Public Health & Policy

Health insurance waste: Why eliminating the middleman saves billions

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 …

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Why AAP funding cuts threaten the future of pediatric health care

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 …

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

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 …

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Medicare cuts are destroying independent rural medical practices [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 24, 2026
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Saravanan Kasthuri, medical director at Northwest Endovascular Surgery, and Jason McKitrick, executive director at the Office Based Facility Association, discuss their article “Medicare payment is failing rural health.” Saravanan and Jason analyze …

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Racial mistaken identity in medicine: a pervasive issue in health care

Physician
January 24, 2026

President Trump recently made national headlines by calling a female reporter “Piggy,” an act widely decried as outrageous, even for a man who doesn’t shy away from misogyny. It’s one thing to intentionally refer to someone with a derogatory, dismissive label. This kind of behavior should appropriately be met with indignation and moral outrage. But what happens when we carelessly (and repeatedly) call someone a name that belongs to …

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Why health advocacy needs foresight and backcasting tools

Physician
January 21, 2026

At some point in their careers, health practitioners find themselves preoccupied with issues that go beyond the confines of the clinical room. Beyond diagnoses and prescriptions lies a larger health care landscape, one shaped by policy, economics, culture, technology, and power. Health professionals then begin to ask how this broader system affects not only their individual patients, but also communities and society at large. It is often at this intersection …

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

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 …

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Medical misinformation: a fracture in public trust and health outcomes

Education
January 19, 2026

When a correlation between acetaminophen and autism was claimed on the national stage recently, it did more than produce a headline; it signaled a fracture in public trust. Oftentimes dismissed simply as fringe rhetoric, medical misinformation is anything but, having lasting impact on public health outcomes. The same way the U.S. health care system suffers from a paradox between high spending and substandard outcomes, our information ecosystem suffers from high …

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Silence is a survival mechanism that costs women their joy [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 18, 2026
YouTube video

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Obstetrician-gynecologist Priya Panneerselvam discusses their article “How medicine reflects women’s silence.” Priya discusses how the quiet deference observed in their mother’s generation continues to manifest in patients who apologize for their pain …

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

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 …

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Putting health back into insurance: the case for tobacco cessation

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, …

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Regulatory red tape threatens survival of rare disease patients [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 10, 2026
YouTube video

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Medical oncologist, geriatrician, and physician scientist GJ van Londen and Chief of Genetic and Genomic Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Gerald Vockley discuss the article “FDA delays could …

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Ecovillages and organic agriculture: a scenario for global climate restoration

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 …

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How environmental justice and health disparities connect to climate change

Policy
January 10, 2026

Environmental justice, health disparities, and climate change are deeply interconnected, with climate change acting as a threat multiplier that exacerbates existing health inequities, particularly among marginalized and underserved communities. Environmental justice refers to equitable and meaningful involvement in environmental policies, regardless of income, race, etc. Historically marginalized communities of color, the low-income population, and indigenous people are disproportionately exposed to ongoing as well as historical environmental policies. Health disparities arise …

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Sustainable legislative reform outweighs temporary discount programs [PODCAST]

Podcast
January 9, 2026
YouTube video

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President and chief executive officer of the National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) Leah M. Howard discusses her article “Pharmacy benefit manager reform vs. direct drug plans.” Leah analyzes the recent emergence of direct-purchase …

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Mobile dentistry: a structural redesign for public health

Policy
January 8, 2026

Canada prides itself on having a strong public health system, yet we continue to treat oral health as optional. Dental disease occupies a peculiar niche in health care: scientifically essential, yet structurally marginalized. We know that chronic gum inflammation is linked to heart disease, stroke, diabetes complications, and even adverse pregnancy outcomes. Yet it remains largely detached from how we think about preventing chronic illness.

This disconnect isn’t caused by a …

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Accountable care cooperatives: a 2026 vision for U.S. health care

Policy
January 7, 2026

As of January 1, 2026, the American health care system is in crisis. People can no longer afford their health insurance premiums or even to afford to pay for any health insurance. Recently, a 62-year-old self-employed friend of mine saw his premiums increased tenfold in a single cycle. I am lucky that I am over 65 and have Medicare insurance as well as a pension from my employment. Millions of …

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The real cost of U.S. health care dissatisfaction

Physician
January 6, 2026

There is a general undercurrent of dissatisfaction with health care in America that is, shall we say, palpable. Many studies and statistical analyses support this notion but I think a broader view is both valuable and less abstract than a data set. We could go measure the angle of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and evaluate the foundational errors, but it doesn’t take that level of granularity to see that …

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Student loan cuts for health professionals

Policy
December 30, 2025

I want to make something clear from the very beginning, because this point often gets lost when taking this perspective on this topic.

Nurses, physician assistants, occupational therapists, physical therapists, medical assistants, and every allied-health professional are indispensable to our health care system. They are professionals whose expertise saves lives, keeps clinics running, and provides the continuity of care that physicians alone cannot sustain. Their work is rigorous, their training is …

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Why lab monkey escapes demand transparency

Policy
December 30, 2025

A laboratory transport truck crashed in Mississippi last month resulting in eight monkeys escaping, seven of whom were shot and killed after surviving the initial crash. Tragedies like this happen too often. Over the past two decades, there have been more than 15 publicly reported lab monkey escapes, both during transportation and directly from labs, including from the California, Southwest, and Oregon National Primate Research …

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