Health Justice Monitor – hjmadmin

294 items

Deception Comeuppance: Theranos & Privatized US Health Insurance January 5, 2022 Summary: Yesterday Elizabeth Holmes was convicted of four counts of fraudulently representing the capabilities of Theranos, her incredibly hyped lab tech company. Good; that was long overdue. What’s even more overdue is holding to account those who keep telling us to trust that private for-profit health insurance will efficiently bring us healthcare. The Epic Rise […]

Temporary & Tenuous Health System Boosts Don’t Cut it January 3, 2022 Summary: The ACA is currently more generous and thus popular, but it’s time-limited. The “Build Back Better” bill proposes some incremental fixes, but they’re tenuous. Meantime individuals in medical and financial crisis resort to GoFundMe. Only in the US could the health care financing “system” so systematically fail. If you haven’t already, see our Jan […]

Single Payer Overview 2021 & 2022 January 1, 2022 Summary: The 2021-2022 transition invites contemplation of health reform over the past year and upcoming. We process last year via a perusal of HJM. We offer thoughts on the future. And we solicit comments from you — HJM readers. Email us. We’ll share your musings in early 2022. Meantime, Happy New Year! Comment by: Jim […]

Bonuses Fail to Improve Clinical Quality in Medicare Advantage December 24, 2021 Summary: A new study finds that financial incentives failed to raise clinical quality measures in Medicare Advantage plans. This completes HJM Medicare Advantage week, in which we highlighted the numerous serious problems arising from using private insurers as intermediaries for public health insurance. Next week we’ll relax our usual blogging pace. We’ll offer some reflections […]

Medicare Advantage for All: A Bad Idea for Single Payer December 22, 2021 Summary: A recent commentary in JAMA proposed using private insurance health plans as intermediaries in a universal health insurance system, instead of direct payments from a public payer to providers, as under “traditional” Medicare for All / single payer. The supporting arguments, though perhaps appealing on a first read, don’t withstand scrutiny. Medicare Advantage for […]

Medicare Advantage Places Us at a Disadvantage December 20, 2021 Summary: This week we scrutinize Medicare Advantage (MA). Today: A survey from the Center for Medicare Advocacy found that MA plans deny, reduce, delay, and charge beneficiaries more for home health services. And a leading researcher estimated that Medicare overpaid MA plans by $106 billion over ten years for sicker patients. So … overpaying for […]

Failure of Nursing Home Safety Monitoring December 17, 2021 Summary: NY Times research found a huge gap between safety problems found in nursing homes and the public reporting of those problems. Quality star ratings are misleading. Consumers are not being protected. How Nursing Homes’ Worst Offenses Are Hidden From the PublicNew York TimesDec. 9, 2021By Robert Gebeloff, Katie Thomas, & Jessica Silver-Greenberg A New […]

COVID Stumble: US Politics, Vaccine Hesitancy, & Mortality December 15, 2021 Summary: On Monday we posted on how well Taiwan dealt with COVID; today, one way the US fell sadly short. NPR reports that COVID mortality is 3 times higher in heavily Trump than heavily Biden counties – due to lower vaccination rates, in turn due to misinformation and vaccine hesitancy. Thus political division and distortion […]

Navigating the COVID pandemic: Taiwan’s Example December 13, 2021 Summary: As the US approaches 800,000 COVID deaths, this week we review how pandemic control fared in two countries. Today: Taiwan, where broad public cooperation coupled with technical finesse to minimize health and economic harm. On Wednesday: the US, where pandemic response was hobbled by tense interactions between political partisanship and public health. How has […]

Health Insurance Headlines of the Single Payer Future December 10, 2021 Summary: And now for something completely different: We take cost headlines recently reported in KHN (Kaiser Health News) and imagine how they would look under single payer, or how they just wouldn’t make sense. Enjoy the vision. Let’s make it happen. KHN Health Costs: Dec. 2, 2021BILL OF THE MONTH: The ER Charged Him $6,500 […]

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