Author Jim Kahn Frequently asked questions. 88 items Posts pagination Newer 1 … 7 8 9 Learning from Other Countries June 15, 2023 An excellent op-ed in the New York Times properly highlights lessons from other wealthy nations. Diving deeper into those examples reveals that single payer is the only plausible path to achieving efficient and equitable health care financing in the US. Efficiency Gone Astray in Health Care June 3, 2023 Our medical system defines efficiency as maximizing revenue-generating care. This compromises clinical interactions and indeed access to care, as highlighted in today’s excerpts. Single payer defines efficiency as eliminating wasteful non-clinical tasks and paying fair prices … to achieve universal access to high quality care. Medicare-for-All Legislation in the Senate & House May 18, 2023 Senator Bernie Sanders & Representative Pramila Jayapal re-introduced their Medicare-for-All bills on May 17th. Although prospects for passage are low this Congress, enthusiasm for organizing is high. By including everyone in health care, we save money. If only the Right and Left could unite on this eminently practical solution to our health care mess. Insane Drug Prices & Gaming = Huge Profits for Pharma & PBMs May 13, 2023 Two news items this week lay bare US drug cost problems. The underlying cause is prices several-fold higher than elsewhere. Exacerbating that is convoluted gaming – moving money around to boost and retain profits. Who wins? Pharma and Pharmacy Benefit Managers (partnered with insurers). And loses? The rest of us. Single Payer Would Radically Transform Health Policy Research May 6, 2023 The May 2023 issue of Health Affairs, the leading health policy journal, has 20 articles. In our assessment, 9 of them would be unnecessary and another 7 simplified if the US had truly universal and standard health insurance. These health policy resources could be redirected to critical non-insurance issues in access, equity and disparities, and outcomes. Suing for Inflated Bariatric Surgery Fees April 29, 2023 Aggressive collection tactics by a large bariatric surgery practice exemplify widespread problems with our health insurance: complex payment arrangements, confusing and misleading financial contracts, widely variable prices, medical debt, expensive litigation, and rising private equity. Rescuing Primary Care, Part 2 April 21, 2023 In Part 1, we discussed how primary care is being acquired and distorted by huge corporations pursuing massive profits. Today, we present a competing vision: a broad social movement to reclaim primary care as a “common good” focused on public benefit. Rescuing Primary Care, Part 1 April 15, 2023 In the first of two posts, we discuss a blog on how primary care is being acquired and distorted by huge corporations seeking massive profits by exploiting CMS value-based care, specifically capitation. The excerpt, a bit more than usual, is worth a read. Next time we’ll examine a proposal for making primary care a publicly-financed common good. Posts pagination Newer 1 … 7 8 9
