Q: Why isn't single payer an option?
"Why isn't single payer an option?" This question was posted in a forum I perused after reading The New York Times article from my previous post. Single payer doesn't work because it makes the fundamental assumption that a third party – be it government, private company, neighbor down the street – knows the best medical option for a patient. In other words, when you have a patient (A) and a provider (B), the single-payer system says that rando (C) gets to make a health care d
Review: "Even Insured Often Face Crushing Medical Debt, Study Finds" – The New York Times
This article, written by Margot Sanger-Katz and posted on The New York Times website, shares an unfortunately common story: person gets an illness they likely had no control over getting, and because they weren't rich enough or lucky enough, eventually loses everything. Even people with health insurance are subject to rule changes and unreasonable expectations that insurance companies create, and then change, at their whim. This motif repeats itself again and again, across Am
Q: So how are you different from all the other universal health care movements?
"So how are you different from all the other universal health care movements?" This was the question posed by my colleague and friend as we researched the dozens of companies and groups who have proposed health care reform plans. Here's a list of how P.S.Y.C.H. is different: 1. Nationwide reach I fully believe that even if a state managed to pull off a universal access system, it would ultimately fail because it's surrounded by states without it. America has this interesting
Review: "Obamacare Deploys New Apps, Allies to Persuade the Uninsured" – NPR
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
Review: "A New Attack on Health Care Reform" – The New York Times
Within all the rigmarole of the Affordable Care Act, with it's thousand different plans and thousand different requirements and thousand different micro-incentives, I totally forgot that there are nonprofit and co-op insurance plans/enclaves out there. In this article from The New York Times, the Editorial Board criticizes Republicans for being overly-critical of the failure of those unique plans and says they were bound to fail since Republicans did everything in their power
Q: What about ChoosingWisely.org? Won't that decrease costs?
"What about ChoosingWisely.org? Won't that decrease costs?" This question was posed by an informed commentor on a health website I frequent. I think the Choosing Wisely campaign is pretty genius. It provides clinicians with helpful guidelines on how to manage the almost infinite amount of medical knowledge that is out there. It suggests ideas on how to order labs, scans, referrals, etc. Best of all, their intentions seem pretty pure. My issue with the campaign, however, is th
Q: Aren't you just shifting costs to the poor?
"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