Public Health & Policy

New proposals for universal health care in Oregon and Washington

Policy
November 6, 2022

Once again, it’s time to consider universal health care. What are the implications? Could it happen?

After something of a hiatus during the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the battles over its implementation, legislative committees in Oregon and Washington are looking at new proposals for state-based universal health care. Oregon’s task force report was completed in September, while Washington’s “baseline report” was finished this month.

While there’s a fair amount …

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Can the Inflation Reduction Act build back medicine better and reduce climate change? [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 31, 2022
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“There is great hope for this bill to accomplish the stated goals in the medical and energy worlds. There are many excellent summaries regarding this bill, and I would urge any interested readers to find a review …

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Punishing doctors for spreading misinformation

Policy
October 31, 2022

When I was in high school, I read George Orwell’s 1984, a novel about a dystopian future where the government (a.k.a. Big Brother) monitors everything the citizenry says or thinks. Anyone deviating from government “doublespeak” is swiftly and severely punished. I recall my horror as the main character, Winston, a former government official who joins the anti-Big Brother underground, is arrested by the “thought police.” His mind is then reprogrammed …

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A Hungarian Jewish man’s fight for freedom [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 30, 2022
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“Despite the terror of the Soviets, it was clear that not even their mighty tanks could eradicate the social tides that now, like a tsunami, could not be turned back. The power of the movement forced Ernő …

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Amazon, CVS, and Walmart are playing health care’s long game

Policy
October 25, 2022

In recent months, three of the nation’s largest retailers have stirred up a frenzy on Wall Street with a string of high-profile health care deals.

Amazon bought primary-care company One Medical in early August for $3.9 billion. That was a month before CVS spent $8 billion to acquire Signify Health and its network of 10,000 clinicians who make home visits (both virtually and IRL). A day later, Walmart inked a 10-year …

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The national strategy on hunger, nutrition, and health offers hope

Policy
October 22, 2022

The announcement of the Biden-Harris Administration’s national strategy on hunger, nutrition, and health is a critical step toward building a healthier nation. For the first time in half a century, the administration announced more than $8 million in private and public sector commitments to help end hunger and reduce diet-related diseases by 2030. The focus on food security, nutrition, and health is encouraging, as public health champions have …

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Gun violence during residency: Run. Hide. Fight.

Policy
October 18, 2022

I no longer react to the chiming from my phone when a push notification alerts me of another mass shooting. I have become numb to such alarms. Perhaps it is the increasing frequency of these alerts or a feeling of inevitability, made even starker by my personal and multiple encounters with gun violence in the last year. The gun violence epidemic is ubiquitous.

Ten months ago, there was an active shooter …

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The middleman mentality is killing American medicine

Physician
October 18, 2022

Between producers and consumers, you’ll find a cadre of professionals who broker deals, facilitate transactions, and move goods and services along.

They’re called “middlemen,” and they thrive in virtually every industry — from real estate and retail to finance and travel services. If not for middlemen, houses and blouses wouldn’t sell. Banks and online booking sites wouldn’t exist. Middlemen are the reason a tomato grown in South America makes it aboard …

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Practicing great medicine got a lot simpler. It’s health care that’s getting in the way.

Policy
October 15, 2022

We pay more than any other nation for health care, yet we have suffered the single biggest decline in life expectancy since WWII. Something went wrong. At a time of record inflation and rising taxes, isn’t it time we stopped to ask where the money is going, what exactly we are paying for, and why?

Astonishingly, nearly half the federal budget goes to health care in one way or another. Either …

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Next of kin in the medical decision making process

Physician
October 14, 2022

Four years ago, as chairman of the hospital ethics committee, I was asked to convene an emergency meeting brought by a distraught family as medical decisions had to be made for their ill loved one. The hospital, HMO lawyers, the family, three adult children, and their mother were at the meeting.

The father had arrived at the hospital unconscious and was admitted to the intensive care unit, where medical care was …

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My motherland is burning, but patient care can’t wait

Physician
October 13, 2022

My relationship with my cultural identity has always been a complicated one. As many children of immigrants can relate, I often felt disconnected from my parents’ country of origin in an attempt to assimilate to American life.

I was born in Manhattan, New York, and have always defined myself as a New Yorker first and an Iranian-American second. From a young age, I have watched from the periphery as Iran has …

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America is a magnet for global STEM talent

Physician
October 11, 2022

This essay is inspired in part by my recent encounter with a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). For starters, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration — or NASA for short — is an agency of the U.S. government responsible for America’s space program and aeronautics research. JPL, NASA’s research and development center located in Pasadena, California, produces spacecraft called rovers used in extra-planetary explorations.

It turns out that this …

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I went to Ukraine to help. Here’s what you can do.

Policy
October 10, 2022

I went to Poland and Ukraine in April and May of 2022, hoping to support the Ukrainian people in their defense of their country and democracy itself.

Vladimir Putin had put the world in a vise.

“Let me do what I want, or you will risk nuclear war,” was the implication. We’ve seen this before, I thought. Putin is Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin all rolled into one, and he needs to be …

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What does it mean to truly be an ally?

Policy
October 9, 2022

The University of Utah Physician Assistant Students Supporting Equity and Diversity (PASSED) group believes it’s important to discuss what it truly means to be an ally. This term has recently become more popular; however, it seems that “allyship” is being confused with “generalized/passive acknowledgment.” The definition of an ally is one who unites themselves with another to promote a common interest. Allyship calls for understanding the constant oppression that plagues …

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Exploring the critical gaps in Canada’s health workforce planning [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 8, 2022
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“We need to stop simply clapping our hands in support of health workers — and start planning to create better workforce conditions for them.  Let’s make improved health workforce science in Canada a key legacy in support …

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Public health requires collective courage [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 4, 2022
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“To create a healthier, more just, and more equitable world, we must confront the truth, and that requires an act of collective courage. Perhaps there needs to be a whole new consciousness that abandons ideas of reforms …

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Insurance companies deny medical care. And that’s wrong. [PODCAST]

Podcast
October 1, 2022
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“Securing prior authorizations is a daily ordeal for most doctors’ offices. Doctors report that, on average, they must get insurance company approvals 41 times every week. Of the authorization requests that are denied, fully 73% ultimately get …

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Ending gun violence in America should be a no-brainer

Policy
September 29, 2022

Brain matter was spilling out the top of the patient’s head in the trauma bay. It doesn’t take a neurosurgeon to know that this is not normal. My pager screamed, “GSW to head – ED Room 1.” Gunshot wound to head – Emergency Department Room 1. As the neurosurgery resident physician on call that night, it was my job to evaluate this patient STAT. I wish I could say this …

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Is our health care system based on untruths?

Conditions
September 28, 2022

As Americans, we live in one of the most affluent countries in the world. Outwardly, many of our citizens seem to possess the necessities of life: shelter, food, job employment, and world-class health care. But what happens when we take a closer look? Do we see cracks in the foundation?

If we are honest, the answer is a resounding yes. When one looks at the area of health care, there is …

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We must work harder to provide COVID relief to other countries

Policy
September 27, 2022

Currently, U.S. officials are considering expanding eligibility for the monkeypox vaccine. Yet, elsewhere, people are still struggling to get access to the COVID-19 vaccine. In many low-income countries, less than half of the population is fully vaccinated against the novel coronavirus – sometimes far fewer.

In Haiti, for instance, only 1.4 percent of the population has been fully vaccinated, and only 2.2 percent …

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