Summary: Private for-profit ownership of health care is undermining the health care mission, diverting care resources to shareholder bank accounts. Single payer financing is not enough
The McCanne Health Justice Monitor is produced by a team of health policy experts and single-payer champions. For more information, and a complete archive of entries, visit the HJM website. For an archive of Quote of the Day entries from Dr. Don McCanne, click here.
US Health Care Is Pretty Good … If You Own an Insurance Company
Summary: Jon Stewart nails it in a vivid one-minute video: Our government-funded health care benefits private for-profit corporations, especially insurers, at our expense.
America’s F*cked Up
Let’s Not Further Privatize Medicare
Summary: A new book by mainstream health economists and policymakers argues that we should expand and tinker with Medicare Advantage to save Medicare. But why double
How Tom Scully Scuppered Health Coverage
Summary: The man who as a federal policy official drove the privatization of Medicare then jumped to the private sector and profited massively from the changes.
The Avaricious Ascent of UnitedHealth Group
Summary: This summer The American Prospect ran 8 terrific health policy articles, which HJM covers starting today. First up: a blow-by-blow account of the rise of the enormous,
Missing Teeth – The Odd Isolation of Dental Insurance
Summary: Our favorite absurdity-revealing ophthalmologist comedian again sinks his teeth into our health insurance morass.
Glaucomflecken Explains: What’s So Special About Teeth?, video, 2 minutes, by Dr.
Older Adults Struggle with Medical Costs … while Private Insurers Profit
Summary: Reports from two leading foundations find that older adults – those insured privately and those in Medicare – face huge financial challenges to getting health
Extorting 5% for Electronic Payments to Providers
Summary: When CMS tried to enforce a 15-year-old rule that insurers cannot charge providers for electronic payments, a former CMS staffer working for a payment intermediary
Universal Free Insurance? Yes! Stripped Down? No!
Summary: The new book “We’ve Got You Covered” offers a laudable prescription for the US: universal free insurance for primary, specialty, and hospital care. However, its
Functioning Democracy: A Prerequisite for Single Payer
Comment:
By Jim Kahn, M.D., M.P.H.
On Tuesday, a Washington DC grand jury handed down four indictments of former President Donald J. Trump for his efforts to
Round-up, Pause for Reflection, & Makeover
Greetings HJM readers – I’m using a different format today.
#1 – Round-up. Plenty of recent news items exemplify the usual rocky functioning of US health care.
NY Times Tantalizingly Close On Health Care Financing Issues
Summary: This week, a profile of challenges facing the UK NHS and an op-ed proposing universal coverage in the US got so many issues right. But