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Health insurance industry executives knew from the beginning that their strategy of moving as many Americans as possible into high-deductible health plans would lead to financial ruin and even early death for millions. But they didn’t care. They cared more about implementing a strategy that gave them greater assurance...

Tarbell was founded on the premise that healthcare was too expensive and inaccessible for millions of Americans. This underserved population needed an advocate to advance the notion of affordable and quality healthcare for all citizens. The nature of this mission obviously lends itself to those individuals, organizations and political...

By Kimberly J. Soenen    Recent and ongoing world events demand attention, thought and a critical reTHINK about health, healthcare and Public Health. There is a common denominator between what's unfolding in Afghanistan, the ongoing mass shootings in Chicago, the lack of infrastructure in Haiti, the...

When you want to know if the US government, or the political party in charge, is pulling a fast one on the public, look at the name they give a new program or law. The USA PATRIOT Act is a classic example. An acronym for Uniting and...

This article appeared originally in Salon magazine. During the four years of the Trump administration, resistance and even revolutionary talk were in the air as organizations with names like The Resistance and Our Revolution brought together liberals, Democrats of all stripes and Sandernistas, all...

In last week’s speech by President Biden, something stood out to me that was overlooked by many pundits: the president spoke of the NEED to fix sky-high health insurance deductibles immediately. It's not the sexiest topic, but here's why it matters. Many think that...

The only reason you’re reading this essay by me is because of a man named Stan Brock,  – whose work inspired me to leave my old job as an insurance executive. Few people in my life have been as consequential as Stan. And he’s been even more...

As a former health insurance exec who quit the business, let me tell you: No one will be more excited about the new COVID-19 package than my old friends in the corporate insurance industry.  It would funnel $48 billion of taxpayer money to them,...

The Chamber of Commerce brand is synonymous with small town pride and locally-owned businesses, but a new report reveals that these business organizations are really working for the corporate health insurance industry. The report from the Campaign for New York Health and the New...

We know that our healthcare system is broken. We need transformative solutions to fix and repair this system, but right now, we need Congress to take immediate action while millions of Americans are left with zero coverage in the middle of a global health crisis. In...

As of January 1 of this year, under the UN Charter, nuclear weapons have been declared illegal — both their possession and their use, putting them in the same status as chemical and biological weapons, but because none of the 86 signatory nations have nukes, and because...

I applaud the Biden team and the Equity Research & Innovation Center (ERIC) at Yale for focusing on equity in the vaccine rollout and working to address what this pandemic has been a harsh reminder of: Too many Americans of color face vast inequality in our health...

As millions of Americans celebrated President Biden’s inauguration, some of my former colleagues in the health insurance industry were quietly celebrating some news of their own: their most profitable year ever.  That’s right: insurance companies made a fortune during a pandemic. 

There’s been a lot of talk this week about big corporations such as Amazon, Verizon and Comcast deciding to stop giving money to House and Senate Republicans who voted to overturn last year’s election.  Guess which giants aren't on that list? America's big for-profit health insurers. 

By Brent Korson As we saw on January 6th, even though the 2020 election has ended, the U.S. remains strapped in for its four-years-long-and-counting rollercoaster ride. One of the defining features of this unending breaking news blitzkrieg has been the inherent inability to pause and substantively reflect on...

At approximately 1 pm Eastern Time today, the 6th of January 2021, protesters in Washington D.C. who had gathered at the behest of President Donald Trump to bemoan the results of our recent Presidential election, breeched the security barriers outside of the US Capitol and made their way...

This is part two of a two-part series exploring racism as a public health crisis in Appalachia and its compounding due to COVID-19. Read part one here.  As COVID-19 bore down on his community, Thomas Beavers recognized that primary among...

Shortly after midnight on Sept. 29, Felisha Walter assumed an identity very much at odds with the fullness of her life: statistic.  Walter was a devoted mother, a chef and caterer; gracious, giving and forgiving; spiritual and kind. And when she passed away, just...

By Brent Korson   For four years, there’s been no serious question about how Donald Trump would react if he lost the 2020 election. Over the 1400 days since his presidency began, every anti-democracy act, anti-factual tweet and anti-reality statement has accumulated into an ironclad case for how his...

By Brent Korson   If ever there were a time for journalists, news outlets and the media at large to not parse words, this is it. Election Day has finally arrived and the gravity and urgency of the situation seems to have fully landed across the media landscape, as...