PNHP

Claudia M. Fegan, MD, CHCQM, FACP

Claudia M. Fegan, MD, CHCQM, FACP

Internal Medicine

Dr. Claudia Fegan is chief medical officer of Cook County Health, where she provides executive oversight for the health system’s medical practices and health policy initiatives. Dr. Fegan also serves as national coordinator of Physicians for a National Health Program, where she has appeared on national television and radio programs on behalf of the organization, and has testified before congressional committees on a wide range of health care issues. She has lectured extensively to both medical and community audiences on health care reform in the U.S. and Canada, and is a co-author of the book “Universal Healthcare: What the United States can Learn From the Canadian Experience” and a contributor to “10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care.”

Dr. Fegan is a past president and board member of the Chicago-based Health and Medicine Policy Research Group. In 2017, she received the Paul Cornely Award from the American Public Health Association, and in 2023 Becker’s Health Care named her one of 149 Black Health Leaders to Know. 

Dr. Fegan received her undergraduate degree from Fisk University and her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine. She is a diplomate of both the American Board of Internal Medicine and the American Board of Quality Assurance and Utilization Review Physicians.

Diljeet K. Singh, MD, DrPH

Integrative Gynecologic Oncology

Diljeet K. Singh is a women’s health advocate and an integrative gynecologic oncologist in clinical practice since 1999. Dr. Singh received her medical degree from Northwestern University and master’s degree from the Harvard School of Public Health. She completed an obstetrics and gynecology residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a gynecologic oncology fellowship at the MD Anderson Cancer Center. She completed her doctoral degree in public health on cost analysis at the University of Texas School of Public Health and an associate fellowship in integrative medicine at the University of Arizona. She currently serves as president of Physicians for a National Health Program.

Carol Paris, MD

Psychiatry

Dr. Carol Paris is a past president of PNHP, and a recently retired psychiatrist who worked for more than 25 years in private practice, community mental health, prison psychiatry, and academia, including a year as a consultant psychiatrist in New Zealand, where she experienced a single-payer system firsthand. She currently resides in Nashville, Tenn., where her primary interests include mentoring medical students and early career physicians for leadership in advocacy. Dr. Paris earned her medical degree from West Virginia University School of Medicine.

Robert L. Zarr, MD, MPH

Pediatrics

Dr. Robert Zarr is a physician researcher and public health pediatrician based at Unity Health Care, Inc. and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Canada. He has provided medical care to minority and immigrant populations for more than 20 years.

A longtime advocate for Medicare for All, Dr. Zarr served as PNHP president from 2015 through 2016. He founded and was the first medical director of Park Rx America, a community health initiative to prescribe nature to patients and families to prevent and treat chronic disease and promote wellness. A certified nature and forest therapy guide, Dr. Zarr previously served as the Park Rx Advisor to the National Park Service in his national advocacy to connect patients to parks.

Dr. Zarr earned his medical degree at Baylor University and his MPH at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston, and completed residency in pediatrics at Texas Children’s Hospital/Baylor.

Susan Rogers, MD, FACP

Internal Medicine

Dr. Susan Rogers, immediate past president of PNHP, is recently retired from Stroger Hospital of Cook County, where she now serves as a volunteer attending hospitalist and internist. While at Stroger Hospital, she was co-director of medical student programs for the Department of Medicine and received numerous teaching awards. She is an assistant professor of medicine at Rush University, where she serves on the Committee of Admissions. 

Dr. Rogers received her medical degree from the University of Illinois College of Medicine and completed her residency at Cook County Hospital, where she served an additional year as Chief Resident. She previously was medical director of the Near North Health Service Corp, a FQHC in Chicago. Dr. Rogers is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, and a member of the National Medical Association. A longtime advocate of health care justice and racial equity, Dr. Rogers has testified before Congress and spoken to both medical and community audiences around the country.

Paul Y. Song, MD

Radiation Oncology

Dr. Paul Song is a radiation oncologist, biotech executive, and health reform activist. He recently served on the faculty of the Samuel Oschin Cancer Center at Cedars Sinai Hospital, and currently sees Medicaid and uninsured patients at Dignity California Hospital. Dr. Song is the chief operating officer/chief medical officer of NKMax America, where he oversees translational research and clinical programs. He is also the chief medical officer of Hawkeye Bio. 

