Why the American Health Care Act takes us in the wrong direction

Policy
March 20, 2017

As a doctor, I am guided by the code of medical ethics. The code is made of up of four principles: autonomy, justice, do good and do no harm. These principles guide me and my colleagues, including the fifteen doctors in Congress, as we care for others. In the debate over the fate of the Affordable Care Act, thirteen of the fifteen doctors in Congress have publicly stated that they …

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Why the American Health Care Act takes us in the wrong direction

Most of the homeless are invisible

Physician
August 21, 2012

Last week I went on my first outreach visit to the homeless. In preparation we stocked up on water, gloves, gauze, and medications, put on our sneakers and headed out to the streets. We exited the front of the building, turned right and walked three blocks until we reached the corner with the highway on-ramp. We started crossing the street and about halfway, just past the service road and before …

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Most of the homeless are invisible

Isn’t caring for your child worth as much as caring for your parents?

Policy
May 30, 2012

I love it when I see Medicaid patients on my schedule for the day. Working at a community health center, our doors are open to all people, regardless of their ability to pay. It’s hard to run a medical office when you get $20 for a visit, which is what our uninsured patients pay. So when a patient has Medicaid we know we’ll get paid a decent reimbursement for that …

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Isn’t caring for your child worth as much as caring for your parents?

The USPSTF should stay independent from politics

Policy
March 16, 2012

The United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) is a federal committee composed of private sector experts in prevention and primary care. Its mandate is to make recommendations as to which preventive services are beneficial, which are useless and which are harmful. Disconcertingly, there is a small but vocal opposition to the USPSTF as embodied by an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal by Dr. Scott Gottlieb.

Dr. Gottlieb’s main argument against the USPSTF is …

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The USPSTF should stay independent from politics

Fixing primary care requires more than free medical school

Physician
July 8, 2011

It’s well known that there is a shortage of primary care physicians which is only going to get worse over time.

To address this problem, Dr. Peter Bach, the director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan-Kettering and Dr. Robert Kocher, a guest scholar at the Brookings Institution, propose making medical school free. They argue that medical students would be more likely to choose primary …

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Fixing primary care requires more than free medical school