A new year brings a clear choice. In 2026, The Medical Care Blog will focus more directly on how policy decisions shape health. Not just health policy in isolation, but policies across and intersecting between housing, labor, education, transportation, climate, and criminal legal systems. This approach is often called Health in All Policies. The idea… Read More »
(Editor’s note: This post was co-authored by the following leaders: Greg Merritt, Ava Zebrick, Bill Stephen, Cheslie Johnson, Crispin Goytia, Jeffrey Ordway, Kristie Hill, Melissa Bronson, Nadine Zemon, Neely Williams, Shirley Stowe, and Tiffany Jones.) Over the past year, as Patient Partner leaders for PCORnet®, we have been developing a manuscript chronicling the PCORnet journey… Read More »
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace Open Enrollment season starts November 1, 2025 in most states. The premiums insurers charge are increasing. And, with enhanced premium tax credits set to expire at the end of the year, out-of-pocket premiums are expected to increase drastically. Additionally, changes to Marketplace enrollment and eligibility rules in this year’s… Read More »
WASHINGTON — Nationwide, states are racing to win their share of a new $50 billion rural health fund. But helping rural hospitals, as originally envisioned, is quickly becoming a quaint idea. Rather, states should submit applications that “rebuild and reshape” how health care is delivered in rural communities, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services official Abe Sutton… Read More »
This article was first published on KFF Health News. It also ran on CNN. It is republished here for free. While plowing a wheat field in rural Washington state in the 1990s, William Wallace spotted a gray plane overhead that he believed was releasing chemicals to make him sick. The rancher began to suspect that all white… Read More »
If you have been following the debate about Medicaid cuts, you know it’s a giant program, America’s largest in terms of the number of people it covers. But you may be confused about how many people Medicaid actually covers. Is it 71 million Americans, the number most commonly used in The New York Times and… Read More »
This post from KFF Health News is republished here in line with The Medical Care Blog’s declaration that our theme for 2025 is ‘the Political Determinants of Health‘. As fired and retired scientists rallied outside in the Atlanta heat, an advisory panel that Robert F. Kennedy Jr. handpicked to replace experts he’d fired earlier met… Read More »
NOTE: The deadline has now been extended to August 17th, 2025. It is a time of tremendous unrest in public health. Your stories from the front lines of public health are critical to telling the story of the challenges facing public health today. The Medical Care Blog is committed to elevating your voices on these… Read More »
President Donald Trump’s return to the White House sent a clear signal about Medicaid to Republicans across the country: Requiring enrollees to prove they are working, volunteering, or going to school is back on the table. The day after Trump’s inauguration, South Carolina GOP Gov. Henry McMaster asked federal officials to approve a work requirement… Read More »
Happy New Year to our readers, and thank you for joining us as we welcome in 2025. Two weeks ago, we took time to review and celebrate our first-ever blog theme: Climate Change and Public Health. We learned a lot during our first year with a theme, and we will take those lessons into 2025.… Read More »
It’s been a rocky year for public health and climate change. We began 2024 with the news that 2023 had been, by far, the hottest year on record. The average temperature had increased so much from the prior year, that one scientist described it as not just breaking records, but a leap-frogging of them. At… Read More »
*This post was originally published on KFF Health News on November 8, 2025. It is published with open permission by that site. A new federal watchdog audit is ratcheting up pressure on government officials to crack down on billions of dollars in overcharges linked to Medicare Advantage home visits. But so far, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid… Read More »
Note: The 2024 election wraps-up in short order. KFF once again published a thoughtful analysis of competing positions on health care–in this case the Affordable Care Act. And we are republishing that here. Enjoy. -The Editors Health care is suddenly front and center in the final sprint to the presidential election, and the outcome will… Read More »
Note: It’s election season. And time to take a look at the health policy positions of the presidential candidates. KFF published this thorough and well-sourced analysis of the candidates’ competing positions on everything from health care and abortion to public health and gun violence. Enjoy. -The Editors The general election campaign is underway, spotlighting former… Read More »
This post was originally published on KFF Health News. It is published with open permission by that site. Measles is on the rise in the United States. In the first quarter of this year, the number of cases was about 17 times what it was, on average, during the same period in each of the four… Read More »
This post was originally published on KFF Health News. It is published with open permission by that site. When Vice President Kamala Harris walked across the debate stage Tuesday night to shake the hand of former President Donald Trump, it was the first time the two had met in person. But that was the rare… Read More »
Before we introduce this week’s post about important disparities in 988 utilization, by Lindsey Dawson and Heather Saunders and originally published in KFF Health News, we wanted to highlight an upcoming Symposium on Responding to Behavioral Health Emergencies being held by the Medical Care section of the American Public Health Association (among others). The need… Read More »
