Washington Watch: Health Policy

Physicians writing on KevinMD about federal health policy from 2017 to 2020: the Affordable Care Act and the proposals to replace it, Medicare for all argued for and against, hospital prices and what fair payment means, and why physicians should or should not get political. This archive is closed; policy posts since 2020 sit on the Health Policy category. Two maintained records draw on this archive: Prior authorization: what physicians say, in their own words, and Primary care: what physicians say, in their own words.

Psychiatrists should not be involved in presidential politics. Here’s why.

Arash Javanbakht, MD

Health Policy

December 15, 2017

The media, politicians, celebrities, athletes and other groups have questioned the fitness and mental health of the president, but one group has largely refrained: mental health professionals.

This recently changed. One of the latest efforts is a book, a collection of assessments by 27 psychiatrists and mental health providers, called “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump.” Indeed, the book’s editor publicly renewed her concerns on …

Patients made this doctor care about politics

Chad Hayes, MD

Health Policy

December 15, 2017

Before I went to medical school, I had little interest in politics. It wasn’t that I didn’t care about my country; I spent seven years serving in the United States Navy and have always taken pride in being an American. I suppose the reason for my political apathy was because things had always gone pretty well for me.

I grew up in a conservative, upper-middle-class family with two working parents. I …

Both markets and the government are needed to fix health care

Matthew Hahn, MD

Health Policy

December 14, 2017

The most common dividing lines in the national discourse on health care reform simply miss the mark. If one looks beyond the partisan posturing, each side has valid points, but also glaring weaknesses. We may need to work together to get health care right.

I was recently invited to a political gathering to discuss health care reform. The room quickly divided along traditional lines.

From left of the political spectrum, there were …

Insurance and the destruction of our health care system

Peggy A. Rothbaum, PhD

Health Policy

December 11, 2017

When interviewing for my book, I asked about insurance, but the topic came up even when I didn’t specifically ask about it. It was never positive in relation to practice.

A doctor said, “I expected to be around tough and hard cases. I expected it to be hard. I did not expect to have to think if the insurance company will not pay for it.”Another one said, “This completely changes the …

This physician is a registered independent. Here’s why.

Suneel Dhand, MD

Health Policy

December 7, 2017

Exactly a year ago, on the day of the election, I wrote a piece that touched upon humankind’s turbulent history, basic traits and inevitable propensity for division and conflict based upon an amazing book I read: “A Little History of the World.” I related it to the election that was taking place on that day. A year on, it seems like our country is no less …

Doctors ignore politics? Not so fast.

Farzon A. Nahvi, MD

Health Policy

December 6, 2017

If all politics is local, then Washington’s health care debacle has brought politics to the front stoop of every health care provider in America. There is no escaping it – debates taking place on Capitol Hill are set to affect the very survival of our patients. Irrespective of political leanings, doctors, nurses and providers of all stripes have ethical and professional obligations to speak up and become engaged in order …

Read more…

Doctors ignore politics? Not so fast.

Fixing health care requires putting patients and their health teams on top

Matthew Hahn, MD

Health Policy

December 6, 2017

Yet another round of attempted health care reform has come and gone, and once again, failed. And so, the traditional open enrollment season for health insurance is upon us, and as usual, many Americans are facing outlandish increases in premiums, skyrocketing deductible amounts, and shrinking coverage. Americans are increasingly enslaved and endangered by the rising costs and the growing dysfunction. Fixing things is, to put things in the proper perspective, …

Can universal health care and capitalism coexist? Yes, here’s how.

Catherine Cheng, MD

Health Policy

December 4, 2017

Eat what you kill.

Sounds like a mantra from a survival reality show, right? Akin to “eat or be eaten,” “kill or be killed.” It’s also a common reference to the prevailing business model in our American scarcity-minded, competition-driven, fee-for-service health care culture. How ironic, the application of these words to this profession. It was explained to me essentially as: “Every man for himself, and you’re a minion. You are expected …

The real reason why the National Health Service survives

Dr. Saurabh Jha

Health Policy

December 1, 2017

When Aneurin Bevan was asked how he convinced doctors to come on board the National Health Service (NHS) he allegedly replied, “I stuffed their mouths full of gold.” Bevan recognized that to conscript doctors to the largest socialist experiment in health care in the world he had to appeal not so much to their morals, but their pockets.

There is much piety about the NHS. It is the envy of the …

There shouldn’t be a debate about funding CHIP

Nathanael Smith

Health Policy

November 29, 2017

On September 30th of this year, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) ran out of federal funding. While CHIP has not received as much publicity as the Affordable Care Act (ACA), it has had a major impact on the American population: providing health insurance for 9 million children who would otherwise not be insured. Despite its success, there is currently a debate about the funding of CHIP.

