Health policy and public health

4,357 articles · Since 2004

Articles, page 7

Why health care leaders keep blaming the system

June 25, 2026Jun 25, 2026

Every day in medicine, we hear a familiar refrain: "I want to do the right thing for my patients, but my hands are tied by the system." It is a comforting narrative. It casts doctors, administrators, and clinical leaders as…

Every day in medicine, we hear a familiar refrain: “I want to do the right thing for my patients, but my hands are tied by the system.”

It is a comforting narrative. It casts doctors, administrators, and clinical leaders as helpless victims of an invisible and rigid machine. It positions them as casualties of a vast medical-industrial complex driven by insurance mandates, regulatory compliance, and predatory billing cycles. We shrug our …

Health policy

When a health insurance denial leads to death

Timothy Lesaca, MD

June 23, 2026Jun 23, 2026

For generations, the struggles between patients and health insurers have played out in the quiet corridors of bureaucracy and the echoing halls of the courts. When a claim is denied, the journey that follows is often a weary procession: appeals, reviews, complaints, and lawsuits. Even when an insurer is found at fault, the reckoning is almost always measured in a payment here, a penalty there, and maybe a sanction filed …

Health policy

America on life support: A hospital social worker reflects

Kathleen Fitzgerald, LMSW

June 22, 2026Jun 22, 2026

America feels like the ultimate noncompliant patient. We stabilize her, patch the wounds, manage the crisis, discharge with recommendations, and within four to eight years she is right back in the ICU on another freedom tangent that destabilizes the entire…

America feels like the ultimate noncompliant patient.

We stabilize her, patch the wounds, manage the crisis, discharge with recommendations, and within four to eight years she is right back in the ICU on another freedom tangent that destabilizes the entire body of democracy again. The cycle repeats endlessly. Reactive instead of preventive. Fragmented instead of coordinated. Profitable instead of sustainable.

And honestly? The same dysfunction reflected in the country is reflected in …

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Physician voices

Wealth inequality is a clinical problem, not political

Sameen Farooq, MD

June 19, 2026Jun 19, 2026

We live and work in a sick society. I know this isn't a revelation as much as a cruel reality. The disparity between those with means and those without is noticeable in every available metric dissecting the spending habits of…

We live and work in a sick society. I know this isn’t a revelation as much as a cruel reality. The disparity between those with means and those without is noticeable in every available metric dissecting the spending habits of Americans, credit card indebtedness, retail, stock market portfolios. In this sick system, I am so tired of hearing about the ultra-rich whine and complain about the “difficulties of being …

Health policy

The hidden tax driving up U.S. health care costs

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

June 16, 2026Jun 16, 2026

Health care spending in the United States reached about 18 percent of GDP in 2024, totaling $5.3 trillion, or roughly $15,474 per person. That's dramatically higher than peer countries, which average around 11 percent. Yet patient outcomes haven't kept pace.…

Health care spending in the United States reached about 18 percent of GDP in 2024, totaling $5.3 trillion, or roughly $15,474 per person. That’s dramatically higher than peer countries, which average around 11 percent. Yet patient outcomes haven’t kept pace.

Two major, interconnected problems stand out: exploding administrative overhead that diverts money away from actual care, and a systemic preference for treating problems after they occur rather than …

Health policy

The health care workforce crisis we keep ignoring

Narinder Singh Parhar, MD

June 15, 2026Jun 15, 2026

American health care faces many challenges: rising costs, workforce shortages, an aging population, increasing chronic disease burden, and growing administrative complexity. Yet one of the most important health care crises receives far less attention than it deserves: the declining physical…

Physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, physical therapists, and countless other health care professionals devote their careers to caring for others. Yet many …

Health policy

The built environment is shaping our patients’ health

Karen Zhang

June 14, 2026Jun 14, 2026

During my pediatrics rotation, I met a 13-year-old girl with obesity. She was trying to follow her doctor's advice to eat healthier and exercise more, but it was tough: She lacked access to a gym, her neighborhood lacked sidewalks, and…

During my pediatrics rotation, I met a 13-year-old girl with obesity. She was trying to follow her doctor’s advice to eat healthier and exercise more, but it was tough: She lacked access to a gym, her neighborhood lacked sidewalks, and local traffic was fast and busy. It was not safe for her to walk or rollerblade alone, despite her motivation to be more active.

