Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

How health insurers profit by hoarding your data

A comprehensive All-Payer Claims Databases would help the health care system become more effective and efficient. The Department of Labor could do something about that, but hasn’t. Merrill at GoozNews is depicting why providers and software vendors closely guard patient information, maintaining exclusivity so as patients have to rely on them. Insurance companies follow suit […]

Number One of the top ten profiteers and dysfunctional in healthcare

Good commentary by Merrill Goozner. I subscribe to his site. He, I and others have gotten together and talked. Today? Merrill calls attention to the Lown Institute which publishes a list of the top ten baddies of profiteering and dysfunction in healthcare. Martin Shkreli made number one for 2023. I did ask if I can […]

You can move the people to a better environment, or you can move the polluting facilities

I had read the JAMA Network version of this report although I could not get into the Full Text version. You can find a more open version by using a New in Private Window. Cliff notes . . . the polluting company paid for moving the people. In which, the health of the people, the […]

Wall Street, venture capital drive high drug prices

And undermine public health in the process I ran across Merrill and his words at the Washington Monthly magazine. He is another person writing on Healthcare and its issues. This particular article is on the mark in terms of what is occurring in pharmaceutical healthcare today. Kip, Merrill, and I are all hitting similar notes […]

Private Equity and Hospital Acquisitions

This is another extension of what happens when private equity gets involved in business. Hospitals are more important as it has an impact on the neighborhoods around them. If one dies, the local neighborhood is stranded. Good article on just that topic. Private Equity and Its Hospitals, Washington Monthly, Merrill Goozner “Safety net hospitals” serve […]