Public health physician and advocate for better, simpler health care financed fairly for all, Chair-Utah Cares Political Issue Committee www.utahcares.vote
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“The President has signed a budget reconciliation bill that will lead to 10 million people losing health insurance. At the same time, recent studies estimate that as many as 100 million Americans owe about $220 billion in medical debt.” www.commonwealthfund.org/blog/2025/ho...
“Families in rural Utah have limited access to labor and delivery care, and the problem could get worse.” www.kuer.org/health/2025-...
Health insurance is never good news. Let’s work together to arrange better, simpler care financed fairly for all of us. DONATE to support the law suit to place the Utah Cares Act on the ballot in 2026–www.utahcares.health
“Please let’s continue, indeed redouble, our quest for a just and efficient health system and other social changes that drastically reduce these painful numbers.” www.healthjusticemonitor.org/preventable-...
Let’s stop paying an arm and a leg for health insurance-the most useless way to finance health care ever invented. Join us in support of better, simpler care financed fairly for all. Learn more and DONATE at www.utahcares.health
@buba787.bsky.social
That’s why we’ve drafted the Utah Cares Act: legislation that would guarantee health care for every Utahn. Not insurance riddled with loopholes. Not confusing networks. Simply care—when you are sick, injured, or struggling. mailchi.mp/d4cd1c39b607...
“Whether you're a healthcare professional frustrated by dysfunction, a patient struggling with medical costs, or someone who believes patients come before profits, this conversation offers both diagnosis of our system and prescription for meaningful reform.” podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/h...
“How and when will we have the political will, the backbone in our society, to make changes so that everyone gets the care they need right when they need it, whatever they need?”https://www.medpagetoday.com/opinion/patientcenteredmedicalhome/117457
American health care—expensive and out of reach. We can fix this. Join Utah Cares and be a part of transforming how health care business is done. DONATE at www.utahcares.health
“It is possible to live longer than we do as a nation and pay between 50 and 75 percent less to do so. And pretty much every other developed country is doing just that.”https://prospect.org/health/2025-09-11-coming-crisis-in-health-care-and-crisis-we-already-have/
“Americans often don’t get the care they need, either because they are simply priced out of care, or, they are denied care that could have been paid for, or because the care they receive is mediocre.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
“U.S. businesses are facing the biggest health-insurance cost increases in at least 15 years, after steep boosts in recent years pushed the expense for coverage to be the price of a car.”https://www.wsj.com/health/healthcare/health-insurance-costs-rise-6cc1b934?st=RrAgh6&reflink=article_email_share
“Every American needs actual care, not insurance, or access, or some other wonkish nonsense. We tax ourselves enough to pay for the care that is needed.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
“Premiums go up, but the value of the coverage goes down. In other, less jargon-y words, every year we Americans pay more and get less when it comes to health insurance.”https://open.substack.com/pub/healthcareuncovered/p/nyt-health-care-costs-for-workers?r=17gidd&utm_medium=ios
The Utah Cares Act, if passed by ballot initiative in 2026, would be the BEST response to the OBBB in the nation. Join us in pushing back against the R party effort to deny the people of Utah a chance to vote on this bill. www.utahcares.health kffhealthnews.org/news/article...
“When insurers buy into the businesses that are supposed to compete for contracts (like pharmacies and physician practices) it gives the insurer almost all the cards because they are able to both set the rules of the game and profit from it.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
We pay more than any other nation but our patients receive less. Join me in changing how we do health care business. Let’s have better, simpler care financed fairly for all. Learn more and DONATE at www.utahcares.health
Tired of your health care being owned by the health insurance lobby? Join us at Utah Cares and donate to put better, simpler care financed fairly for all on the ballot. www.utahcares.health
“The total health benefit cost per employee is expected to rise 6.5% on average in 2026 — the highest increase since 2010 — even accounting for cost-reduction measures.”https://www.mercer.com/en-us/insights/us-health-news/employers-prepare-for-the-highest-health-benefit-cost-increase-in-15-years/
“But her biggest frustration is that more physicians won’t join her in speaking out about the industry practices, such as insurance claims rejections, that are crippling medicine.”https://open.substack.com/pub/healthcareuncovered/p/the-surgeon-who-took-on-unitedhealth?r=17gidd&utm_medium=ios
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Let’s get rid of the laughable health insurance business model. Learn more and donate at www.utahcares.health
It’s a mistake to put your trust in a US health insurer—when you need them most they will fail you. Learn more at www.utahcares.health
“As patients struggle with rising medical debt, access issues and an overall lack of affordable, quality care, providers and other health care companies appear to be falling victim to the same system often described as being in crisis.” www.newsweek.com/bankruptcies...