Dr. Song earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago and his medical degree from George Washington University. He completed his residency in radiation oncology at the University of Chicago, where he served as chief resident, and completed a brachytherapy fellowship at the Institute Gustave Roussy in France. As a past chair of PNHP’s California chapter, and advisor to PNHP’s national board, Dr. Song has made dozens of presentations to community and medical audiences, as well as national news outlets.

Oliver T. Fein, MD, FACP

Internal Medicine

Dr. Oliver Fein is a professor of clinical medicine-emeritus at Weill Cornell Medical College,
where he is co-director of the David Rogers Health Policy Colloquium. He recently retired from
clinical practice and as associate dean responsible for the Office of Affiliations and the Office of
Global Health Education.

Dr. Fein is a past president of Physicians for a National Health Program and board chair of PNHP’s New York Metro Chapter. He is a past vice president of the American Public Health Association, where he served for four years on the executive board.

Much of Dr. Fein’s work has focused on health system delivery reform and access to care for
vulnerable populations. His writings include a chapter in the book “10 Excellent Reasons for National Health Care”; an article on ethical issues and global health in Academic Medicine; an editorial in Medical Care; and an article on U.S. health care reform and the presidential candidates in the Journal of Health Services Research and Policy.

Dr. Fein received his medical degree from Western Reserve University, and completed
his internship at Cleveland Metropolitan General Hospital and his residency at Lincoln Hospital
in the Bronx. He then became director of general medicine outpatient services at the
Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and subsequently acting-director of the division of
general medicine at the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University. Dr. Fein was a Robert Wood Johnson health policy fellow in 1993-1994, where he worked as a legislative assistant for the Senate Democratic Majority Leader.

Dr. Fein received the Haven Emerson Award from the Public Health Association of New York
City in 2001; the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy
Fellowship Program in 2008; the David Calkins Award for Health Policy Advocacy from the
Society of General Internal Medicine; and the Sedgwick Memorial Medal for Distinguished
Service from the American Public Health Association in 2021.

Walter H. Tsou, MD, MPH

Internal Medicine, Public Health

Dr. Walter Tsou is a past president of the American Public Health Association and former health commissioner of Philadelphia. He is a founding member of the National Board of Public Health Examiners and a board adviser to Physicians for a National Health Program. An expert on health reform and health care financing, he frequently briefs members of Congress on health care issues.

Dr. Tsou is a contributing editor of Physician’s News Digest and Pennsylvania Medicine. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Public Health Recognition Award from the College of Physicians of Philadelphia, the Leadership Award from the Delaware Valley Healthcare Council, and the Broad Street Pump Award from Physicians for Social Responsibility. He was named Practitioner of the Year by the Philadelphia County Medical Society in 2001.

Dr. Tsou received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health. He holds an honorary doctorate in medical sciences from Drexel University.

Americans say that health care coverage is the responsibility of the federal government

Views on Replacing the ACA

The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, July 13-17, 2017

Q44. Is it the responsibility of the federal government to make sure that all Americans have health care coverage, or not?

March 2017
52% – Yes, a federal government responsibility
47% – No, not a federal government responsibility

July 2017
62% – Yes, a federal government responsibility
37% – No, not a federal government responsibility

http://apnorc.org…

***

Comment:

By Don McCanne, M.D.

In only four months support of the view that it is the responsibility of the federal government to make sure that all Americans have health care coverage has gone from a 5 percentage point spread to a 25 point spread. The Republicans want to take credit for health care reform, and they actually may be able to take credit for this shift in opinion, even though it is in the opposite direction of their passionate support for further privatization of health care financing.

The years of unrelenting criticism of Obamacare by the Republicans along with the recognition that too many people are facing problems with affordability and access led to the concerns about the adequacy of the Affordable Care Act. In calling for repeal, the Republicans promised that they would replace Obamacare with a much better program, presumably bringing improved access at lower costs.