Her problem is a common one in …

Health policy

From Pakistan to Indiana: climate change and patient health

Umayr R. Shaikh, MPH

June 14, 2026Jun 14, 2026

I am a proud Pakistani Hoosier. My father immigrated from Pakistan in 1992 in search of a better life than what was possible back home. After moving around for work in those early years, my parents settled outside Indianapolis when…

I am a proud Pakistani Hoosier.

My father immigrated from Pakistan in 1992 in search of a better life than what was possible back home. After moving around for work in those early years, my parents settled outside Indianapolis when I was four years old, and Indiana has been home ever since. As I now pursue my medical education, I find myself thinking often about the two places that shaped me …

Physician voices

Health care system design isn’t failing, it’s working

Tiffiny Black, DM, MBA, MPA

June 12, 2026Jun 12, 2026

In health care, we often describe what we are experiencing as system failure. We point to clinician burnout, staffing shortages, administrative burden, and the growing distance between those delivering care and those designing it. We talk about breakdowns in communication, gaps in safety, and the increasing strain placed on a workforce asked to adapt faster than it can recover. The language is familiar. The concern is real. But the conclusion …

Health policy

Health care consolidation is the biggest reform barrier

John E. McDonough, DPH, MPA

June 11, 2026Jun 11, 2026

An excerpt from America's Wrong Turn: US Health Care in the Neoliberal Era. Let's consider U.S. corporate consolidation and antitrust policy in the context of health and medical care sectors. Concentration, mergers, and acquisitions are vital parts of corporate strategy…

An excerpt from America’s Wrong Turn: US Health Care in the Neoliberal Era.

Let’s consider U.S. corporate consolidation and antitrust policy in the context of health and medical care sectors. Concentration, mergers, and acquisitions are vital parts of corporate strategy among all forms of health and medical firms, a phenomenon at every stage and level across our dizzyingly complex system. In this section, we examine insurers, hospitals, physicians, pharmaceuticals, and …

Health policy

How Becerra and Hilton differ on California health care

Kayvan Haddadan, MD

June 11, 2026Jun 11, 2026

This article tries to be unbiased and compares Xavier Becerra (Democrat, former U.S. HHS Secretary, California AG, and Congressman) and Steve Hilton (Republican, former Fox News host, British-born American conservative political commentator, author, entrepreneur, and former adviser) contrasting approaches to…

Becerra emphasizes government-led expansion of access, protections against federal rollbacks, cost controls via regulation and purchasing power, and a long-term vision for universal coverage. Hilton focuses on reducing government …

Physician voices

The attention economy is starving public health

Paul Dranichnikov, MD, PhD

June 8, 2026Jun 8, 2026

We are living in an era where attention, not information, is the scarce resource. And what we pay attention to (not what we claim to value) reveals the architecture of our priorities. Consider a few comparisons that, though deliberately absurd,…

We are living in an era where attention, not information, is the scarce resource. And what we pay attention to (not what we claim to value) reveals the architecture of our priorities.

Consider a few comparisons that, though deliberately absurd, tell a deeper truth. We now have more Marvel movies than major classes of antibiotics. The world produces more aspiring pop singers than there are widely used chemotherapy regimens. Strangely enough, …

Health policy

RFK’s HHS cuts leave the U.S. open to a bioweapon attack

Harry Severance, MD

June 8, 2026Jun 8, 2026

Both during and since the COVID-19 pandemic, multiple theorists and pundits have postulated that COVID-19 was being developed as a bioweapon, and was mistakenly (or purposely) released from a containment lab, purportedly in China. Other researchers say no. But, either way, the effects upon our country, our society, our health care delivery (with emergency departments and hospitals overwhelmed, while many clinics were forced to shut down), our …

