I became a physician to help people. So isn’t fighting for issues that help protect my patients such as racial equality, LGBTQ rights, gender pay equity, access to health care, and education all part of patient care?
Don’t my patients want to have a doctor who is fighting for them both in the office and outside it?
When I started working as a resident physician and later went on to my attending …
Why doctors should get political
Our local newspaper recently ran an article on the top of its front page, stating that our monopoly health system is now “expanding health care cost discounts.” The article was actually a press release – free advertising on the front page. As a primary care physician who refers patients to this health system, I wanted to know what these discounts really meant.
So, I asked the newspaper in an editorial, “what …
What do hospital discounts really mean?
Americans are not fans of socialized medicine. Sure, some people want socialized health care payment, including many people who are fans of Medicare for all. But even most Bernie Sanders supporters probably aren’t in favor of socializing the entire U.S. health care system, thereby making hospitals and medical clinics into government property. Americans are proud of the high quality of care offered by non-government providers, from their local community …
Does socialized medical care provide higher quality than private care?
“Listen to your patient; he is telling you the diagnosis.”
This quote from famous physician William Osler is as true today as it was 100 years ago. And yet the latest version of President Trump’s executive order on Medicare threatens what patients overwhelmingly want: a physician involved in their care.
Section 5-C of the President’s order focuses on payment parity and supervision of mid-level providers. Changes to either issue would create unintended …
The president’s plan for payment parity goes against what patients want
Next in a series.
The Healthcare Incentives Framework helps show how to fix incentives in health care systems. It starts by enumerating the five jobs we expect a health care system to do for us and then identifies which parties in the health care system (providers or insurers) have a natural incentive to fulfill each of those jobs. Those incentives arise naturally, but the big challenge is shaping …
Our optimal future U.S. health care system
The health challenge recently faced by Sen. Bernie Sanders has brought two issues to the forefront of the 2020 presidential election. Should there be a disqualifying upper age limit to become president, and should an existing health issue preclude a candidate from running for president?
As scientists in the field of aging, we cannot tell the voting public how to answer these questions. What we can do is inform you about …
Should there be a disqualifying upper age limit to become president?
Recent polls show a majority of Americans support Medicare for all, but few seem to realize that no other system in the world operates like the current single-payer proposals in Congress. I addressed the concept of single-payer health care, with Cuba’s system as an example. Today I’m writing more about the ideas being discussed now in our country and how those compare to other nations that provide …
4 significant misconceptions about universal health care systems
The Democratic debates this summer demonstrated massive confusion around Medicare for all. Does it mean Medicare for all who want it? Medicare Advantage? A “public option” on an Affordable Care Act (ACA) exchange?
Democrats need to get their story straight.
The confusion is understandable. Medicare for all has been an aspiration since at least the New Deal, but since 1965, when Congress …
Clearing up the confusion surrounding Medicare for all
The World Health Organization describes universal health coverage — a system coupling health care access with financial protection for all residents — as the “single most powerful concept that public health has to offer.” The goal of universal care is to give all people the equal opportunity to enjoy the best health possible.
I wholeheartedly endorse universal health care, though not a single-payer system like “Medicare for all” because there is …
Understanding the distinction between universal health care and a single-payer system is critical
Let’s burn health insurance down. Greedy corporate bastards should burn. Big Pharma and big hospitals should probably burn too. You know who else is really, really, bad? Wall Street. Let’s burn the banks. And let’s burn Big Tech and the entire Silicon Valley cartel. Let’s also burn Big Agribusiness that’s making us fat and sick. And let’s burn the Oil companies that are destroying the planet, and let’s burn the …
The problem with burning health insurance down
President Donald Trump held a rally near my medical school last week.
While sitting in a small conference room during a lecture the morning of the event, my professor chuckled while clutching his phone. He looked up and around at all of us, remarking that his friend had texted him about the Trump supporters waiting outside for the rally to start; the message read, “Jesus, the maggots are already here!” My …
Bias when treating supporters of President Trump
Rudolf Virchow, a pioneering physician of the 1800s, once wrote that “politics is nothing but medicine on a large scale”. Over a century later, this nexus is as apparent as ever, and many doctors engage as practitioners of both.
Twitter erupted this past fall with photos of soiled scrubs, resuscitation room floors and surgically-removed bullets — all crimson with …
For future physician-activists: This is our lane
The evolving politics of single-payer health care conflate the concepts of universal coverage, health care on demand and free health care. To the indiscriminate progressive mind, all three are part of the holy grail. The fly in the ointment is that highly attractive and altruistic politics runs into the brick wall of reality. As Thomas Sowell — a noted Stanford economist — wrote: “The first lesson of economics is scarcity: …
Medicare for all and the problem of health care on demand
What is self-awareness? A quick Google search says that it is “conscious knowledge of one’s own character, feelings, motives, and desires.” In other words, my worldview is different than yours. Hypothetically, I am a Republican, and you are a Democrat. You don’t believe in vaccinations, but I do. I believe in universal health care, but you disagree with my stance. You believe in stricter gun laws, and I don’t. That …
How self-awareness helps with patient interaction
In a New York Post article dated January 23, 2019, the author states how Americans without health care insurance hit 13.7 percent. This 2.8 percent increase means an additional seven-million Americans lack health coverage as noted by the Gallup survey period.
This is not far behind the 18 percent recorded just before the Obamacare mandate in 2014.
Everyone is blamed in this article except the culprits. Do you think for one moment …
The true cost of being uninsured in America
Recently, a child was on a waitlist for five months to get into my practice. For this article, I will call him Tiny Tim.
Tiny Tim, now five years old, has a skin condition known as eczema or atopic dermatitis. When we first met, virtuously every area of his body was covered with wounds from constant scratching. Skin that breaks easily and heals poorly can give bacteria access to other parts …
Why is Medicaid reimbursement below sustainability?
Early voting began recently in Texas with unprecedented excitement, as a record 15 million registered voters made their way to the polls. Reports say polls are looking more like Black Friday shopping lines than early voting locations. Although we cannot predict the results of the election, one thing is clear: healthcare is the top issue. This is hardly surprising given …
It’s time we start voting at our local hospitals
Will physicians go extinct? Artificial intelligence, legislation, profit motives in the health care industry, and clever lobbying by non-physician providers may all contribute to our demise. However, I believe the existential threat to our profession stems from the ranks of physicians themselves.
1. Unwillingness to embrace activism
Pathologist and writer Rudolph Virchow once said: “The physician is the natural attorney of the poor.” Like most physicians, my goal is to provide evidence-based …
4 reasons why physicians will become extinct
On May 15, President Trump attempted to kill not just two, but three birds with one tweet, simultaneously denouncing the Media and the Mueller investigation, and crowing about his approval ratings. “Can you believe that with all of the made up, unsourced stories I get from the Fake News Media, together with the $10,000,000 Russian Witch Hunt (there is no Collusion), I now have my best …
Political polarization is harming America’s health
The following are intended to inspire to medical students and residents to learn more about organized medicine. Whether it be at the national, state, county, or specialty level, there are numerous societies with opportunities for contribution.
1. To pull back the curtain. Many physicians are innately curious and like to “see how the sausage is made,” so to speak. There is a great deal of policy behind the scenes of our …
5 reasons to get involved in organized medicine
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