tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1509187841033628660.post8136067670387931666..comments2024-03-28T15:36:18.707-07:00Comments on Medicine and Social Justice: TikTok, NyQuil, vaccines, the frontal cortex, and making wise decisions: something we all need to do betterJosh Freemanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10248920527894775520noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1509187841033628660.post-61669300479420144292022-11-05T05:16:15.078-07:002022-11-05T05:16:15.078-07:00As a professor of comparative health policy, I thi...As a professor of comparative health policy, I think your blog post is excellent and very helpful to readers. What I wanted to add, based on a few months of looking into the debate among PNHP Metro leaders about whether it is on the brink of majorities in both houses in Albany ready to pass a single-payer design for New York, or whether this seeming bi-partisan support is largely mythic, I concluded it’s probably more mythic than real, because the powerhouse lobbies of hospital and physician organizations will fiercely oppose any bill that would cut back on the high revenues and incomes they enjoy under the current, inequitable, racist insurance arrangements. And commercial insurers, another huge, powerful lobby, would also block, sideline, or distort any “single-payer” bill. <br /> <br />What, then, could PNHP, as an organization to which 99% of all physicians do not belong (why not?) do to be more effective in advocating for universal access to quality health care? One thought is to focus on employers as a major power block that advocate for selective, commercial health insurance but who have really suffered from supporting it. Muster the facts about their self-harming actions and convert them. They pay for most of the medical bills, and they hire the insurance companies, a second power block that vigorously supports the current, inequitable, racist insurance arrangements. Employers in every other capitalist country support universe health insurance. Although they have long thought they benefit from health insurance premiums being tax-deductible, business leaders have come to realize that the current, inequitable, racist insurance arrangements raises their labor costs year after year so that their employee costs are not competitive with companies who operate in countries with universal health insurance plans. Further, high premium costs have eroded employees' take-home pay. An effective campaign could be crafted by PNHP and others, like Medicare For All NOW to educate, meet with, and campaign with employers as a strategic ally (although few know it) who have the wealth and power and economic reasons to advocate for some form of universal health insurance. <br /><br />Yet PNHP and its impressive intellectual leaders are not focusing on employers as a strategic ally. Mobilize employers and they will address the health insurance lobby, the hospital lobby, and the physician/provider lobbies. PNHP physician-leaders should craft and carry out a strategic plan to speak at Rotary meetings near every chapter. Nationally, it's easy to make the case that the current, inequitable, racist insurance arrangements drive up inflation. Here they are: go after them https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_United_States–based_employers_globally <br />Little (even tiny) PNHP needs a better strategic plan than the one they have focused on for the last 30 years. Donald LightAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06969923492039772876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1509187841033628660.post-8989380748659774042022-10-08T13:24:13.764-07:002022-10-08T13:24:13.764-07:00Age old aphorism “knowledge comes while wisdom lin...Age old aphorism “knowledge comes while wisdom lingers” Thank you Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com