Health policy

End-of-life decision-making is never a solo act

Chinmeri Nwuba

June 5, 2026Jun 5, 2026

Technological and biomedical advancements are undeniable blessings in today's health sector. These advancements have improved life-prolonging technologies. So, clinicians can often sustain biological life long after meaningful recovery is unlikely. Consequently, there is a subtle shift happening in modern medicine,…

Technological and biomedical advancements are undeniable blessings in today’s health sector. These advancements have improved life-prolonging technologies. So, clinicians can often sustain biological life long after meaningful recovery is unlikely. Consequently, there is a subtle shift happening in modern medicine, where we are no longer asking whether we can keep people alive but who gets to decide when not to.

This shift becomes clearer when viewed through Ronald Dworkin’s distinction between …

Health policy

Neonatal care in humanitarian crises is conditional

Maddie Beans

June 4, 2026Jun 4, 2026

Neonatal survival depends on continuity that modern health systems often assume as stable. Thermoregulation, oxygen delivery, infection control, trained clinical staffing, and reliable electricity must function together as an integrated system. When that system is intact, care follows a predictable sequence from delivery through stabilization and escalation when needed. When it is disrupted, survival becomes conditional rather than assured.

In Gaza and Lebanon, ongoing humanitarian conditions have placed neonatal services under …

Health policy

Insurance consolidation is a patient safety problem

American Society of Anesthesiologists

June 4, 2026Jun 4, 2026

Imagine a physician who has been practicing anesthesiology for 20 years. She is skilled, board-certified, well-liked, and respected by her team. She now works more hours than she did 10 years ago, covers more call, cares for sicker patients, and…

Health policy

Health care affordability is now a moral crisis

Narinder Singh Parhar, MD

June 4, 2026Jun 4, 2026

"If gravity pulls everything down, why are my health insurance premiums and co-payments skyrocketing?" The question sounds humorous, but beneath the humor lies frustration shared by millions of Americans. Health care spending in the United States continues to rise year…

“If gravity pulls everything down, why are my health insurance premiums and co-payments skyrocketing?”

The question sounds humorous, but beneath the humor lies frustration shared by millions of Americans. Health care spending in the United States continues to rise year after year. Medical technology has advanced dramatically. We have better imaging, more sophisticated procedures, and an ever-expanding list of medications. Yet many patients are finding health care increasingly difficult to afford. …

Health policy

U.S. drug shortages threaten national health security

Anmol Gupta, MD, MPP

June 4, 2026Jun 4, 2026

The third pharmacy turned him away. My patient had already driven across Northern Michigan in search of his life-saving cancer medication. The first pharmacy was out of stock. The second was out too. At the third, he was told they…

On the other end of this crisis are the physicians. We spend our late evening hours calling store after store, a desperate game of pharmacy …

Health policy

The real reason value-based care has not delivered

Jeanne Cohen

June 3, 2026Jun 3, 2026

It has been 20 years since the term "value-based care" (VBC) entered the health care lexicon. VBC was supposed to transform health care. It promised to move the system away from fee-for-service (FFS), a model that rewards volume over outcomes,…

It has been 20 years since the term “value-based care” (VBC) entered the health care lexicon.

VBC was supposed to transform health care. It promised to move the system away from fee-for-service (FFS), a model that rewards volume over outcomes, toward a future defined by prevention, efficiency, better patient results, reduced waste, and lower costs. Two decades later, that promise remains largely unfulfilled. Despite years of pilots, policy pushes, and payment …

Physician voices

Why scientific medicine alone is not making us healthier

Narinder Singh Parhar, MD

June 2, 2026Jun 2, 2026

After nearly four decades in medicine, I have become convinced that one of the greatest threats facing American health care is not a lack of scientific advancement. It is the growing imbalance between what our health care system excels at…

Modern medicine has achieved extraordinary successes. We routinely save patients from heart attacks, strokes, severe infections, trauma, and many cancers. We transplant organs, replace joints, implant …

Health policy and public health

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