Optum-izing Paul Ellwood’s HMOs.

Paul Ellwood and Richard Burke Mike Magee According to Paul Ellwood, often labeled “The Father of the HMO”, the seeds of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) were buried in a report that he delivered to the 34-year-old Assistant Secretary of Health, Phil Lee, in 1969. As Ellwood recalled in 2010, […]

Is Our American Culture Sick?

Mike Magee Yesterday, for the first time ever, a UK Prime Minister openly criticized an American President. But is the problem just Trump, or is it our American culture? Earlier last month, conservative columnist, David Brooks, in the New York Times, suggested as much when he wrote, “The first step in launching our own revival […]

U.S. Only Nation to Spend More on Health Care than on Social Spending.

Strikingly, this 2015 Commonwealth Survey of 13 OECD nations reveals that the U.S. is the only nation whose spending on health care exceeds its spending on social services (housing assistance, employment programs, disability benefits, and food security).High health spending in the US appears to have crowded out other forms of social spending that contribute to […]

Channeling New Jersey’s “Bridgegate” – The Muslim Ban “Shock Event” Undermines Safety and Security in America.

Heather Richardson, Boston College Mike Magee When Republicans waved through Tom Price this week, the AMA & AAMC got exactly what they desired. Business interests trumped their highest ideals. But as my father used to say, “Careful what you wish for.” In achieving their ethically compromised goal, they tied themselves to the Trump/ Bannon regime. […]

Note to AAMC: If You Oppose Anti-Immigrant Trump/Bannon, You Must Oppose Anti-Immigrant Tom Price

Mike Magee The AMA and AAMC two months ago offered a full throated endorsement of primo anti-immigrant Tom Price to lead HHS. But this weekend’s radical actions by Price’s potential boss, Donald Trump and his chief political adviser and National Security Council member, Stephen Bannon, apparently was a bridge to far. AAMC CEO went […]

AMA & AAMC Embrace of Anti-Immigrant Tom Price/Donald Trump May Be Costly.

Kaparaboyna Ashok Kumar, M.D. Mike Magee When the AMA and AAMC made the decision to announce their “strong support” for Tom Price to head HHS, they were fully aware of his support for armour piercing bullets, for not regulating tobacco as a drug, against mental health care parity, against SCHIP, for privatizing Medicare, against the […]

Islands of Common Stewardship – TLC/Dartmouth/ReThink Health UCRV/Schweitzer Fellowship/RCP

VIDEO Mike Magee A little over a year ago, I made a quick trip to Washington – one day, back and forth, from Hartford, CT. I was there to seek advice from an old friend, Fitzhugh Mullins, as we completed planning for the second decade of the Rocking Chair Project. This early childhood intervention program […]

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