But then what happened this year now that Republicans have control of the House, Senate and the White house and can act on their promises? They tried to hide their actual policy positions behind closed doors shielded with false rhetoric. They were exposed when it became clear to all that their bucket of promises was empty.

It took only four months for Americans to realize that Bernie Sanders and all of the other Medicare-for-all advocates were right. The private sector can’t deliver, and the Republicans proved it. We need the federal government to take the responsibility of seeing that all Americans have health care.

It is our job to make sure that this American epiphany does not fade.

Stay informed! Visit www.pnhp.org/qotd to sign up for daily email updates.

Healthcare reform’s solution is hiding in plain sight

By Dr. Claudia Fegan
Modern Healthcare, July 21, 2017

Now that the Senate GOP’s Better Care Reconciliation Act has crashed and burned, and efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act appear to have stalled, it’s time to consider another plan: improved Medicare for all.

The American public has demonstrated they want real solutions, not empty promises. Voters are demanding change in both town halls and the halls of Congress.

The same day the Congressional Budget Office released its initial analysis of the BCRA, the Annals of Internal Medicine published a study called “The Relationship of Health Insurance and Mortality: Is Lack of Insurance Deadly?” Based on the study’s findings, the answer is yes. A review of several other studies shows that each year, for every 769 Americans without health insurance, one will die.

Repealing the ACA would mean 32 million Americans losing insurance, according to the CBO, resulting in 42,000 unnecessary deaths. Combined with the 28 million who are currently uninsured, we would see a staggering 78,000 Americans dying prematurely because they are uninsured. That’s more than will die of influenza and pneumonia (57,000) or kidney disease (50,000) each year. Lack of access to healthcare is our nation’s eighth-leading killer, a crisis our leaders can no longer ignore.

During the 2016 campaign, Donald Trump promised voters healthcare reform that would provide more coverage, better benefits and lower costs. None of the proposed GOP bills achieves these goals, and they are widely unpopular among both Democrats and Republicans. Of course the ACA also has come up short in delivering lower costs. And despite the major increases in coverage, about 9% of Americans are still uninsured.

So the question remains: Have our elected officials simply run out of ideas?

Thankfully, not all of them. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) has introduced a bill called the Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act, a single-payer plan that would provide immediate, comprehensive coverage to all Americans. The bill has gained 115 co-sponsors, with a majority of House Democrats signing on.

How does it compare to President Trump’s healthcare promises?

• More coverage. Like enrollment in Medicare at age 65, all Americans would automatically join a national health plan, regardless of age, employment, income or marital status. Medical decisions will be made by patients and providers rather than insurance companies.

• Better benefits. Medicare for all will cover all medically necessary services, including dental, vision and long-term care. Patients can visit the doctors and hospitals of their choice.

• Lower costs. By eliminating insurance middlemen and their exorbitant executive salaries, advertising and profits, Medicare for all would yield about $500 billion annually in administrative savings. The program would be funded by payroll taxes that will be fully offset by the virtual elimination of premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for patients. Medical bankruptcy would be a thing of the past.

Will it work? Medicare for all isn’t a new or fringe idea. Single-payer systems work in industrialized countries worldwide, and most spend about half of what we do on healthcare, with better results.

Hiding in plain sight is a single-payer system called Medicare, which is universally popular among patients and physicians, providing care to the oldest and sickest Americans with only about 3% in administrative costs.

Polls show strong support for a single-payer program, and healthcare providers agree. Last month the Chi- cago Medical Society asked more than a thousand members to rate competing healthcare plans. Doctors preferred a single-payer plan 2-to-1 over the ACA and 3-to-1 over the GOP House bill, the American Health Care Act. Nearly 90% agreed that healthcare is a human right that should be available to all individuals, similar to police and fire protection.

We became doctors to help others heal and thrive. Instead, we spend hours each day on insurance paperwork and billing, hours that could be—and should be—spent on patient care. Medicare for all is a system designed to serve the needs of patients, not the profit motives of insurance companies.

