Health policy and public health

4,357 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 6

Medical student advocacy begins before you feel ready

July 29, 2026Jul 29, 2026

One of my favorite quotes is, "If you're not at the table, you're on the menu." I did not fully understand the meaning of that statement until I became involved in advocacy and organized medicine during medical school. Like many…

One of my favorite quotes is, “If you’re not at the table, you’re on the menu.” I did not fully understand the meaning of that statement until I became involved in advocacy and organized medicine during medical school.

Like many medical students, I entered training focused almost entirely on becoming the best physician I could be. My priorities were studying for exams, earning …

Health policy

Nebraska shows health care as an election issue in 2026

Anahita Dua, MD, MBA

July 27, 2026Jul 27, 2026

Nebraska is not always where national political conversations about health care begin, but it is increasingly where they become impossible to ignore. What is unfolding here is a preview of the pressures reshaping health care systems across the country and…

In 2026, health care is no longer confined to policy debates in Washington or state capitals. It is embedded in the workforce, the economy, …

Health policy

Self-insured employer health plans face a new reckoning

Paul Pender, MD

July 24, 2026Jul 24, 2026

In 2026, the movement in health care toward accountability has begun. A future press release will mark this year as the crescendo that put transparency on price and fiduciary responsibility back into health care. It starts with self-insured employers who have funded health benefits for their workforce under the latest provisions of ERISA, the Employee Retirement Income and Security Act. At long last, the black box that held the secrets …

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Health policy

A broken health care system and the physician shortage

Peter R. Kowey, MD

July 24, 2026Jul 24, 2026

An excerpt from Failure to Treat: How a Broken Healthcare System Puts Patients and Providers at Risk. Over the course of my career, I have witnessed an inexorable decline in the quality of medical care that we, as physicians, render…

An excerpt from Failure to Treat: How a Broken Healthcare System Puts Patients and Providers at Risk.

Over the course of my career, I have witnessed an inexorable decline in the quality of medical care that we, as physicians, render to our patients. There is a myriad of reasons for this sad development, some the fault of physicians, but the majority caused by a health care system that is almost …

Health policy

Social determinants of health hide in plain sight

Dr. Rysheme Reid

July 23, 2026Jul 23, 2026

A fifteen-year-old boy arrived at the hospital after what appeared to be a generalized seizure. The story seemed straightforward. Witnesses described loss of consciousness, convulsions, and urinary incontinence. By the time I met him, the obvious questions had already been…

A fifteen-year-old boy arrived at the hospital after what appeared to be a generalized seizure.

The story seemed straightforward. Witnesses described loss of consciousness, convulsions, and urinary incontinence. By the time I met him, the obvious questions had already been asked. The investigations had already begun. A CT scan was ordered. Laboratory tests were pending. Everyone was searching for a neurological explanation, including me.

As I worked through the history, I considered …

Health policy

The same maternal inequity, from Ecuador to America

Sofia Chicaiza, MD

July 23, 2026Jul 23, 2026

"I want my mom." I still remember hearing those words from a twelve-year-old pregnant patient during my internship at a public maternity hospital in Quito, Ecuador. She had become pregnant after being sexually abused by a neighbor and came from…

“I want my mom.”

I still remember hearing those words from a twelve-year-old pregnant patient during my internship at a public maternity hospital in Quito, Ecuador. She had become pregnant after being sexually abused by a neighbor and came from a low-income community with limited access to education and health care resources. When I met her, she was alone in a hospital bed during labor, crying and asking for her mother …

Health policy

A poem for everyone fighting the health care system

Michele Luckenbaugh

July 21, 2026Jul 21, 2026

The steel cage door slams shut.
Its metallic echo reverberates through the arena,
a warning bell for a contest already decided by those selling tickets.
Under the harsh lights stands the patient.
Thin, weary, clutching a stack of medical records
instead of weapons.
Across the cage wait towering opponents.
Corporate health systems, their muscles swollen
with profits and policies.
Government regulations, thick rulebooks
wrapped around their fists.
Pharmaceutical giants, draped in sponsorship banners,
their pockets heavy with the cost of survival.

The crowd …

Physician voices

Why scientific dissent is a test of institutional trust

Tiffiny Black, DM, MBA, MPA

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

Recently, controversy emerged at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) annual meeting after several researchers were removed for distributing copies of an editorial concerning proposed federal funding cuts to biomedical research. The incident generated debate across the medical community. Some viewed the removal as an appropriate enforcement of conference policies and codes of conduct. Others questioned whether restricting the distribution of scientific perspectives at a professional meeting risks undermining the very …

Health policy

Physician moral injury, not burnout, is the real wound

Cassandra Craig & Toby Terwilliger, MD

July 20, 2026Jul 20, 2026

"Have you seen The Pitt?" This question has become commonplace; patients want to know if it is realistic, colleagues want to compare reactions, and many of us find ourselves dissecting the commentary on an imperfect health care system captured in…

“Have you seen The Pitt?”

This question has become commonplace; patients want to know if it is realistic, colleagues want to compare reactions, and many of us find ourselves dissecting the commentary on an imperfect health care system captured in weekly, one-hour installments that mirror physicians’ everyday reality.

