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National Health Reform Comparative Analysis Project Launches to Provide Understanding and Explanation of Health Care Reform Proposals
Author: George Washington University
Published on Jul 18, 2009 - 6:42:31 AM

July 17, 2009 - Today, The George Washington University's Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program, within the School of Public Health and Health Services (SPHHS), launched an interactive tool designed to provide an ongoing and comprehensive comparative analysis of national health reform proposals. The purpose of this health reform comparative analysis project is to advance public understanding of the policy and legal dimensions of national health reform. The analysis released today will be continuously updated as legislation moves through the House and Senate.

"We are on the verge of far-reaching change in the laws and policies that for decades have guided the U.S. health care system. These laws and policies reach not only coverage but the ways in which health care is organized and delivered, and the changes under way have profound implications for health care quality, efficiency, and equity," said Sara Rosenbaum, Hirsh Professor of Health Law and Policy and Chair of the GW Health Policy Department. Professor Jane Hyatt Thorpe, who directs the comparative analysis project for the Hirsh Program, added, "This project is designed to help policy makers, health professionals, and consumers understand how the various proposals address the critical issues of access, coverage, quality, affordability, equity, and financing and what health reform may mean for them."

The comparative analysis rests on a special health reform taxonomy developed by GW faculty and staff. The taxonomy is an analytic tool that provides a uniform and consistent mechanism for understanding and explaining key elements of health reform such as access, coverage, affordability, quality, and financing across the various proposals. Beginning with previously introduced legislative proposals, the project will apply the taxonomy to the House and Senate legislation as it moves through both Houses of Congress. The taxonomy will generate an analytic and comparative analysis that can be viewed independently or comparatively (side by side) in a user-friendly format and provide a consistent and comparative understanding of each legislative proposal.

This initial posting includes an analysis of the Healthy Americans Act (S. 391), the Patient's Choice Act (S. 1099), and the American Health Security Act of 2009 (S. 703) based on the taxonomy. The comparative analysis and interactive tool is available on the Department of Health Policy's Web site at www.gwumc.edu/sphhs/departments/healthpolicy/healthreform/.

About Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program

The Hirsh Health Law and Policy Program, one of the largest law and health policy educational endeavors in the nation, was established in 1997 and endowed by Dr. and Mrs. Harold and Jane Hirsh. Located in The George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services Department of Health Policy, the program offers unique educational opportunities designed to provide a solid grounding in health law and policy to candidates for law degrees, practicing lawyers who seek to specialize in health law and policy, and health policy students. Through an interdisciplinary approach, the program advances understanding of how the law influences all phases of health care, health policy and public health, and how the changing health care system affects traditional areas of the law. The program also prepares participants for a broad range of health law-related careers.

For more information on the Hirsh Program, visit www.gwumc.edu/sphhs/departments/healthpolicy/Academics/hirshHealthLaw/index.cfm. For more information on the George Washington University School of Public Health and Health Services, Department of Health Policy, visit www.gwumc.edu/sphhs/departments/healthpolicy.

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