“Americans’ rating of the quality of healthcare-lowest in 24 years, and views of healthcare coverage nationally remain broadly negative. .the U.S. healthcare system has major problems or is in a deep state of crisis.” news.gallup.com/poll/654044/...
Learn more AND DONATE at www.utahcares.health We need funds to sue the Lt Governor and get the courts to reverse her arbitrary and capricious decision to reject the Utah Cares Act ballot application. It’s time for health care justice.
Ballot initiatives are a major method of pushing back against Trump and Project 2025. As Martin Luther King once said (I paraphrase): There is no greater injustice than inequity in health care. Health care injustice is what the Utah Cares Act aims to eliminate. open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
Get rid of the health insurance runaround. Support the Utah Cares Act. Read about it at www.utahcares.health and donate to support suing Utah’s Lt. Governor to reverse her decision to deny the ballot initiative application.
Wealth should never be a factor in health care delivery. Healthcare is not a market commodity. The Utah Cares Act will displace profit from the center of health care and replace it with the welfare of patients. Learn more and DONATE at www.utahcares.health
“I want a revolution of responsibility—one where we take care of each other, where people can raise a family without choosing between groceries and medicine, and where love doesn’t have to take a back seat to red tape.” open.substack.com/pub/robertre...
“How we care for our most vulnerable reveals what we believe about ourselves. .If you believe that your dollar should go to care for people who cannot care for themselves, then you have responsibility to charity.”https://www.sltrib.com/opinion/commentary/2025/08/23/opinion-im-proud-conservative-my/
Health insurance red tape wastes more than a half trillion dollars each year. The Utah Cares Act will simplify health financing, saving enough to finance medically necessary care for all Utah residents. Help us get vital health system reform on the ballot-donate at www.utahcares.vote
“If we had universal, single-payer health care, we could take care of problems like this. If there were other supportive systems in place through our state, local and federal government, we could take care of things like this.” www.sltrib.com/news/2025/08...
“If the US were to magically improve its quality of care through better public health, primary care, and clinical interventions, this year approximately 350,000 premature deaths would be prevented.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
“Self-dealing is illegal in banks, real estate, and investment firms, but in health insurance, it’s not only legal, it’s widespread. . Health insurance conglomerates have built empires on paying themselves to the detriment of patients and taxpayers.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
“UnitedHealth told its own shareholders and analysts on July 29 that the company is planning double-digit premium increases for 2026, much higher than the 8.5% increase in medical costs projected by PriceWaterhouseCoopers.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
“The medical industrial complex, while reaping windfall profits on the illnesses and injuries of average Americans, has denied needed care, virtually wiped out rural care entirely, and driven millions of Americans into bankruptcy.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
Most Americans who file for bankruptcy because of medical debt had health insurance when the illness or injury occurred. Let’s get rid of the useless for-profit health insurance business model. Support the Utah Cares Act. Learn more and donate at www.utahcares.vote
@justinjest.bsky.social
Whats happening in Utah on single payer health system reform? Check out this podcast then learn more and donate at www.utahcares.vote open.spotify.com/show/2u9t5Gi...
Rates of death which should have been preventable by standard health care practices are higher in the US than in other developed nations. US health care is mediocre—better care will cost less. Do your part to reform US health care—learn more and donate at www.utahcares.vote
Promise yourself that you’ll do what it takes to remove insurance networks, red tape, and authorizations from obstructing your ability to get the healthcare you and your family need. Learn more and donate at www.utahcares.vote
Have you done everything you can to reform how we Americans do health care business? This will be the most difficult political climb ever. Whatever you have to donate to politics, give to the cause of your life-better, simpler care financed fairly for all. Learn more and donate at www.utahcares.vote
Let’s reform health care for patients: better care, lower cost, choice of doctor, everyone included, no personal bankruptcy foemedically necessary care. All that and more is in the Utah Cares Act. Whatever funds you have to donate to political campaigns, spend them on Utah Cares (www.utahcares.vote)
“I think I’ve done everything right, So why am I in a position where the health insurance available to me doesn’t cover what I need, or I can barely afford my premiums, or worse, at times I don’t even have it?” www.nytimes.com/2025/08/09/h...