Abortion Bans Are Driving Off Doctors and Closing Clinics, Putting Basic Health Care at Risk The rush to ban abortion in some US states after the overturn of Roe v. Wade is resulting in a startling consequence that abortion opponents may not have considered: fewer medical services available for all women living in those states.… Read More »
How patients are seeing their doctor is changing, and that could shape access to and quality of care for decades to come. More than 100 million Americans don’t have regular access to primary care, a number that has nearly doubled since 2014. Yet demand for primary care is up, spurred partly by record enrollment in… Read More »
From The Medical Care Blog: A special consensus statement on climate change and public health In 2021, more than 250 of the world’s leading medical and public health journals released a joint statement about climate change and public health. Published simultaneously, editorial boards of the journals declared climate change to be the “greatest threat” to… Read More »
This is the final post of 2023 here at The Medical Care Blog. To toast the year behind us we’ve compiled the year’s top 10 blog posts and highlighted some of the many milestones for our contributors and editorial team. Once again, we want to recognize YOU–our amazing readers and contributors. Since our founding in… Read More »
The rapid transition from in-person to care to telemedicine visits at the start of the COVID‑19 pandemic did not adversely affect the quality of care – and even improved some aspects of care – for patients with major depression in a major integrated health system, according to a new report. The study appears as part of… Read More »
Eli Lilly & Co.’s announcement that it is slashing prices for its major insulin products could make life easier for some diabetes patients while easing pressure on Big Pharma. It also casts light on the profiteering methods of the drug industry’s price mediators — the pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs — at a time when… Read More »
Summer is winding down, school is back in session, and The Medical Care Blog is preparing for a return. We are doing a little final housecleaning and can’t wait to return to your inboxes shortly.
The Medical Care Blog is returning from its summer break this month. We hope you are feeling recharged and ready to dig deep again into health care and public health. We’re beginning with a series of retrospective posts to highlight the work of our contributors on prominent topics. This week, we focus on a collection… Read More »
The Medical Care Blog is taking a short summer break from publishing new articles. In the meantime, catch up with the latest posts on the blog: Healthy Intersections Podcast, June 2022 featuring MC Governing Councilor Samy with a wrap-up and co-editor Lisa Lines interviewing noted infectious disease epidemiologist Pia MacDonald about COVID-19 – looking back and looking… Read More »
On this month’s episode of the Healthy Intersections Podcast, Samy Anand from the Medical Care Section recaps last month’s blog posts and preview’s June’s issue of the Medical Care journal. Some great articles to check out for your summer reading list. Next, Lisa Lines, co-editor of the blog and podcast, interviews Dr. Pia MacDonald, an… Read More »
In this episode of our podcast series, Jess Williams discusses COVID-19 case and hospitalizations with Tami Gurley, an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center. Jess also recaps the blog posts published in April and previews some articles published in the May issue of Medical Care. Listen here or wherever you get your fine audio content.… Read More »
In this episode of our podcast series, Greg Stevens discusses health care provider burnout with Cooper Couch, a practicing physician assistant at an FQHC in rural Colorado. Next, he recaps the blog posts published in February and previews an article published in the April issue of Medical Care. Authored by Jae Downing, Kendall Lawley and Alex McDowell,… Read More »
In this episode of our podcast series, Samyuktha Anand, secretary-elect for the Medical Care section, recaps the blog posts we published in February. She also previews a few of the journal articles published in this month’s issue of Medical Care. Next, Lisa Lines, co-editor, discusses an article published ahead of print on March 1. The article is available here:… Read More »
In this episode of our podcast series, Samyuktha Anand, secretary-elect for the Medical Care section, recaps the blog posts we published in January. Next, Jess Williams, co-editor, interviews Nien Chen Li about her recently published paper — a winner of the APHA Medical Care Section’s Student Paper Award in 2020. Dr. Li’s paper is about… Read More »
In this episode of our podcast series, Greg Stevens, co-editor, recaps the blog posts we published on The Medical Care Blog in November and previews the January issue of Medical Care. Greg also interviews Dr. Ben King from the University of Houston School of Medicine about their shared interest in health care for people experiencing homeless.… Read More »
In this episode of our new podcast series, Jess Williams, co-editor, recaps the blog posts we published on The Medical Care Blog in November and previews the December issue of Medical Care. As a bonus, Lisa Flaherty from the APHA Medical Care Section interviews two of our December contributors: Dr. Sharla Smith, founder of the… Read More »
We’re celebrating 5 years of blogging at The Medical Care Blog! We thought it would be a good time to stop, take stock, and share what we’ve learned while writing at the intersection of public health and medical care.