CHIP, which was passed …

5 shifts to move health care in the right direction

Halee Fischer-Wright, MD

Health Policy

November 29, 2017

The truth about change in health care was never more perfectly captured than in an episode of Sex and the City, when Carrie Bradshaw lamented that we keep “should-ing all over ourselves.”

In the past decade, those of us on the front lines of health care have seen the passage of nine major pieces of federal legislation that, combined, have profoundly affected how they work. We’ve seen the number of people …

What baseball can teach doctors

Michael L. Millenson

Health Policy

November 29, 2017

Baseball, like medicine, is deeply imbued with a sense of tradition, and no team more so than the New York Yankees, disdainful of innovations like placing players’ names on the backs of their jerseys and resistant to eroding strict standards related to haircuts and beards.

It’s why doctors and patients alike should pay special attention to why the Yankees parted ways with their old manager and what they now seek instead. In …

Read more…

What baseball can teach doctors

Today’s divisive political climate and our ability to treat our patients without bias

Shane Sobrio, MD

Medical Education

November 26, 2017

Politics are divisive. That should not be a shock to anyone. However, the political climate in the USA at the moment is more than just divisive. Lately, I have noticed that there is an underlying disdain for those we disagree with in a way that even my grandparents say they have never seen in this country. The current political climate pervades nearly every aspect of our society, from pop culture …

3 reasons why health care costs are rising

Samuel Falkson

Health Policy

November 24, 2017

Following a relatively routine doctor appointment, I received my bill for over $1,000. I rubbed my eyes, hoping to find an overlooked decimal point. I didn’t.

My experience is not unique. We have a problem in the U.S. We pay over $3 trillion annually for health care — about 18 percent of our GDP. No other developed nation spends more than Read more…

3 reasons why health care costs are rising

Hospitals are struggling and the future is grim

Robert Pearl, MD

Health Policy

November 20, 2017

A strange thing happened last year in some the nation’s most established hospitals and health systems. Hundreds of millions of dollars in income suddenly disappeared.

This article, part two of a series that began with a look at primary care disruption, examines the economic struggles of inpatient facilities, the even harsher realities in front of them, and why hospitals are likely to aggravate, not address, health care’s rising …

How burnout is plaguing doctors and harming patients

Jay Desai, MD

Physician

November 19, 2017

The presidential symposium at this year’s Annual Meeting of the Child Neurology Society of America in early October in Kansas City raised many eyebrows. The first presentation of this symposium focused on burnout rates among neurologists around the country.

Many of my colleagues felt that this was an inappropriate choice, especially with so many trainees and young child neurologists in the audience. Typically, the presidential symposium at a conference of such …

Eliminate the middlemen of private insurance companies

Mark P. Abrams, MD

Health Policy

November 19, 2017

It’s no doubt that the health care conundrum our nation is facing is fraught with high-risk hypotheses and their unpalatable consequences. Complicating this further is the business-minded nature of many lobbyists and policy-makers influencing our government’s decisions, including President Trump’s. This is particularly timely given the recent executive orders Mr. Trump has unilaterally implemented that both sides of the aisle are concerned about. As a physician with a top priority …

This is the one thing will make Medicare for all possible

Thalia K. Robakis, MD, PhD

Health Policy

November 15, 2017

The tide is finally rising under the idea of health care for all in America. It is no longer possible to tar this simple and ubiquitously implemented idea as a bid to “take away our freedom” or “destroy the free market.” Hearteningly, the debate is shifting towards the harder questions of when, and how.

One popular idea is to expand Medicare to cover all Americans — essentially turning the government into …

A modest proposal in response to eliminating the individual mandate

Jonathan Kohler, MD

Health Policy

November 15, 2017

In 1729, a prescient Jonathan Swift wrote an essay that has a place in the health care debates of 2017. “A modest proposal for preventing the children of poor people from being a burthen to their parents or country, and for making them beneficial to the publick” reads almost like the title of a modern academic manuscript. Then, as now, it was important to look past the title before re-tweeting, …

Paging the surgeon general: America needs you

Linda Girgis, MD

Health Policy

November 14, 2017

The Office of the Surgeon General existed since 1871 when Dr. John Woodworth was appointed the first supervising surgeon of the national hospital system. In the previous year, the Marine Hospital was reorganized into the national hospital system. On January 4, 1889, Congress formally recognized the new personnel system as the Commissioned Corps. The Corps was established along military lines and initially consisted of only physicians. They …

Washington Watch: Health Policy

Washington Watch: Health Policy

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts

Subscribe to KevinMD and never miss a story!

Most Popular

Past Week

Past 6 Months

Recent Posts