Author Archives: BLW

Medicare for All and the Elimination of Private Insurance

An Iowan’s Plea for Honesty to Democratic Presidential Candidates

I last wrote to you regarding health care in Cuba after a cruise there earlier this year. Interestingly, that cruise has now been banned by our president. Now, six years to the month since I started this blog regarding health-care reform in Iowa, we have 24 Democratic presidential candidates crisscrossing the state and most of them on a national debate stage raising their hands regarding whether the country should eliminate private insurance in lieu of a Medicare for All proposal.

Continue reading →

Health Reform: 2019 and Representative Cindy Axne

As my Health Reform blog returns in a new format, I wish to comment on two more significant startups — a new year and a new 3rd District congresswoman from Iowa. In relationship to health reform, by which I mean improving health-care coverage for Americans and especially Iowans, I think these new developments have meaning.

In Iowa, a new year will start with health costs continuing to go up, the individual insurance market pricing people out of the ability to have health insurance, a state-legislated health-association insurance plan that legally allows for the discrimination of individuals with pre-existing conditions (further perverting the individual insurance market), and a besieged Medicaid for-profit managed-care scheme that will continue to reward these companies’ shareholders at the expense of Iowa patients.

Continue reading →

Health Reform and Incremental Primary Care through the Eyes and Experience of Atul Gawande, MD

Wading through the onslaught of presidential executive orders in search of a future of health reform in our country, I became weary and disheartened. Then, two people reached out to me regarding a feature article in the January 23, 2017, issue of The New Yorker by Atul Gawande, a surgeon, public-health researcher, and staff writer for The New Yorker. The article is titled The Heroism of Incremental Care. Dr. Gawande is the premier medical thinker and writer of our time. He has produced an excellent summary of my thoughts regarding Primary Care — both in theory and in how I seek to practice. A sincere thanks to Chris, my friend from Connecticut, and David, a patient and reader of my blog, for this remarkable find. I will defer this blog with the recommendation to read Dr. Gawande’s article, which is linked below with sincere appreciation and credit to The New Yorker.

 

The Heroism of Incremental Care, by Atul Gawande, as published in The New Yorker.

Next month I will return refreshed and invigorated and attempt humbly to carry out the spirit of Atul Gawande and his insightful article in the context of health reform.