition | Tagged 500 calories, ASN, calories, CBO, consensus statement, counting calories, energy balance, obesity, soda tax, weight | Leave a comment

Welcome to HealthScope!

I am pleased to kick off HealthScope, an APCO Worldwide online forum on leading health issues around the globe. Our writers are experts from diverse backgrounds and include former Capitol Hill staff, HHS and FDA officials, executives from the health care industry, reporters, and policy analysts. Our goal is to post meaningful discussions on issues of interest in health care and offer critical insight.