Barbara Starfield was a pediatrician, primary care researcher, and member of the Medical Care section of the American Public Health Association. She passed away suddenly in 2011, and in 2016, the section decided to honor her memory by creating a new award: the Barbara Starfield Medical Care Scholar Award. The purpose of this award is… Read More »
This will be the last post of 2018 for us here at The Medical Care Blog. We would like to take this opportunity, as we do every year, to recognize YOU – our reader – as well as our contributors. We are really proud of the work we’ve done this year, and we hope you’ve… Read More »
The December edition of Health Wonk Review is now up at Health System Ed. In case you missed it, our contribution for this month comes from Jess Williams and covers some interesting new collaborative work on what research topics should be prioritized according to people with diabetes and/or obesity and researchers specializing in the fields.… Read More »
APHA 2018 starts November 10! Thousands of public health practitioners, students, scholars, and activists will descend on San Diego, CA on Saturday for our annual conference. As in previous years, your faithful co-editors will be there, live-tweeting about sessions! So be sure to follow @MedCareBloggers for real-time updates. The program is looking great, and we are excited about… Read More »
The October edition of Health Wonk Review is now up at Joe Paduda’s Managed Care Matters blog. This month, our featured post is the excellent commentary by new contributor Dr. Ranit Mishori titled The Social Determinants of Health? What about the Political Determinants of Health? Enjoy!
This month’s Health Wonk Review, by Andrew Sprung at xpostfactoid, is called Map of Malfunction. Andrew describes this month’s edition as “a smorgasbord of smart takes on the morphing ACA marketplace; various dysfunctions (and one or two functions) of U.S. health care; and political wars over Medicare and the ACA.” The round-up features Red Thaddeus Miguel’s first… Read More »
We have been contributing to the Health Wonk Review, a longstanding roundup of “the best of the best” in health policy-related blog posts, on an irregular basis for some time. Starting this month, we’re pleased to announce that we’ll be participating more regularly. We will post a notice and link to the latest edition every… Read More »
It’s been a wonderful year for The Medical Care Blog, and we are very proud of the great work of our contributors. Thank you for reading and sharing! Here are our most-read posts of 2017: Avoiding Anticholinergic Drugs May Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk by Barbara Zabielski The Impact of Social Media in Healthcare by Alexa Ortiz and Catherine… Read More »
The year 2016 was a big one for The Medical Care Blog: in February, we moved from our old publisher-hosted location and launched this new domain and design. We’ve published 61 posts here since then – a little more than one a week. We’ve added many new contributors and broadened our audience. Thank you for reading!… Read More »
The Medical Care Blog is always looking for new contributors! We’re especially interested in people who can commit to writing one blog post per month or every 3 months. We are open to contributors at all stages of career development. Prior blogging experience preferred, but not required. Our posts cover a wide range of topics. Some… Read More »
Welcome! We are so happy you have joined us on our new domain and platform. This move is one that we hope will allow our blog to grow its reach and readership. Our archives remain mostly at the old site. We hope you will share these posts with your colleagues, students, and fellow researchers and practitioners. Comments… Read More »