Ken Terry

A veteran health care journalist and author.

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About

Ken Terry is a veteran health care journalist and author who has written extensively on health care reform, physician leadership, and the structural causes of America's affordability crisis. He is the author of three books on health care reform, including Beyond Medicare For All: Cracking The Code of The Healthcare Affordability Crisis, published by the American Association for Physician Leadership with a foreword by health care consultant and thought leader David W. Johnson.

Terry's work focuses on practical, physician-led approaches to improving the U.S. health care system, with particular attention to affordability, care delivery, and policy reform. His latest book is available through Amazon and the American Association for Physician Leadership.

More information about his work is available at Physician-Led Reform, and professional updates are available on LinkedIn.

Books

Beyond Medicare For All: Cracking The Code of The Healthcare Affordability CrisisView on Amazon

On The Podcast by KevinMD

How to fix health care without Medicare for AllJul 15, 2026
A new approach to Medicare for allSep 23, 2020

Latest articles

Health policy

A plan to save primary care that puts doctors in charge

Ken Terry

October 15, 2026Oct 15, 2026

PCPs don't have to suffer silently under employers that deprofessionalize them and treat them as the low people on the totem pole of health care. They can embark on a mission to save U.S. health care, while increasing their earnings…

PCPs don’t have to suffer silently under employers that deprofessionalize them and treat them as the low people on the totem pole of health care. They can embark on a mission to save U.S. health care, while increasing their earnings and enhancing their status.

This may sound like a pipe dream. But all the essential elements for it are available. All that’s needed is the political will to make it happen.

As …

Health policy

A Medicare for All alternative that keeps insurers in

Ken Terry

May 12, 2026May 12, 2026

An excerpt from Beyond Medicare For All: Cracking the Code of the Healthcare Affordability Crisis. If our goal is high-quality, comprehensive, affordable health care for all, we must make health care less profitable. If health systems and corporations continue to…

An excerpt from Beyond Medicare For All: Cracking the Code of the Healthcare Affordability Crisis.

If our goal is high-quality, comprehensive, affordable health care for all, we must make health care less profitable. If health systems and corporations continue to control health care and their main goal is profit, health costs will continue to rise faster than the ability of society to pay, regardless of any reform efforts.

On the other …

Health policy

PCPs could counter virtual plans by increasing telehealth visits

Ken Terry

March 17, 2021Mar 17, 2021

Primary care physicians already have a lot of competition from retail clinics, urgent care clinics and telehealth services that cater to consumers. Now they're facing a new threat from the "virtual primary care plans" that insurance companies have launched recently.…

Primary care physicians already have a lot of competition from retail clinics, urgent care clinics and telehealth services that cater to consumers. Now they’re facing a new threat from the “virtual primary care plans” that insurance companies have launched recently. These are health plans that prioritize virtual visits with doctors hired by telehealth services over in-person visits to primary care doctors.

For years, some insurance companies have been offering online urgent …

Health policy

Primary care faces a very difficult winter

Ken Terry

December 14, 2020Dec 14, 2020

Primary care is in trouble again. Last summer, as government assistance programs expired or wound down, primary care practices across the country were struggling to stay afloat because of lost business. By October, patient visits had rebounded in most specialties. But by mid-November, as COVID-19 surged everywhere, primary care physicians reported that they faced critical staffing shortages and limited resources, …

Health policy

Direct primary care: Great for some doctors, but challenging for patients

Ken Terry

September 3, 2020Sep 3, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic and the consequent drop in patient visits have led some observers to conclude that primary care physicians would be better off financially if they were capitated than if they were paid fee for service. If they received a fixed amount of money per health plan member per month, they’d have a guaranteed income stream regardless of how many patients came to their offices.

However, a growing number …

Health policy

Physicians of America, unite! You don’t have to work for hospitals.

Ken Terry

August 5, 2020Aug 5, 20206

A recent report by Merritt Hawkins, the physician recruiting firm, includes two key revelations about the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on physicians: Merritt Hawkins’ searches on behalf of prospective employers have dropped by 30 percent since March 31, and…

As of late May, visits to physicians—both in-person and …