Policy

Single-payer health care vs. market-based solutions: an economic reality check

Policy

February 19, 2026

Single-payer health care is generally defended with “heart-wrenching” virtue signaling divorced from any cost, economic, or financial reality. The idea that any scarce service or commodity is a right and therefore should be free is fanciful, but impossible. With an indebtedness of $38 trillion and growing, adding greater than $40 trillion as estimated for the cost of “Medicare for All” would absolutely drive the country into insolvency. Even without single-payer, …

Value-based care data gap: Why metrics fail to reach the bedside

Ido Zamberg, MD

Policy

February 17, 2026

Value-based care represents one of health care’s most important transformations, driving hospitals and health systems to focus on outcomes that truly matter. To succeed in this model, organizations must track and improve their performance metrics continuously, making data health care’s most valuable currency. It is the foundation for improving patient care, reducing complications, and optimizing resource allocation. Yet despite the growing volume of performance metrics being collected, a critical gap …

Flexible health care funding: Moving beyond disease eradication

Selena Kattick

Policy

February 14, 2026

The moment the text message lit up my watch, I knew my life had irrevocably changed. I looked down at the miniature screen and found that I could not look away from the gray bubble and the three words that shattered my world: My aunt had passed away. An all-consuming grief overtook me as I processed a reality where my aunt’s boisterous laugh no longer echoed off the walls, along …

Immigration policy and child health: a medical student’s perspective

Adam Zbib

Policy

February 13, 2026

“Do no harm.” Upon entering medical school, my classmates and I uttered these words with pride and joy, unaware of the deeper meaning behind them. While it may sound cliché, many of us choose to become doctors because we have a strong desire to help others in some capacity. The esteemed title M.D. fortunately allows us to wear many different hats in serving our communities. Medical doctors have expanded their …

Executive order on homelessness: Why forced treatment fails

Gary McMurtrie

Policy

February 12, 2026

In his recent executive order, Ending Crime and Disorder on America’s Streets, President Trump directed federal agencies to utilize forced institutionalization of unhoused individuals under the guise of public safety, lambasting evidence-based harm reduction programs in the process. Unhoused people are framed as threats by Trump, engaging in open-air drug use and vagrancy. In response, the National Homelessness Law Center condemned this executive order and projected even worse outcomes due …

Immigrant caregiver burden: the hidden cost of the five-year Medicaid wait

Ranjita Suresh

Policy

February 12, 2026

Every night I spend at home, I wake up to the sound of Für Elise by Ludwig van Beethoven. If you asked my dad, who works remotely, he would grimace and tell you he hears it at least 10 times a day. It’s a classic piano piece, don’t get me wrong, but we don’t have a piano, nor are we a family of Beethoven fanatics. My dad probably loved Beethoven …

Employer-sponsored DPC: Why private equity is winning the infrastructure race

Dana Y. Lujan, MBA

Policy

February 11, 2026

More than a month after HSA-eligible direct primary care became available, independent practices remain unprepared for the operational complexity employer contracts require. The DPC community celebrated regulatory victory. Private equity prepared infrastructure.

That preparation became visible throughout 2025. Frontier Direct Care announced a $20 million Series B to expand its employer-sponsored DPC platform. Marathon Health, formed from the 2024 Everside merger, operates …

Why Filipino nurses faced higher COVID-19 mortality rates

Joaquim Diego Santos

Policy

February 10, 2026

I was always taught to show respect to older relatives through the mano po gesture. If I were meeting a new family member, I would say “Ang pangalan ko Joaquim” to introduce myself. However, since immigrating to the United States from the Philippines, there are fewer and fewer people who call me by my actual name.

My family immigrated to the United States in 2002 after my mother accepted an opportunity …

The health insurance crisis 2026: What Kentuckians need to know

Susan G. Bornstein, MD, MPH

Policy

February 8, 2026

The health insurance crisis has finally entered the public consciousness. 200,000 to 350,000 Kentuckians are expected to lose their coverage as a result of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Commercial insurance carriers have already substantially increased premiums in response to market uncertainty.

Meanwhile, Congress failed to act before the end of the year to extend the expiring enhanced premium tax credits that help millions of Americans afford health insurance …

Health insurance waste: Why eliminating the middleman saves billions

Edward Anselm, MD

Policy

February 4, 2026

Health insurers have failed in their promise to deliver quality and value to the taxpayers, providers, employers, and their subscribers.

