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, […]

Will the Health Care Bubble Burst in 2019?

source Mike Magee In the dead heat of the summer of 2018, we’re experiencing an epic “non-real fight” over “non-real work” with potential real consequences in 2019. The initial battle lines were drawn some months back when Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon recognized a unique opportunity to dip into the wasteful troughs of […]

Being a U.S. Health Insurer Means Never Having To Say You’re Sorry.

UnitedHealth Group CEO Mike Magee It has been roughly a month since Americans witnessed that “the health care emperor had no clothes”. For seven long years, the Republican leadership waged an unending and relentless battle to collapse the Affordable Care Act, insisting that Americans in large majorities hated it and that it had to go. […]

Slaying The “Death Panel” Bull: Taking Control of Your End-of-Life Decisions

Mike Magee This Saturday, April 16, 2011 is National Healthcare Decisions Day – a day set aside to encourage families throughout America to discuss with each other how much care and what kind of care they would like as they approach the end of their lives.(1) Why advanced planning? Because there is a good chance […]