Kaiser Health News
Kaiser Health News was chosen as the featured feed because it is tightly focused on health reform and covers a range of issues from a balanced perspective
Google News Feeds
The Google News feeds in the right-hand menu provide 24/7 updates on the latest print and broadcast news stories on health reform. These are unedited, automatic feeds.
Implementation Watch
These websites provide technical summaries of the legislation and track implementation of the legislation as it unfolds.
Federal and State Government Resources
The federal and state government resources in the right-hand menu provide regular updates on the workings of Congress (C-Span, Congressional Budget Office), and the Executive Branch (HealthReform.gov). The National Conference of State Legislatures tracks health reform developments from a state perspective.
Think Tanks
Think tanks are highly influential although often invisible players in health reform. They are influential because they provide much of the intellectual content (and even talking points) to politicians and lobbying groups from left, right, and center.
With one exception, the group of think tanks listed in the right-hand menu were rated among the top 25 most cited think tanks in 2007 by the group Fairness and Accuracy in Media (FAIR). FAIR also classified each think tank on a philosophical spectrum from progressive to conservative. Based on these ratings, we chose the list to represent philosophical diversity. The list includes:
- Three conservative think tanks (American Enterprise Institute, Heritage Foundation, Hoover Institution)
- Three centrist think tanks (Brookings Institute, Kaiser Family Foundation, Rand Corporation)
- One center-left think tank (Urban Institute)
- Three progressive think tanks (Center for American Progress, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Economic Policy Institute)
- One libertarian think tank (Cato Institute)
- One think tank (the Concord Coalition) which is not rated by FAIR but is included here because of its distinctive bi-partisan structure and focus on the deficit and health care reform.
What About Interest Groups?
There are too many interest groups to list, and so we don't list any. We suggest that you browse the News Media resources for the latest on what the interest groups are doing to influence health care reform.
