Everyone thinks of “Medicare for all” as a liberal idea, an extremely liberal one embraced by the socialist wing of the Democratic Party. It’s an idea Democrats were hesitant to embrace in the Obama era, for being too far out of mains…
Category: Public Health & Policy
Help hospitalized patients vote by requesting emergency ballots
Two years ago, when I was still in residency I happened to be on overnight call the day prior to election day. An associate program director of my residency program asked me if I wouldn’t mind being a doctor of record who evaluates whether I agre…
Doctors need to vote. And doctors need to help them.
Doctors need to vote. Everyone should vote, of course, but doctors have a unique perspective on some of the most important issues of the day, and it’s time we express that perspective in the one place it matters most: the ballot box. Whether it’s the a…
It’s time we start voting at our local hospitals
Early voting began recently in Texas with unprecedented excitement, as a record 15 million registered voters made their way to the polls. Reports say polls are looking more like Black Friday shopping lines than early voting locations. Although we canno…
What can politicians do to address the opioid crisis?
I doubt there is anyone living in the U.S. who doesn’t realize we have an opioid crisis here. Politicians debate the solutions to abating the high death rate that comes along with it, however, they fail to acknowledge that there are Americans in pain. …
Health care is expensive. It’s time to treat the cause.
We do not rely on the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker to feed ourselves — Adam Smith observed in the “Wealth of Nations” (1776) — but on their regard for their own interest. The desire to pursue a profitable living also holds true …
The British are unafraid to talk about rationing. That’s something to admire.
I am a huge fan of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), but probably not for the reasons many people might assume. It’s not because it’s “socialist” (a horribly inaccurate description), or that it’s nationalized, or anything like that. I’m a huge fan because somehow the people of Britain have developed the courage to talk about […]
Lessons from the meeting of different value-based concepts
Value remains one of the most widely invoked and variably interpreted concept in American health care delivery. Beyond patients, stakeholder groups across the health care ecosystem are undertaking value-based initiatives, including payers (e.g., value-based insurance design and payments), provider organizations (e.g., value-based care redesign), pharmaceutical companies and pharmacy benefits managers (e.g., value-based pricing and formularies), […]
How to pay for long-term care
The topic of paying for long-term care is an overlooked issue in health care. None of us want to think about living our final days in the nursing home, but statistically speaking, many of us will. How will you pay for it? What are the options? Long-term care in this country can be divided into […]
Market-based approaches solving the opioid epidemic
Mary first took oxycodone after a minor surgery and found she liked it. Returning to her surgeon a month later with vague ongoing pain, she received another prescription. Her primary care provider took over from there — until one day that physician checked a urine drug screen and a prescription monitoring program (PMP) report, only […]
