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Empowerment Accounts Can Fix Restrictive HSAs – Commentary
By Robert Koshnick, M.D. In the early 1970s, Paul Ellwood, M.D., the “father of the HMO” convinced President Richard Nixon that physicians who owned their clinics were greedy entrepreneurs. Ellwood’s solution, to have corporations manage people’s health care expenditures, led to the HMO Act of 1973. Health maintenance organizations (HMOs) were given the right to…
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Study Points to Why Generic Drugs in the U.S. Are the Lowest in the World
The United States appears to have the most competitive market for generic drugs among high-income countries, according to a new study. Prices in eight high-income countries under study dropped by between 30 to 82 percent within eight years after going off patent, with the biggest price decline occurring in the United States (82 percent). U.S.…
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Employer Vaccination Mandates Under Scrutiny Post COVID-19
From presidential candidate Donald Trump’s promise to reinstate military members who were fired for not getting COVID-19 shots to a federal court decision favoring employee vaccination preferences, vaccine mandates at work appear to be coming to an end. The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Illinois ruled employees at Wisconsin health care system Aspirus, Inc.…
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How Government Can Improve Health: Stop Penalizing Marriage – Commentary
There are more than 61 million married couples in the United States. That is 122 million people, not including their children. A new study by the University of Toronto found marriage is especially good for older men’s health and is pretty good for women, too. Married women, and single women who have never married, age better than…
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Public Lost Trust in Doctors after COVID-19: Survey
Trust in doctors and hospitals decreased significantly following COVID-19, a new study has found. Trust in doctors and hospitals dropped by about 31 percentage points between April 2020 and January 2024, from 71.5 percent to 40.1 percent. The decrease was noted across all sociodemographic groups. Adults who were vaccinated or received COVID-19 boosters were more…
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Duke Health Fires ER Doctor Who Questioned Racism Pledge – Commentary
By Mike Markham Duke University Health System fired Dr. Kendall Conger, an emergency room physician in its Raleigh, North Carolina hospital, for questioning Duke’s 2021 “pledge” against racism in medicine. Conger stated his views in a May 2023 Martin Center article, “Duke Health’s Antiracist ‘Pledge’ is Not Guided by Science.” Conger, a respected member of…
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Obamacare Premiums Rise Again, No End in Sight
Some 324 Obamacare insurers across the 50 states and the District of Columbia are proposing a median premium increase of seven percent for 2024, according to an annual analysis by Peterson and KFF. Growth in health care prices, increased utilization, and the costs of diabetes and weight-loss drugs are among the reasons health insurance companies…
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Survey: Doctors Find Assisting Suicide ‘Rewarding’
A new survey indicates that 71 percent of U.S. physicians who perform physician-assisted suicide (PAS) find the practice “rewarding.” The survey published by Academic Medicine included 28 graduates of a residency program offering training in medical aid in dying (MAID). Of the twenty-one who responded, twelve were practicing MAID where it has been permitted. Seven…
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Hospitals Push Invasive Birth Control on Black Patients, TIME Reports
Physicians in Alabama are pushing intrauterine devices and arm implants for birth control on patients who are black, Latina, or low-income, TIME magazine reports. An article published in the magazine in May focused particularly on the experiences of black Medicaid recipients in Alabama who were encouraged to use long-acting, reversible contraceptives (LARCs)—either intrauterine devices (IUDs) inserted…
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Bloomberg’s ‘Free Medical School’ Renews Debate on Causes of Doctor Shortage
Billionaire businessman Michael Bloomberg’s $1 billion gift to Johns Hopkins Medical School in July has brought renewed attention to the doctor shortage in the United States and the role of clinical training programs for medical school graduates. “In the wake of the pandemic, Congress passed legislation funding 1,000 new graduate medical education (GME) residencies, but…
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