With the murder of the UnitedHealthcare CEO, many have expressed vitriol towards the insurance industry. Having worked in non-profit health care all my life, I decided in 2018 to switch to the “dark side,” or the insurance industry, out of …
Category: Policy
My totally wrong expert predictions for health care in 2025
January In a blistering commentary, the American Medical Association’s flagship journal, JAMA, condemns the corrosive effect on patient care of the profit-seeking practices of health insurers. Separately, the organization announces that it’…
10 transformative ideas to redesign a broken health care system: a doctor’s perspective for a more efficient, cost-effective and patient-focused system
The U.S. health care system is an inefficient maze of bureaucracy, redundancies, and waste. As a practicing physician, I see firsthand how these inefficiencies frustrate both providers and patients, inflate costs, and undermine the quality of care. If …
Humanity’s crossroads: peace or nuclear war?
“We are here to make a choice between the quick and the dead …” With these solemn words, Bernard Baruch, a trusted advisor to U.S. presidents, addressed the United Nations (UN) Atomic Energy Commission in June 1946. Less than a year had pas…
The HEARTS Act: Empowering schools to save lives
Every year, sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) claims the lives of thousands of students and student-athletes in the United States, making it one of the leading causes of death. The condition is particularly insidious as it often strikes without warning, leav…
Why health systems must renegotiate contracts to survive
Providers must stop subsidizing payors’ profit margins. Consider United Health Care, which boasts a 6 percent margin on revenue (equivalent to $22 billion), while hospitals manage a slim 3 percent margin, and physician practices often struggle to…
States have the power to influence health care
Individual states in the United States can significantly shape key health care areas through policy. In early 2024, a KKF analysis indicated that Americans collectively held around $220 billion in medical debt. North Carolina has one of the highest per…
Why the opioid crisis and youth mental health demand urgent parity reforms in 2025
At the beginning of 2024, the nation continued to experience the impact of three declared public health emergencies with significant behavioral health implications: COVID-19, Mpox, and the opioid crisis. At the same time, three major national associati…
Pay for performance and shared savings are good, but they’re not the solution
Think about every health care reform effort we’ve been working on for the last decade or two, including accountable care organizations (ACOs) and the value-based purchasing models from CMS. The vast majority of them use one or both of the followi…
Fostering health care innovation through federal policy: a case for direct primary care
Abstract The United States health care system faces escalating costs, access disparities, and significant physician burnout. Direct primary care (DPC) offers a transformative approach by emphasizing patient-centered care, price transparency, and reduce…
