Two Newspapers Address Health Care Proposals of Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich

The Los Angeles Times and the New York Times on Sunday published articles addressing former House Speaker Newt Gingrich's (R-Ga.) health care proposals. Summaries appear below.

• The Los Angeles Times on Sunday profiled Gingrich, who has "reinvented himself as a respected entrepreneur of ideas" and a "self-made expert on health policy." After leaving the House following the 1998 elections, Gingrich established the Center for Health Transformation, which has the "outsized ambition" of "changing health care as we know it," according to the Los Angeles Times. In his new book, "Winning the Future," Gingrich advocates for the use of new technology, "consumer choice" and "free-market principles" in health care (Hook, Los Angeles Times, 1/16).
  
  
• The New York Times on Sunday examined Gingrich's ideas appearing in his new book, which "offers a presidential-like agenda" on issues including health care. Gingrich has become "the most visible" spokesperson for health care proposals that have gained support in the Bush administration and business community, including using information technology to improve efficiency and reduce medical errors, health savings accounts and "consumer-directed health care," according to the New York Times. However, critics of Gingrich's ideas have said they "risk magnifying the problems of a costly American health care system that now leaves 45 million people uninsured" (Lohr, New York Times, 1/16).