Jim Kahn

83 items

Financialization – Structural Harm to US Health Care January 13, 2024 An excellent commentary in NEJM defines and describes the role of financial actors and actions in US health care. Increasingly, insurers and providers are purchased by financial organizations or adopt financial strategies. The focus on health care is disrupted.

HJM AI-Assisted 2023 Review January 1, 2024 2023 was another year of deteriorating US health insurance performance, especially as post-COVID protections lapsed, and continued modest gains toward single payer. For the annual summary, we set up a ChatGPT-based artificial intelligence bot on the HJM website to allow natural language interaction with HJM content – called HJM Ai-Chat. Check it out! Let us know what you like about it and any suggestions. Below are sample queries and responses. (The new HJM website is beta, we’re refining visual presentation and adding content … official launch in early 2024.)

Building the Democratic Party By Helping the Middle Class December 14, 2023 George Packer reviews recent books which propose that for the Democrats to achieve stable power, they must provide economic assistance to the struggling middle class, not fight cultural battles. Single payer’s economic stability can foster progressive cultural norms.

British National Health Service Crippled by Privatization & Austerity Funding December 8, 2023 A NY Times opinion video lays it out vividly: The British NHS is an adored public institution, now 75 years old. In recent years it has stumbled … sabotaged by UK leaders who starve budgets and foster ill-advised private initiatives.

PPO becomes PP-No: Providers Refuse Medicare Advantage December 2, 2023 Hospitals and provider systems are increasingly opting out of Medicare Advantage (MA) networks, frustrated by low payment rates and rising payment denials. Even “preferred provider” MA plans, which should cover any Medicare provider, are being declined by prestigious health systems.

Saving Lives in the Middle East via Political Solution & the US via Health Reform November 27, 2023 Bernie Sanders is eloquent on achieving just and stable peace for Palestinians and Israelis, and on achieving just and stable health insurance for US residents. Many thousands of lives will be saved with each of these critical reforms.

California Seeks Federal Waivers for Unified Health Care Financing November 11, 2023 In October, California enacted SB 770, establishing a formal process to explore federal waivers necessary for state-level “unified financing”. Insurers vehemently opposed it, and some single payer advocates bemoaned the lack of a single payer plan. This is a potent mechanism to advance single payer, the gold standard in unified financing.

History of US Medical Debt Collection October 31, 2023 Summary: US medical debt structure has substantially evolved from amounts negotiated among care participants in the 1980s, to commoditized assets and aggressive collection today. With sky-high deductibles and other cost-sharing, debt magnitude is rapidly growing. Single payer would end this painful complication of our health insurance. Debt Collection in American Medicine – A HistoryNew England […]

Survey Confirms (Again) that US Health Insurance Makes Us Sicker & Poorer October 27, 2023 Summary: A Commonwealth Fund survey thoroughly documents that US health insurance of all types poses widespread financial barriers to care, and thus leaves us sicker. Not news, but essential to repeatedly document. The only solution: comprehensive universal public coverage. Paying for It: How Health Care Costs and Medical Debt Are Making Americans Sicker and PoorerFindings […]

How To Get Health Insurance in Other Countries: Be Born October 25, 2023 Summary: Dr. Danielle Ofri, an insightful commentator on the practice of medicine, overlooked annual re-enrollment for her health insurance at work due to an email glitch. So she was automatically bumped to “basic coverage”, excluding her husband and kids. Panic ensued. Other wealthy nations avoid this inefficient and upending bureaucratic hoop. So would single payer. […]

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