I recently shared the link to an op-ed on social media explaining why, in the author's opinion, establishment of a single payer system in the U.S. is almost inevitable. In response, a fellow Tennessee family physician who is only a few years out of residency commented that...
This story was reported through a partnership between MapLight, The Intercept and Tarbell. Investor-owned hospitals are leading the fight against the creation of a comprehensive, universal health care system, according to corporate filings reviewed by MapLight. Tenet Healthcare, the nation’s third-largest investor-owned operator of hospitals, has donated nearly $630,000 to the...
Maybe – just maybe – Americans will get some relief from the relentlessly rising prices of pharmaceuticals. That of course depends on Congress pushing back against the drug companies’ formidable lobbying machine, their generous campaign contributions, and the industry’s historical coziness with members of Congress. But this year seems different. When...
The Democratic debates may make you think Americans are scared of "losing" private insurance. But candidates who Medicare For All are still going strong.
Now that it has settled into a monopoly over Central Appalachia’s health care, the Ballad Health system is stirring new controversy with a move intended to conserve money: consolidating intensive care facilities. Last year, they announced plans to merge their two Level 1 trauma facilities and their two neonatal...
You would think that making the prices charged by hospitals and doctors available to their patients would be a no-brainer. After all, we’ve become accustomed to knowing the price we pay for cars, carrots, comic books, and almost everything else we buy. Why not knee surgery or appendectomies? The medical...
Tarbell is highlighting the government fines and penalties businesses pay when they engage in fraudulent or criminal behavior. Often, these fines are just a small part of the firms’ annual revenue and don’t actually serve as a deterrent. To these companies, it’s just the cost of doing business. International company...
Last month, the New York Times ran a cautionary tale about the heart surgery and care astronaut Neil Armstrong received and his death two weeks later at a community hospital in a Cincinnati suburb in 2012. The Times had received documents from an anonymous tipster who said he/she was “compelled...
Is the beloved program on its last legs?
Hahnemann University Hospital in Philadelphia is slated to close in September, less than two years after a private equity firm bought it.
Harris's plan won't work and history will prove it.
At the recent Democratic debate, Lester Holt asked for a show of hands: Who would end the role of private insurance companies as part of health care reform? Four hands went up – Bernie Sanders, Bill de Blasio, Elizabeth Warren, and Kamala Harris. Other candidates argued for incremental expansions...
This story was originally published on Sludge on July 12, 2019 and republished with permission. At a Florida Democratic Party event for “grassroots activists, elected officials, and major donors” at the Walt Disney World Beach and Yacht Club Resort & Convention Center in early June, U.S. Rep. Donna Shalala...
A retired Tennessee physician and professor watches his state shred the medical safety net of his state. Just when I thought things couldn’t get much worse for the TennCare program, they did. (TennCare is Tennessee’s Medicaid managed care program.) First, Medicaid has not been expanded under the Affordable Care Act in...
Tarbell is highlighting the government fines and penalties businesses pay when they engage in fraudulent or criminal behavior. Often, these fines are just a small part of the firms’ annual revenue and don’t actually serve as a deterrent. To these companies, it’s just the cost of doing business. Some pharmaceutical...
When affording health care is already a burden for Americans in rural and underserved regions, making patients spend additional hours and gas money for basic and emergency health needs adds insult to injury. Yet this is exactly what Tennessee and Virginia lawmakers allowed to happen. In 2018, two rival health...
Frances Leath no longer works in management for pharmaceutical industry giant Eli Lilly and Company, but she keeps tabs on the company where she spent the first 15 years of her career. She still lives in Indianapolis, home of the company headquarters. She has watched as Lilly’s dramatic increases...
Is the U.S. ready for a discussion about paying for caregiving, an increasingly vexing and costly problem for a growing number of Americans? The answer may be “yes.” It has become obvious that long-term-care insurance is not the answer to paying for nursing homes and other kinds of care for...
Axelrod said that Medicare for All has “become a phrase as much as anything else.”
Even if investors are still unsure how the Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Celgene merger might pan out, one thing is certain: executives will get bigger salaries and the resulting Big Pharma company will likely get a surge of power. With investors’ initial hesitance pushed aside, Bristol-Myers Squibb investors approved...