CHANGE HEALTH TODAY

To what depths will our insanity go? Michael Tomsic's article was well written and sad. Very sad. http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/04/20/474413496/some-firms-save-money-by-offering-employees-free-surgery Take a step back and ask yourself: why should a business executive have a say in your healthcare? I'm not sure who Bob Ihrie is but I'll guess he's a delightful and hardworking guy since he's worked his way up to senior vice president. But is he the best per

This is an article written by Julie Appleby on NPR. In the world of health insurance companies, there are lots of ways to ensnare providers while squeezing every bit of profit out of consumers as possible. The whole idea of "HMO" and "PPO" falls right in line with this. Interestingly enough, now that people are "forced" to buy insurance, and the government tells the insurance companies that they cannot deny enrolling everyone that asks due to preexisting conditions, the insur

"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

This article was written by NPR's Michelle Andrews last week. Imagine that you were required to be in a room full of doughnuts displayed on various stations. Imagine that each station was sponsored by a well-known doughnut maker – Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' Donuts, Shipley (the best!), etc. Imagine that before pushing you into that room full of doughnuts, you were given a nice app on your phone to sift through the different stations and doughnuts to find the one you liked. You cou

This article was posted by Joanne Silberner on NPR today. Finally, someone presents a story of what really happens in the mental health field on a daily basis. The Henry Ford Health System's suicide prevention program is a lofty goal, and I'm super excited that they are sticking to meeting that goal. After all, trying is not failure. The psychiatrist in the story, Dr. Doree Ann Espiritu, did a fantastic job of just stating what we know, how we practice medicine in less than i

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

"If I think everything should be fair and that I should be able to access care with the money I've already put into taxes, why can't we just convert everyone to health savings accounts?" This common-sense question was asked by a close friend (and conservative). Firstly, compassion. Humans, especially Americans, recognize that there are times when you're not feeling well or not doing well that allow you to be excused from normal expectations. For instance, the idea of a "sick