Posts All of our commentary in one spot. You can also browse by topics or search. 414 posts in this category Posts pagination Newer 1 … 5 6 7 8 9 … 42 Older Medicare Advantage: How Private Insurers Exploit Medicare March 2, 2024 An excellent interview with the former head of CMS, which oversees Medicare, lays out how Medicare Advantage insurers manipulate costs and quality, grabbing massive profits from public funds with no clinical benefits for patients. He wants its growth stopped and its problems fixed. Veterans Care Under Attack February 26, 2024 An article in the American Prospect lays out how the Veterans Health Administration public approach to care – effective & efficient – is under siege, pushed at great cost to privatization. Not only by the proposed GOP/MAGA gutting, but by a complicit current administration. Failure to Address Homelessness Harms Health February 23, 2024 Finland is effectively addressing issues of homelessness, says a new report. Being unhoused is associated with health problems and high medical costs. Yet homelessness is growing in the US, despite our massive resources. We must seriously address this problem. Presidential Leadership in US Health Reform February 19, 2024 President’s Day is an opportune moment to reflect on the great moral potential of the presidency. Lincoln’s fine example, told by a historian, looms large. The role of presidents in health care reform, summarized by ChatGPT, is impressive but piecemeal, shy of the ultimate moral and practical victory of universal comprehensive insurance. No Surprises Act has Unpleasant Surprises for Providers & Patients February 16, 2024 The No Surprises Act is a bipartisan law to protect patients from high medical charges for unavoidable out-of-network care, while providing providers with fair payments. Its implementation suffers from insurer-tilted rules, another example of “regulatory capture”. Reversing the Corporate Practice of Medicine February 12, 2024 A new organization, Take Medicine Back, is sounding the alarm about the corporate acquisition of medicine, which disrupts clinical care – harming both patients and doctors. The solution: enforce existing laws, create new laws, align physician organizations against corporate control, and unionize physicians. Reminders that Private Insurers Use Shady Tactics to Manipulate and Deceive Us February 8, 2024 “Free” preventive services that cost patients hundreds of dollars. A Medicare enrollment “choice” that defaults to Medicare Advantage. These are two newly highlighted devious maneuvers that favor benefits for shareholders over benefits for the public. Value-Based Care Failed, Let’s Admit it and Progress to Real Reform February 4, 2024 The Congressional Budget Office found that CMS experiments in value-based care payment schemes have cost us billions over 10 years, and will continue to do so. A prominent health foundation leader says, let’s double down. We say: time to admit defeat and advocate for a single payer system. Wealth Inequality Drives Health Inequality February 1, 2024 This study reveals that US wealth inequality, at historic highs, creates large health inequality: a lifespan difference of 13 years between the richest and poorest. Rectifying these economic differences would raise overall longevity to levels achieved in other wealthy countries. Oregon & California on Parallel Paths to Universal Unified Financing Health Care January 27, 2024 Two West Coast states have new laws mandating universal health care plans with single payer / unified financing over the next 3-4 years. That represents massive potential for a left coast lead to real US health care reform. Let’s get to work! Posts pagination Newer 1 … 5 6 7 8 9 … 42 Older
