If there was ever any dispute that the U.S. government has become the biggest and most reliable cash cow for America’s for-profit health insurers, UnitedHealth Group’s first-quarter 2022 earnings report put that dispute to rest. Over the past 10 years, United, America’s biggest health insurer, has seen its profits more than...
I’d like you to meet Jill Eicher and Ron Tanner, two people who inspired me to launch the Lower Out-of-Pockets NOW coalition. Launched last September, the coalition now comprises more than 50 organizations and businesses with a single mission: ending the uniquely American crisis of financially crippling out-of-pocket health...
In a move generally ignored by most media outlets, the Biden administration this week made the shareholders of a small number of for-profit health insurers much richer. As I’ve noted many times in recent years, insurers’ new cash cow is the federal government’s Medicare program, which has become increasingly privatized...
I’d like to introduce you to a couple of former colleagues of mine who played key roles in making sure you pay a lot out of your own pocket before your coverage kicks in. Meet David Cordani, CEO of Cigna, and Karen Lynch, CEO of CVS Health, which now owns...
Now that the Russian onslaught of Ukraine has escalated from incursion to all-out war, many pundits will be claiming “I told you so,” or “we saw this coming a mile away.” Perhaps some of these people had the clairvoyance or insight to be able to make these claims now,...
Where NICU nurse Donna Schmidt worked, the earsplitting shrill of alarm bells was only sometimes drowned out by the tears of patients sobbing for help. Since June 2020, Schmidt has been fighting on the frontlines of the pandemic, but her biggest battle started on August 26th—when New York State...
Just days after a Commonwealth Fund report showed that American families are sending health insurance companies more and more of their income every year even as their deductibles skyrocket, the country’s biggest insurer reported massive 2021 profits and told investors to expect even higher profits in 2022. UnitedHealth on Wednesday...
Many of you may have recently watched the film on Netflix titled “Don’t Look Up”. It was recommended to me a few weeks ago and I finally had a chance to take in the show last night. And, wow! What an interesting and timely theme for so many Hollywood A-listers...
In October 2021, the New York City Board of Health declared “racism” to be a public health crisis. Why? The statistics say that non-whites receive less treatment, worse treatment, and suffer from more disease than whites. The underlying causes are many; most having to do with discrimination and disinformation. ...
Contributed article from Dave Lindorff, Founding Editor of ThisCantBeHappening.net The US is about to move towards a far more likely first use of nuclear weapons, with word that the Air Force has “completed flight testing” of the cost-and-performance-plagued F35A Lightning fighter, all units of which are being “upgraded” to carry...
Still unvaccinated? There's an increasingly pressing reason – beyond the threat to the health of you and your loved ones – to get the shot against COVID-19: many health insurance companies are no longer waiving out-of-pocket costs for COVID treatment. A new study has found 5% of privately insured COVID-19...
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...
The $140 billion the New York Times says Americans owe in medical debt is just the tip of the iceberg. The number doesn’t even include the billions we are putting on our credit cards to pay for health care because of insurance deductibles we can’t...
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...
Congrats, America! Earlier this month you passed an annual milestone: Two days after Tax Day, you made it to... Deductible Relief Day! What's that? It’s the day where the average person with employer-based health insurance has spent enough on health expenses to finally meet their deductible.
By Brent Korson Leading off Tarbell’s “A Year Later” series, the 3-week timeline following the murder of George Floyd, “21 Days in May and June That Are Still Changing America: A Brief Timeline And Historic Firsts”, was written to function as a kind of time capsule. Even through...
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...