Medicine and Social Justice

"Sick. Help. That’s it!” “John Q,” played by Denzel Washington, whose son needs a heart transplant which the insurance company has denied coverage for   There are still people in he...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2024/04/its-all-corporate-now-why-do-we-stand.html

A recent article in the Washington Post, “Women are getting off birth control amid misinformation explosion” (March 21, 2024), by Lauren Weber and Sabrina Malhi, discusses a recent explosion...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2024/03/pregnancy-contraception-and.html

PBMs. What are they? Pharmacy benefit managers. Oh, thanks. That clears up a lot! Well, they are big and important in the health care industry, which should give you a clue: they are somewhere ...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2024/03/pbms-pharmacies-and-insurance-companies.html

Usually, when I write a blog post, I start with something that has happened or is happening, try to develop it and point out the relationships between it and other things that are happening. Towa...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2024/03/health-care-corporations-are-evil-most.html

In ‘Staggering Rise in Catheter Bills Suggests Medicare Scam ’, Feb 9, 2024, the NY Times suggests that up to 20% of federal spending on medical supplies may be from 7 “high-volume” suppl...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2024/02/medicare-scams-whole-us-health-care.html

The January 22 edition of the Arizona Star (Tucson) reprinted a piece from the Arizona Republic (Phoenix) titled “'I've never seen it this busy': Here's why Arizona emergency departments are ja...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2024/01/er-backups-and-poor-quality-but.html

People like guns. People hate guns. People are scared of guns. Guns are good for sport, like hunting animals. Guns are good for war. Guns are good for self-protection, in case “they�...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2024/01/guns-good-depends-on-what-you-believe.html

I recently re-read this blog post from 2-1/2 years ago, and decided that it was still important as well as relevant and accurate. So, in a "first" I am reposting it, since some folks may have mis...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/12/we-need-more-primary-care-to-serve-our.html

If the government were considering ways of making small businesses function more effectively to meet the needs of their customers and make a reasonable living for their owners, they would conside...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-insurance-company-mafia-and.html

During the COVID pandemic, a great deal of scientific and medical literature was published on line without going through the normal peer-review process. The justification was that things were hap...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/11/running-and-depression-be-careful-about.html

In his recent piece, ‘An Appropriate Anger’ on his Substack “The Reframe” , writer AR Moxon states that “All people have an intrinsic and indestructible worth that cannot be measured”...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/11/people-are-more-important-than-profit.html

I recently met someone who had seen a couple of my blog posts, was interested in public health, and asked a few interesting questions. My answers – or, really, comments – were things I have s...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/10/solipsism-self-centered-syllogism-and.html

 I -- and many others -- have written (frequently and recently) about the abuses of for-profit companies, and especially private equity companies, and “non-profits” that act like for-profits...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/09/primary-care-private-equity-and-profit.html

Many sources of news have provided information that should be shocking on the abuses of the US “healthcare” industry. They include newspapers like the New York Times, Washington Post and the ...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/09/the-problems-with-our-us-healthcare.html

Are health insurance companies the real enemy of Americans’ health? A strong argument can, and has been, made by myself and others that they are. More broadly, however, the enemy is all the com...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/08/older-adults-cannot-afford-healthcare.html

My friend, Dr. Don Frey, recently published America’s DWP Crisis: Dying While Pregnant (DWP) on his blog, “A Family Doctor Looks at the World”. It leads with shocking and distressing stati...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/08/us-maternal-mortality-rate-exemplifies.html

In an excellent “Guest Essay” in the New York Times (July 18, 2023) Linan Eirav and Amy Finkelstein ask a very important question: ‘We’re Already Paying for Universal Health Care. Why Don...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/07/why-are-we-paying-wealthy-corporations.html

I have often written about the particular burdens that people with no health insurance have accessing adequate healthcare. However, these problems affect Americans with health insurance as well. ...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/07/consumer-experiences-with-health.html

In the last few years a fair amount has been published, especially in the medical media, about physician burnout. This term includes everything from frustration, to saying they would not encourag...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/06/doctors-patients-corporatization-and.html

I recently started reading Ricardo Nuila’s book “The People’s Hospital”, about Ben Taub, the largest public hospital in Houston. This will not be a book review (which can be found in many...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/06/we-dont-need-billionaires-we-need.html

The article in the NY Times (June 1, 2023) titled “This Nonprofit Health System Cuts Off Patients With Medical Deb t” carries the subhead “Doctors at the Allina Health System, a wealthy non...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/06/outrageous-behavior-by-hospitals-harms.html

When recently scheduling a procedure with a physician, he just shook his head and told me how lucky I was to have retired, and how difficult the practice of medicine is now. Before the outpatient...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/05/private-equity-private-profit-medicare.html

  I have written before about the cost of drugs, and I recently was asked to give (and gave) a talk on the topic to a group of neurologists subspecializing in neuromuscular diseases (such as A...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/04/why-do-drugs-cost-so-much-and-what-can.html

On March 15, 2009, in “Bargaining down the medical bills” , I told the story of my hernia surgery – outpatient, in at 7 am, home by noon – and the $10,000 hospital (not doctor) charge. ...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/03/fantastic-fantastical-hospital-charges.html

In the February 16, 2023 issue of The Nation, epidemiologist Gregg Gonsalves writes about The Fight for the Soul of American Medicine . It is a particularly good and thorough review of the corrup...

https://medicinesocialjustice.blogspot.com/2023/03/making-people-healthy-or-making-money.html