Although many may think today that we have always had employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) in this country, that is not the case. While some companies offered coverage in the 1930s, the basic concept gained momentum only after the start of World War II. The war effort required a rapid buildup...

Although many may think today that we have always had employer-sponsored health insurance (ESI) in this country, that is not the case. While some companies offered coverage in the 1930s, the basic concept gained momentum only after the start of World War II. The war effort required a rapid buildup...

As the Great Recession rolls on after three years, without signs of relief on the horizon, a growing army of many millions of Americans is finding it impossible to gain access to necessary health care that is affordable. Meanwhile, class warfare is gaining intensity with a widening gulf between the...

Under the theory of moral hazard, it is postulated that insured people overuse health care services and that patients themselves are a leading cause of health care inflation. If they would just have more "skin in the game" through enough cost-sharing (co-payments, deductibles and other restrictions), it is assumed that...

Up to the middle of the last century, most Americans could count on good access to generalist primary care physicians with the training and commitment to evaluate and treat their medical problems, whatever they might be. Those days are long gone. The ratio of generalist physicians to specialists in this...

With accelerating growth of medical technologies, specialization and sub-specialization since World War II, the U.S. now has 24 specialty boards and more than 135 certified subspecialties. As a result, a unified voice from the profession about how best to serve patients in a rational health care system has largely disappeared....

Amidst all the crises confronting our country today -- ranging from the deficit, rising unemployment and underemployment, mistrust of legislators and the government -- there is another major crisis: the continued deterioration of primary care that threatens to break up the very foundation of U.S. health care. Underreported and widely...

It was clear from the beginning of the health care "reform" charade that the insurance industry, the drug industry and other parts of the corporate medical industrial complex were working to assure that any legislation that passed would add to their financial bottom lines. They largely succeeded in this. The...

Disparities within the U. S. health care system result in serious impacts on access to care for patients with cancer at all stages from screening and prevention to treatment and survival. Access barriers further lead to disparities in the quality of care received. These concerns led the American Cancer Society...

Our last four posts have examined the PPACA from the perspectives of the four main goals of health care reform -- cost containment, affordability, improved access and quality of care. Here we draw these goals together in asking whether this legislation delivers enough to be worth the $1 trillion investment...

In our last three posts, we examined how the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) stacks up against the goals of reform for cost containment, affordability and access to care. Here we consider what its likely impact will be on the quality of care, the fourth major...

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA) is being touted by its proponents as moving the country to near-universal coverage and a great step ahead in U.S. health care. But what does this really mean? Are the many barriers to care almost a thing of the past?

The passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (PPACA), our new health care legislation, in March was hailed by its supporters as an historic event of the magnitude of Social Security and Medicare. But four months later, it remains controversial, with repeated polls showing three large...

The new House bill for health care reform (HR 3962), unveiled by Speaker Nancy Pelosi on October 29th, will not fundamentally reform U.S. health care.

If you were to believe the hype that accompanied its release, you might think that it would be as important as Medicare and Social Security....

Americans are dying at a faster rate -- 1 every 12 minutes, 5 an hour, 120 a day, 45,000 a year -- not from war or natural disaster, but from lack of health insurance.

That's the stunning finding of a study published today in the American Journal of Public...

Medicare has long been a flashpoint generating intense disagreement across party lines over the role of private markets versus that of government.

Republicans have fought against Medicare from the very beginning. They bitterly opposed it in various committees in both houses of Congress in 1964 -1965. But they relented,...

Having considered four of the major corporate stakeholders in our medical industrial complex -- the insurance, drug, and hospital industries as well as business -- it is now time to turn our attention to organized medicine. Since physicians order almost all services that are provided within our health care system,...

Faced with increasing political momentum toward some kind of health care reform, the hospital industry, together with other major stakeholders, wanted to retain a place at the negotiating table and protect its interests in whatever legislation resulted. Urgency increased after the drug and insurance industries offered up their pledges to...

In May, 2009, President Obama held a high-profile event in the White House, convening leaders from the health care industry to a meeting to discuss reform of the U. S. health care system. Participants included representatives from the insurance, drug, medical device, and hospital industries as well as business, labor...

We are told by supporters of health care reform bills in the Democrat-controlled Congress that they will save us money in the long run and contain skyrocketing health care costs. But the CBO has projected that the most comprehensive proposal yet, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009 (H.R.3200 in...