If you find a wasteful government program, isn’t there an obligation to foster a public discussion about it? Physicians for a National Health Plan (PNHP) has developed an analysis that reveals the waste in allowing private health plans to manage Medicaid medical services. According to PNHP, returning management of medical services …

Why AAP funding cuts threaten the future of pediatric health care

Umayr R. Shaikh, MPH

Policy

February 2, 2026

During my pediatrics rotation in my third year of medical school, the most important skill I learned was how to listen more carefully.

Children rarely have the language or power to fully articulate their needs. They are forced to rely on adults, systems, and institutions to advocate on their behalf. In pediatrics, that responsibility is not an abstract idea. It shows up in exam rooms where parents must choose to pay …

Why private equity is betting on employer DPC over retail

Dana Y. Lujan, MBA

Policy

January 29, 2026

Elevance Health recently reported that it expects to lose more than 180,000 fully insured group plan enrollees in 2026, with its CFO describing the strategy as “prioritizing disciplined pricing and margin integrity over volume.” UnitedHealth has made similar statements. Both are effectively walking away from the fully insured employer market, where administrative complexity no longer justifies the economics.

At the same time, private equity is pouring capital into …

Why PBM transparency rules aren’t enough to lower drug prices

Armin Pazooki

Policy

January 28, 2026

House lawmakers recently passed a health care bill that grabbed headlines for what it excluded: a solution to the looming expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act tax credits. But largely overlooked inside the bill was a provision that did make it through, a long-requested provision toward creating stronger federal legislation directly targeting pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), the middlemen who increasingly determine what Americans pay for their medications. These rules …

Emergency department metrics vs. reality: Why the numbers lie

Marilyn McCullum, RN

Policy

January 27, 2026

The emergency department didn’t suddenly get worse.

The numbers did.

Every shift, emergency clinicians are measured by dashboards that insist on telling a familiar story: Door-to-provider times are too long, length of stay is unacceptable, left-without-being-seen rates are creeping up. The implication is clear. We’re slow. We’re inefficient. We’re failing.

But those numbers are no longer describing clinical performance. They’re describing system saturation.

Emergency departments today operate in conditions that were once considered temporary …

Black women’s health resilience: the hidden cost of “pushing through”

Latesha K. Harris, PhD, RN

Policy

January 20, 2026

As a nurse, I have been with patients during their first breath and their last. While with grieving families, one statement that stays with me is, “At least now she/he can rest.”

This statement almost always comes from a grieving Black family who lost a family member to a premature death of a preventable or manageable disease. Why must we wait until we are six feet under to rest?

As a Black …

FDA loosens AI oversight: What clinicians need to know about the 2026 guidance

Arthur Lazarus, MD, MBA

Policy

January 18, 2026

On January 6, 2026, the FDA announced revised guidance that loosens oversight for certain AI-enabled digital health products, most notably clinical decision support (CDS) software. The goal was to cut unnecessary regulation and promote innovation, accelerating time-to-market for tools positioned as clinical assistants rather than autonomous decision-makers.

At first glance, the change looks pragmatic, even overdue. For years, developers and clinicians alike have complained that prior FDA interpretations forced artificial …

Why the U.S. health care system is failing patients and physicians

John C. Hagan III, MD

Policy

January 18, 2026

United States (U.S.) health care, once a citadel of innovation and quality, has sadly devolved into a complex, frustrating, and frequently inaccessible system. It is so disorganized and inefficient it might not even meet the definition of a “system.” U.S. health care fails to address the needs and expectations of patients on many occasions and in many ways. For most of my career, I have considered U.S. health care the …

Putting health back into insurance: the case for tobacco cessation

Edward Anselm, MD

Policy

January 17, 2026

As major public health agencies such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), and state health departments face reductions in scope and resources, a unique opportunity arises for health insurers to take a leading role in improving public health, while also enhancing their own reputations and financial sustainability.

Consider tobacco use, the leading cause of preventable death in the United States, …

Retail health care vs. employer DPC: Preparing for 2026 policy shifts

Dana Y. Lujan, MBA

Policy

January 16, 2026

Recent federal policy discussions have introduced a framework that would place health care affordability dollars into individual-controlled accounts rather than routing them through insurers or employer benefit plans. Still at the framework stage and requiring legislative action, the architecture being explored signals a potential shift in how health care purchasing power flows through the system.

Whether or not this specific framework advances, the direction of travel is clear. Health care …

Ecovillages and organic agriculture: a scenario for global climate restoration

David K. Cundiff, MD

Policy

January 10, 2026

Eight years ago, motivated by concern for my six grandchildren and future generations, I began a systematic study of climate change through the assessment reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). That work led me to focus on a central omission in mainstream climate modeling: The failure to model global conversion to exclusively organic agriculture.

In 2024, the preprint journal SSRN published my scenario to reduce net projected greenhouse …