By Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD Some pundits blamed algorithmic trading for the stock market’s recent wild ride. “Algo-trading” relies on computers programmed to follow defined instructions for placing trades. For example, the computer buys 50 shares of stock when its 50-day moving average goes above the 200-day moving average. Period. Algo-trading was popularized as […]
By Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD Black history month is a time to celebrate Americans whose accomplishments are sometimes overshadowed by the eye-catching negative news stories. It was discomfiting to watch the State of the Union address while black congresspersons churlishly sat with their arms crossed even as President Trump announced that black unemployment was […]
By Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD Watching the news coverage of this year’s “Women’s March” was more disheartening than inspiring. Some participants wore odd sexually suggestive caps. Many carried signs dominated by anti-President Trump slogans—some displaying obscene language—in front of children, no less. To be fair, “women’s rights are human rights” was more popular than […]
By: Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD The U.S. “health care system” continues to be a costly behemoth. Health care costs were the number one financial concern for 17 percent of families in 2017—tthe same level as it was in 2007 pre-Affordable Care Act era. And only 18 percent of those polled said the Affordable Care Act […]
By Marilyn Singleton, MD, JD: More than 50 years ago Professor Marshall McLuhan posited that the medium is the message. Now it seems that money is the medium of the message. This month Medical Marketing and Media magazine published its 2017 Health Influencer 50, a “list of professionals across the health care spectrum.” The magazine […]
By Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD We are living in strange times. Virtual money, virtual friends, virtual reality. And regrettably, we are currently burdened with virtual leaders and virtual health insurance coverage. Last month’s Gallup poll revealed that by a huge margin the “most important problem facing the country today” was dissatisfaction with the government. […]
By Marilyn M. Singleton, MD, JD Have we lost our collective minds? A mass shooting with no readily apparent motive is an extreme representation of our sense that our social fabric is unraveling. This is one of those things that people don’t believe can happen until it happens. And despite the unspeakable tragedy, it took […]
By Marilyn M. Singleton, M.D., J.D. California’s state senate’s unipartisan passing of a sweeping single-payer health care bill, the Healthy California Act, has drawn attention to single payer as a solution to the decaying Affordable Care Act. The ACA decreased competition and plan availability in health insurance and leaves patients holding the bag of unaffordable […]
In this edition of Legislative Update, Marilyn Singleton, MD, JD dissects AHCA. We know what’s in the House version, but what will the Senate come up with? The American Health Care Act, H.R. 1628—passed by the House with one vote to spare on May 4—is a budget reconciliation bill that is part of the 2017 […]
“Beware of the Ides of March as both parties slowly kill us all off!” ~Marilyn Singleton, MD, JD reports on the latest battles in health care legislation on Capitol Hill. Revisions to the ACA Revisions to the ACA continued to pile in even as the “repeal and replace” was in progress. What was on their […]