Author Archives

Stuart M. Butler, PhD, is a Senior Fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.

• JAMA Forum: Action on the ACA Next Year? Maybe.

  By Stuart Butler, PhD on September 14, 2016

  

  What are the prospects for action on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) during the next Congress and presidential administration? There is no easy answer to that question in this unusual election year, although one’s first reaction might be “not much.”… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: Using Intermediaries to Improve Health

  By Stuart Butler, PhD on June 15, 2016

  

  As we explore the social determinants of health, we are discovering some very important things. One is that compared with other developed countries, the United States spends a much higher proportion of resources on medical services to treat people than… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: Consensus Plans Emerge to Tackle Long-term Care Costs

  By Stuart Butler, PhD on February 24, 2016

  

  As I’ve noted in a previous JAMA Forum post, there has been a determined and serious effort in recent years by a broad range of organizations and analysts to find a consensus approach to the growing problem of financing long-term… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: Can Hospitals Help Create Healthy Neighborhoods?

  By Stuart Butler, PhD on November 12, 2015

  

  There’s a growing recognition that good health depends on “upstream” population health actions, well before a person enters the health care system, and that community institutions play a key role. But which institutions are well placed to function as hubs… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: Coming Together on Long-Term Care

  By Stuart Butler, PhD on July 15, 2015

  

  The daunting potential cost of long-term care is an increasing worry for aging baby boomers, as well as for lawmakers concerned about the growing costs of Medicaid and other government programs—for good reason. Although most older adults in the United… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: Why Section 1332 Could Solve the Obamacare Impasse

  By Stuart Butler, PhD on April 28, 2015

  

  The Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues on its painful journey. Major technical problems remain in the statute, such as the “family glitch,” in which lower-income workers are offered employer coverage but their families are not and are also ineligible for… Read More ›

• JAMA Forum: Medicaid at 50: Time for a Major Overhaul

  By Stuart Butler, PhD on January 28, 2015

  

  It’s understandable that attention is heavily focused these days on imagining alternative futures for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) after the US Supreme Court renders its decision in King v Burwell, expected this June. (This case challenges the legality of… Read More ›