Dr. Claudia Fegan is national coordinator and past president of Physicians for a National Health Program. She’s also chief medical officer for the Cook County Health and Hospital System in Chicago.

http://www.modernhealthcare.com…

World shows way forward on health care

By Jack Bernard
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, July 21, 2017

Let’s play a game of guess “who said”:

• On CNN in 1999: “If you can’t take care of your sick in the country, forget it, it’s all over…I believe in universal healthcare.”

• About the Australian system similar to Medicare for all: “We have failing health care — I shouldn’t say this to my friend from Australia, because you have better health care than we do.”

• On MSNBC in response to the question: “Are you for single-payer health care?” Answer: “It actually works incredibly well in Scotland. Some people think it really works in Canada.”

• And again in 2015: “As far as single-payer, it works in Canada. It works incredibly well in Scotland.”

Do you think Bernie Sanders said this socialist left-wing dribble? Or, were these quotes by Elizabeth Warren, that Massachusetts pinko?

Sorry, that was a trick question, and Sanders and Warren are great, patriotic Americans. These are quotes from none other than our own reborn, billionaire man of the people, Donald Trump!

But, he also said about single-payer: “It could have worked in a different age, which is the age you’re talking about here.” In other words, a different time back when politicians like JFK and LBJ had the guts to go up against the insurance industry and Big Pharma to enact Medicare for seniors!

And, there you have the real reason that both Trump and Obama shied away from introducing legislation to really solve the cost and access crisis in America. And, do not believe those who say Medicare for All will “bankrupt” America (per the “new” Trump last Wednesday). They are wrong.

Per the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), per capita cost in single-payer Canada is $4,728; in Israel it is only $2,533. Here, it is $9,364! And our out-of-pocket cost is 50 percent higher as well.

And, don’t believe Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price and others on the far right who say we can’t convert to single-payer due to access and quality problems. The Commonwealth Fund has just issued a report analyzing the health care systems of 11 wealthy nations. We come out last on every measure with the exception of one. There, we are second-to-last.

And, this is not the first time we have come out on the bottom. Last year, Commonwealth Fund issued a report with similar findings. Let’s look at a representative sample of Western nations: Australia, France, Canada, Germany and the U.S.A. All have much less per-capita health care costs and universal coverage.

While 51 percent of Americans report that they can get a same-day appointment with their M.D., the figure was much higher for other countries. For instance, Australia was 67 percent. Only Canada (43 percent) is worse than the U.S.

In ease of obtaining care after-hours, 51 percent of Americans reported being satisfied. Other nations were at 63 percent to 64 percent, except Australia at 44 percent.

But, we fared even worse on one measure, financial barriers to access. An amazing 33 percent of Americans experienced financial difficulties while only 7 percent of Germans did. In fact, no nation had over 17 percent experiencing financial barriers, except the “you are on your own” U.S.A.

The United States is the most religious democracy (Gallup). It is hard to understand how a nation whose population professes to follow Judeo-Christian principles can fail to have health care as a right of citizenship.

This dismal situation represents a stark indictment of the leadership of our nation — both parties. Obamacare has problems and Trumpcare represents a horror show of epic proportions. The “different age” which Trump refers to for single-payer to be enacted starts right now.

He and Congress need to move ASAP to establish a joint Congressional Committee to examine how best to finance the transition into Medicare for All. There is a body of pre-existing work on how this can be accomplished. A good reference point would be the detailed analysis done on this subject by Physicians for A National Health Program (PNHP).

Jack Bernard, the first director of health planning for Georgia, has been an executive with several national health care firms. A Republican, he’s a former chairman of the Jasper County Commission.

http://www.myajc.com…

What kind of healthcare works in other countries? The U.S. should take a look.

By Nancy Greep, M.D.
Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2017

To the editor: This article overlooks the elephant in the room: private insurance companies that consume about 20% of every healthcare dollar.

Two additional reasons for our higher costs that are not mentioned are our failure to reduce drug prices through bulk purchasing and the low ratio of primary care providers to specialists. Primary care physicians decrease costs by coordinating care and providing preventive treatment.

If the government became our insurer, we could cover everyone at a lower cost and have better health outcomes. Thus, if Congress wants to replace Obamacare, it should develop a single-payer system, something that polls now show Americans increasingly support.

http://www.latimes.com…