AHL’s TOP STORY: Obama Reaffirms Opposition to Major Entitlement Reforms in SOTU Address

During the first State of the Union address of his second term, President Obama yesterday acknowledged that rising health care costs are the biggest driver of U.S. debt but argued against major reductions to entitlement programs to rein in those costs, The Hill reports (Parnes/Sink, The Hill, 2/12).

Instead, Obama reiterated his proposals to reduce entitlement spending through “modest reforms,” such as reducing Medicare payments for prescription drugs, raising premiums for higher-income Medicare beneficiaries and continuing to reform the way health care services are delivered (Baker [1], “Healthwatch,” The Hill, 2/12).

AHL’s TOP STORY: Preventive Care Could Produce Health Savings, Report Finds; Economists Disagree

The U.S. could save billions of dollars annually in health care costs by coordinating public health resources at the federal, state and local levels to focus on preventive health care, according to a report released today by Trust for America’s Health, Reuters reports.

The report outlines a plan to “move from sick care to health care” by directing more resources to preventing chronic illnesses (Begley, Reuters, 1/29).

Bipartisan Support for Exchanges Could Help Lawmakers With ACA Implementation

With the implementation of the Affordable Care Act picking up nationwide, a majority of U.S. residents — who identify themselves as Democrats or Republicans — said they consider the creation of health insurance exchanges under the ACA the top health policy priority for their state moving forward, according to a new survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation.

KFF collaborated with the Harvard School of Public Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on the poll, which surveyed a nationally representative random sample of 1,347 adults earlier this month.

At a briefing to discuss the poll on Thursday, the report’s authors said the findings could create an opportunity — or “wiggle room” — for lawmakers to strengthen public support for the implementation of the ACA.

Quotes From Kaiser Family Foundation Briefing, Discussion on Priorities for Health Policy

At a public briefing on Thursday, the Kaiser Family Foundation – in collaboration with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard School of Public Health – presented the results of a new public poll on key health policy priorities for state and federal lawmakers. The findings informed a discussion between officials from the two organizations and Harvard with reporters from the New York Times, NPR and the Wall Street Journal about some of the nation’s biggest economic and health policy issues.

Here are some notable quotes from that discussion.