February 7, 2023 — For most Americans today, the reality of health insurance is harsh. More than half of us have enrolled in high-deductible health plans that can bankrupt us if we get sick. Insurers play games to deny people coverage for expensive drugs they can’t possibly afford out of pocket. So is the harshness of health insurance toward […]
January 31, 2023 — There’s an ugly accident at the intersection of U.S. drug prices, health insurance, and obesity. In a report yesterday, NPR reporter Allison Aubrey described how people living with obesity, after finding at long last that they have an option to get their medical condition under control, learn that they’re at the mercy of excessive drug […]
January 15, 2023 — Workers at the largest health system in the U.S., HCA, this week accused the system of putting profits ahead of patient care and health. We regularly hear from obesity care providers about insurers using lame excuses to deny coverage for obesity meds or surgery for lame reasons. This happens even when the health plan covers […]
January 2, 2023 — On 60 Minutes last night, Lesley Stahl reported in vivid detail just how hard it is to get good obesity care in our broken system for healthcare. She had help. Two of the world’s top obesity medicine physicians – Fatima Cody Stanford and Caroline Apovian – took viewers into their clinics. Two of Apovian’s patients […]
December 16, 2022 — We’re zooming toward the end of 2022, so it’s hard to resist looking back to see which of the posts on ConscienHealth you read the most. We are grateful for the smart and diverse people who take the time to read what we post here. Seeing what captures your attention teaches us a thing or […]
December 12, 2022 — Hoops are fine tools for play and entertainment. But the hoops which health insurers put people with obesity through serve only to delay and discourage obesity care. The implicit message is clear enough: “You probably don’t deserve this, so you have to prove yourself first.” A recent study demonstrates once again that these insurance mandates […]
November 19, 2022 — Is healthcare indeed a place where a person can expect to receive genuine care? Or is the care in healthcare more of an abstract concept than something a patient might experience? A recent paper in Health Expectations tells us that most patients define a caring professional quite simply. They listen attentively. That was the response […]
November 6, 2022 — A pair of thoughts kept floating through the halls of ObesityWeek 2022 and they set up something that seems like an economic doom loop for the future of obesity care. The new drugs for obesity are amazing. But they’re too damn expensive. Professor John Cawley gave an excellent presentation on the economics of obesity that […]
October 25, 2022 — The world works in mysterious ways. Five years ago, a group of us that included ConscienHealth’s Ted Kyle went to Harrisburg to testify in favor of Pennsylvania taking a step toward less disparity in obesity care. Specifically, we were supporting a bill that State Representative Donna Oberlander (R-Clarion) was sponsoring to encourage coverage of obesity […]
October 3, 2022 — Health insurers, including Medicare, are regarding obesity meds like Botox Cosmetic, when they should be thinking of them more like a knee replacement. This observation, from a report by Jamy Lee in MarketWatch, sums up the challenge for people seeking obesity care in a health system that pays for the complications of untreated obesity, but […]
