"Health Affairs is all about an ongoing dialogue on health policy issues of concern to a diverse audience of interested readers," wrote John Iglehart, Founding Editor, on the blog.

New guest posts on the blog include:

BIOTECH DRUG PRICES: James Robinson, professor of economics, University of California, Berkeley, writes: "The biotechnology industry has grounds for complaint. The research pipeline is disgorging breathtaking new treatments for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and other once-intractable diseases. But instead of praise, or in addition to praise, the industry finds itself subjected to ever-louder criticism of prices and earnings."
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2006/10/23/biotech-value-based-pricing-in-biotechnology/

MERCK VP Ian Spatz writes on biotech pricing: "Admittedly, the rigor of [purchaser- and patient-driven cost-effectiveness] evaluations can vary and are sometimes used by purchasers simply to deny access."
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2006/10/24/biotech-evaluating-interventions-with-no-close-substitutes/

HEALTH IT: Join the lively debate between author and readers regarding a new study showing that fewer than 1 in 10 doctors e-prescribe. http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2006/10/12/health-it-fewer-than-1-in-10-doctors-e-prescribe/

HEALTH REFORM: Uwe Reinhardt, Princeton University, writes on the reality of health care policymaking.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2006/10/10/health-reform-porter-and-teisbergs-utopian-vision/

Alain Enthoven, Stanford University, writes on competition and consumer-driven care. http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2006/10/11/health-reform-consumers-and-competition/

Alan Maynard, University of York, offers insights from reform experiences in Europe.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2006/10/12/health-reform-reinventing-the-wheel/

And Gail Wilensky discusses pay for performance.
http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2006/10/16/health-reform-thinking-big-but-ignoring-big-obstacles/

Coming up: more on biotech drug pricing from venture capitalist Leighton Read and others.

Blog posts are copyrighted by Health Affairs but may be freely linked to, quoted, or referenced with attribution by news organizations, blogs, and others. Readers will be encouraged to submit comments on all blog posts. Our goal is to offer a range of views -- not to push a particular agenda. New material will appear on the blog at least weekly, and readers who wish to be informed about new postings may sign up for e-mail alerts or an RSS feed.

Anyone who posts or comments on the Health Affairs blog will be required to register and use his or her real name, and agree to follow all terms of use. All posts and comments will be vetted by the journal’s editors, and we will filter comments for appropriateness and language.

Health Affairs, published by Project HOPE, is the leading journal of health policy. The peer-reviewed journal appears bimonthly in print with additional online-only papers published weekly as Health Affairs Web Exclusives at www.healthaffairs.org Health Affairs' blog content is available free to all readers. Under a Creative Commons license, users may link to or share Health Affairs' blog content with others as long as attribution is given, copyright is cited, and a link back to the blog is provided. Health Affairs' blog content may not be altered in any way or used commercially.