Tarren Bragdon

  

Tarren R. Bragdon serves as the director of health reform initiatives at the Maine Heritage Policy Center. He also serves as a health policy analyst for the Empire Center for New York State Policy. During 2001 and 2002, he served as the special assistant to the President of the Maine Senate, providing policy research, analysis and advice on a variety of policy areas. In 2002, he worked extensively on the legislation and eventual enactment of the Maine Consumer Choice Health Plan, a state-administrated consumer choice insurance exchange of several private health plans that will be available to Maine individuals and small businesses.

From 1996 through 2000, Tarren served in the Maine House of Representatives.


Friday, July 4, 2008

Maine's Uninsured: 1 in 20 

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

The National Center for Health Statistics released a report last month finding thatfewer than 1 person in 20 in Maine has been uninsured for more than a year (half the U.S. average and half that reported last fall ... more »»

Friday, June 27, 2008

Maine's Dirigo Plan: Promised Savings Fail to Show 

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

Voters in Maine were assured that the state-run Dirigo health plan would never require an increase in taxes. Those promises were repeatedly broken, most recently when Governor Baldacci signed the April 15th tax increase into law.

Yet there is no chance of Dirigo coming close to meeting its goal of ... more »»

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Universal Coverage: Easy to Promise, Expensive to Have 

Massachusetts at One Year

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

After the first year of Massachusetts'RomneyCare health reform, the public is seeing the effectiveness of the plan that has an individual and employer mandate combined with a Medicaid expansion and new subsidized private health insurance plans, more »»

Friday, May 30, 2008

State of Maine Denies Patients Latest Technology 

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

This week the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) denied capital improvement projects at three Maine hospitals, according the Portland Press Herald. Maine has one of the strictest Certificate of Need laws in the country, ... more »»

Monday, October 15, 2007

Odd, People Will Buy Affordable Insurance if Given the Chance 

NY v FL shows impact of guarantee issue and community rating

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

Florida has 1.4 million fewer residents than New York but almost 14 times more people buying insurance on their own, not through their employer, in the individual market.

In 2006, New York had just 57,000 people purchasing insurance in the individual market, thanks to community rating and guarantee ... more »»

Monday, October 1, 2007

Helping People Helping Themselves to be Healthier 

The latest stats on the effect of HSAs

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

Blue Cross and Blue Shield just released a study on HSA plan participants compared to traditional plan participants.  

The BCBSA 2007 CDHP Member Experience Survey showed that HSA plan members were:

Friday, September 28, 2007

New Coverage on Demand plan 

Mini-med that you trade up when you get sick

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

Innovations are coming to the individual market.  A new plan by American Community Mutual Insurance Company called Coverage on Demand is a mini-medical plan targeted at young adults that allows individuals to trade up to ... more »»

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Americans like their own insurance but worry about others 

Interesting results from a recent poll

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

Moore Information of Portland, OR just released a survey 1,000 registered voters nationwide and their attitudes to toward health care related issues.

Some of the interesting findings:

Thursday, September 27, 2007

Universal Access to Health Care or Universal Coverage 

San Francisco's universal experiment

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

Months ago, San Francisco jumped into the game with its own universal health plan. Its plan focuses on an employer mandate and then access to health care services at "14 city health clinics and 8 affiliated community clinics, with an emphasis on prevention and managing chronic disease" for the ... more »»

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Wal-Mart Changes and Innovates its Health Benefits 

Expansion of CDHP and Price Transparency

By Tarren R. Bragdon

Filed As:  Health Care

Today a New York Times story relates how Wal-Mart is upgrading and innovating its health benefit. 

These changes are important to note as they show how pervasive consumer-directed ... more »»

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