Category: Policy

What Politicians Get Wrong In Their Efforts To Curb Smoking And Vaping

When it comes to smoking and vaping, both politicians and public health officials refuse to heed reality.

Nursing for change: Prioritizing Black nurses’ health and well-being

As we spend February reflecting on Black Americans’ history, humanity, and contributions, let’s also consider how to improve the systems and structures that impact Black lives moving forward. We can start with health care. Retention and rec…

How Thousands Of Nurses Got Licensed With Fake Degrees

There’s an old, but now fast growing degree mill industry doing an estimated $7 billion a year worldwide in fraudulent diplomas and transcripts.

Ensuring universal access and quality care: the advantages of a mixed health care system in Canada

Canadian physicians, like many other Canadians, generally support the country’s publicly funded health care system, which is designed to provide universal access to medical care. However, despite its strengths, there are some areas where the publ…

Against all odds: How two cities tackled the COVID-19 crisis

An excerpt from On Medicine as Colonialism. In Central Falls, Rhode Island, where I work, the COVID-19 pandemic hit hard. People who live in Central Falls, the smallest and poorest city in Rhode Island, live in densely packed houses, often eight or ten…

Patients lose when states block independent doctors

Patients win when independent doctors open shop. More choice means improved service and lower costs for everyone. Yet states often intervene to shut down health care competition. Virginia regulators blocked Maryland-based radiologist Mark Monteferrante…

Democrats’ Price Controls Undermine Biden’s Cancer Moonshot

Fewer effective drugs will make the Cancer Moonshot’s goal of halving the cancer death rate over the next 25 years a lot harder to achieve—if not impossible.

The Scandal Of Alzheimer’s

Appallingly, for decades Alzheimer’s researchers have pursued a dead-end hypothesis on tackling this dreaded and fast-expanding disease.

The silencing of gun violence research: a decades-long campaign

Violence, in particular, firearm violence, has been a specter of American culture for decades, and its impact on public health has been shrouded in the shadows for nearly as long, thanks to political lobbying by gun manufacturers. An NPR article entitl…

This Is How To Save Social Security And Medicare

Are cutbacks necessary to save Social Security and Medicare from bankruptcy?