CHANGE HEALTH TODAY

"Can I get a copy of my disability report?" This was from a veteran. My response: no, you can't. At some point – maybe after the public shaming by folks like Jon Stewart – the government decided to allow veterans who were underserved by the Veterans Administration (VA) to see providers in their local areas. The setup goes something like this: The VA gives a wad of cash to a private business that sets up a streamlined process to get records to private medical providers. The pr

This interview was posted on NPR's Morning Edition by Alison Kodjak. The push to obtain insurance is a red herring because insurance does not guarantee access to health care. So for the government to spend millions of dollar to market apps and run a Web page – well, it all seems incredibly wasteful. "[HHS] plans to use email, text messages, Facebook and online ads to convince the holdouts to get insurance." Doesn't this all seem a bit of a government overreach for an outcome

So I'm out spreading the word on P.S.Y.C.H. and getting great feedback. Most liberal-leaning folks I talk to are all for it but they get caught up in the what-if-someone's-poor-and-can't-afford-even-those-set-prices-for-healthcare question. My standard answer for the time being is that since healthcare will actually be affordable, everyone will be able to pay for it. But there's a larger philosophy that I want to touch on. Universal access to health care should not be generou

"But why make it state dependent if you're advocating for a single payor?" This question was submitted by a friend and accountant. A "citizen-owned" statewide nonprofit allows citizens in each state to set their health care goal. For instance, in Vermont, if the citizens there chose to pay more into their general health fund so that all preventative and all sick visits are covered, they could do so. As a Texan, with our ridiculously fierce independent streak, we would likely

"The costs of medications are so high. Who's going to pay for people to get their meds?" This question was posed to me by someone who currently works as a nurse in a psychiatric ER. One of the reasons medication and medical device costs are so high is because Big Pharma and Big Devices drive up the prices. We know from looking at other countries that the very same medications and technologies have huge markups here comparatively. Why is that? It's partly because we are requir

"Aren't you just making poor people pay more? And what about those folks who can't pay? How are you going to make them pay?" This was a question posed by a friend and nurse practitioner who I deeply respect. My answer is that you have to look at the plan in context. First, only people in Adult P.S.Y.C.H. would be paying, and that's only after the other components are in place (Pediatric P.S.Y.C.H., Bridging P.S.Y.C.H., and Geriatric P.S.Y.C.H). Therefore, if you have a poor p