contemplect.

I think there are underappreciated but accepted American values that people should not be left to suffer, that people should not be placed at a disadvantage through no fault of their own, and that, as a community of caring people, we should be outraged when the basic necessities aren't guaranteed. I think over the last 20 or 30 years, maybe even the last 40 years, there has been both an erosion of the recognition of those important values and also a substitution with another set of values — values that are much more harsh and economically driven and that do not presume that the people, or the public, should not be placed in positions of vulnerability.

The dirty truth about American health care is that it costs more not because insurers are so powerful, but because they’re so weak.

When it came to a [cancer] survivor’s likelihood of seeking follow-up care, investigators found no significant difference based on cancer type or health insurance status.

Social services focus on the basic necessities of life, helping ensure that individuals receive adequate nutrition, proper shelter, and a subsistence income, all of which are essential to maintaining good health. When such fundamental needs are unmet, disease and illness often follow, and even after care is administered patients are highly vulnerable to relapse. Nearly one in five Medicare patients discharged from a hospital is readmitted within 30 days, resulting in an annual cost of more than $26 billion.

This morning, we had a lady with post-menopausal bleeding, which could be cancer. The absolute best thing to do is have her checked out by a gynecologist, but we really don’t have a way to do that that she can afford. The health department has some programs, but they generally require a diagnosis of cancer before their programs can pick up.

Over the last few years, Medicaid and health care have become increasingly politicized. But physicians must remember that behind all the double-speak, pretense, and charades are real people like Gerald who need care. Refusing to see them is nothing less than discrimination by another name.

There was a continuing disparity in the burden of death and illness experienced by Blacks and other minority Americans as compared with our nation’s population as a whole. That disparity has existed ever since accurate federal record keeping began… an affront both to our ideals and to the ongoing genius of American Medicine.

Medical students looking to score high on their board exams sometimes get a bit of uncomfortable advice: Embrace racial stereotypes.

"I am an employed, white, educated woman with no kids, with access to transportation and the internet. I don't have a criminal history, no history of drug use, and I've never been a sex worker," Leah says. "I feel incredible pressure to use my privilege to get something done because if I couldn't do it, nobody can do it. It has to change."

Tejeda’s visit is an example of an approach that’s beginning to catch on in modern American health care, that of pushing care outward from expensive hospital settings and into people’s homes, keeping diseases in check and preventing patients from cycling in and out of the emergency room.