The show does many things well: It is medically accurate, faithfully depicts interdisciplinary teamwork, and reveals the humanity and vulnerability of health care …

The Podcast by KevinMD

Medicare will pay you to keep patients well. Most practices miss it. [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

July 17, 2026Jul 17, 2026

Medicare will pay your practice to keep chronically ill patients out of the hospital, so why do most practices leave that money unused? Rachel Yates, a registered nurse and health care executive, joins to explain two reimbursement programs Medicare introduced…

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Health policy

Why physician advocacy matters more than ever

Agathe de Pins, MD

July 17, 2026Jul 17, 2026

When I started medical school, I pledged to take care of anyone who would walk through the door. I pledged not to discriminate between my patients and to advocate for them both inside and outside the clinic. Like many first-year medical students, I entered medicine with a certain idealism. I believed medicine was fundamentally about serving those who needed care most, and I assumed everyone around me would agree with …

Health policy

How to fix health care without Medicare for All [PODCAST]

The Podcast by KevinMD

July 15, 2026Jul 15, 2026

Medicare for All keeps dying in Congress. So what would actually get the major players to agree on universal coverage? Health care journalist Ken Terry returns to lay out a different model, one that keeps insurance companies in the system…

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Health policy

Why change fails in health care organizations

Dave Cummings, RN

July 15, 2026Jul 15, 2026

The committee had met six times. The quality data was clear. The care pathway was evidence-based. The physicians in the room nodded. Six months later, nothing had changed. Not because the initiative was wrong. Not because the physicians were resistant.…

The committee had met six times. The quality data was clear. The care pathway was evidence-based. The physicians in the room nodded. Six months later, nothing had changed.

Not because the initiative was wrong. Not because the physicians were resistant. Because the environment it landed in was never built to hold it.

This is the diagnosis most physician leaders never make, not about their patients, but about their organizations. They identify the …

Health policy

The corporatization of medicine, in salaries and beds

Brian Hudes, MD

July 11, 2026Jul 11, 2026

In the 1970s, the American hospital was, in the industry's own language, an "open workshop." A physician kept an office down the street, admitted patients to the hospital when they needed a bed or an operating room, and worked largely…

In the 1970s, the American hospital was, in the industry’s own language, an “open workshop.” A physician kept an office down the street, admitted patients to the hospital when they needed a bed or an operating room, and worked largely independent of whoever managed the building. The doctor made the medical decisions; the administrator kept the lights on and the ledgers balanced. It was an arrangement with obvious flaws (fragmentation, …

Health policy

How California can stop underage online gambling

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

July 5, 2026Jul 5, 2026

As California voters decide between Xavier Becerra and Steve Hilton for governor, one growing public health concern needs more focus from both: the surge in underage online gambling. Easy access through phones and apps creates risks that could spiral if left unchecked. AB 2617, the Protecting Kids from Online Gambling Act, provides a practical starting point. Advancing, refining, and enforcing solid measures here should be a priority regardless …

Health policy

Private equity is reshaping concierge medicine

Dana Y. Lujan, MBA

July 1, 2026Jul 1, 2026

Nobody is asking this out loud. They should be. Consider any mid-sized American city. A physician shortage that predates the pandemic. A growing population. Enough employer density to attract outside capital. A physician opens an independent concierge or DPC practice.…

Nobody is asking this out loud. They should be.

Consider any mid-sized American city. A physician shortage that predates the pandemic. A growing population. Enough employer density to attract outside capital. A physician opens an independent concierge or DPC practice. The panel fills. The model works. The relationship medicine covenant holds.

Then the room changes.

Around 63 percent of physician transactions in 2023 were attributable to a PE firm or their portfolio …

Health policy

What’s missing from the tobacco harm reduction debate

Edward Anselm, MD

June 30, 2026Jun 30, 2026

Anyone who uses social media is likely to encounter messages about tobacco harm reduction. This information comes from multiple sources with varying and overlapping agendas. At one end of the spectrum, the World Health Organization and most public health authorities emphasize the risks associated with nicotine in all forms. Their primary concern is preventing nicotine initiation among adolescents and young adults, thereby reducing future tobacco-related disease. At the other end …

Health policy

The pediatric oncology workforce shortage is widening

Danielle Fragalla

June 27, 2026Jun 27, 2026

The U.S. health care system is facing a serious workforce shortage. In pediatric oncology, the stakes are especially high. But the issue is not simply a lack of available positions. Increasingly, it is a recruitment and retention challenge. Recent pediatric…

Recent pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship data shows that while training positions increased by 36.6 percent between 2009 and 2025, applicants increased by only 8.3 percent. During that same period, the applicant-to-position ratio declined …

Health policy

Hospital overcrowding makes safe care impossible

Eugene Litvak, PhD

June 26, 2026Jun 26, 2026

Twenty-five years ago, 15-year-old Lewis Blackman died following elective surgery at a respected South Carolina hospital. Since he was placed in a suboptimal ward that was inadequate for his condition, his health worsened from a perforated ulcer and overwhelming infection, warning signs were missed, family concerns were not adequately escalated, and life-saving treatment came too late. His death became one of the most influential patient safety cases in American …

Health policy

Rural health equity starts outside the clinic walls

Tien Vo, MD

June 25, 2026Jun 25, 2026

Health care is fundamentally broken when the patient has to choose between a day's wages and a basic clinical checkup. In the rural landscape of California's Imperial Valley, this is not a hypothetical dilemma. It is a daily reality for…

Health care is fundamentally broken when the patient has to choose between a day’s wages and a basic clinical checkup. In the rural landscape of California’s Imperial Valley, this is not a hypothetical dilemma. It is a daily reality for thousands of frontline agricultural workers and underserved families.

As a primary care physician operating independent clinics along the California-Mexico border, I have watched the conventional, centralized health care delivery system repeatedly …

Health policy and public health

Articles, page 6

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