“In Donald Trump’s second term, Republicans haven’t given up their opposition to universal coverage—far from it—but they have mostly stopped singing the praises of American health-care innovation. Indeed, they are taking a meat axe to it.” www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
“The Trump administration appears intent on blowing up our fragile health care system in the name of an unrestrained “free market” and corporate profiteering. Many people will suffer if the system collapses completely.”https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2415751?utm_source=substack
Exactly why we have written the Utah Cares Act and are trying to get it on the ballot in 2026. I’m asking everyone to donate to this cause at www.utahcares.vote
They know that patients give up, or that delay worsens the illness and changes the physician order, or that the patient will just expire.
“From unnecessary ultrasounds to weeks-long delays for medication, insurers' use of step therapy has turned the health care system into an obstacle course for patients and a gold mine for insurers.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
Health care costs in the US are outrageous. The Utah Cares Act will reduce cost by improving health care quality and efficiency. Read more about the Act and DONATE to the cause at www.utahcares.vote
“About six in ten adults say they are either “very” or “somewhat worried” about being able to afford the cost of health care services (62%) or unexpected medical bills (61%) for themselves and their families.”https://www.kff.org/health-costs/issue-brief/americans-challenges-with-health-care-costs/
“We can either have the most profitable health-care system in the world, or we can have better, simpler, cheaper care oriented to the needs of the patients. We cannot have both.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
“The Harris organization and the Washington Post/ABC News both found that four in five Americans support publicly funded health care for all. The generosity of the American people speaks volumes about our intent: health care is a gift we want to give ourselves.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
“Health-care business as usual in the United States is always about making more sales of health-care goods and services (including useless, wasteful services like health-insurance policies) than it is about actually taking care of patients.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
The Utah Cares Act will improve health care and reduce its cost. Utah patients will choose their doctor, get the care they need, and have no financial worry. Read about it at www.utahcares.vote AND DONATE-all of us together can defeat the health insurance lobby.
Here is where i am speaking today at the One Payer States single payer national conference in Denver, CO. Our speakers will give us insight, inspiration, and joy in our fight for healthcare justice. Join online here: eml-pusa01.app.blackbaud.net/intv2/j/DF31...
As we commemorate the implementation of Medicaid and Medicare, let’s remember that there is much more to do to improve health care in the US. The Utah Cares Act will provide better, simpler care financed fairly for all. Learn about it at www.utahcares.vote and DONATE!!
The Utah Cares Act (read about it here: www.utahcares.vote) will eliminate the ludicrous and immoral health insurance benefit denial game (click on QR code for illustration). What would that be worth to you? DONATE!!!
The Utah Cares Act (read about it here: www.utahcares.vote) will sever the relationship between anyone’s wealth and someone else’s health care. My illness or injury shouldn’t be a moment for corporate profit. finance.yahoo.com/news/health-...
The Utah Cares Act (read about it here: www.UtahCares.vote) will eliminate the denial games which keep you from getting the care you need. Help us help your doctor-read the Act and DONATE!!! m.youtube.com/watch?v=AZhC...
Fight back against the health care provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill! Learn more here open.substack.com/pub/josephqu... then DONATE here: www.utahcares.vote
“Market price established for drugs has $356 billion worth of markups that mainly accommodate the financial demands (kickbacks or rebates) of groups that profit off the prescription drug system in the United States, health insurers and their PBMs in particular.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
“If you and/or your organization desire to protect Medicaid, save rural hospitals, reduce health care costs, or improve the quality of health care, join the movement.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
“On January 1, 2026, ACA insurance plan premiums will increase by a median of 15%, and there will be a 75% increase in out-of-pocket premium payments each month for the average ACA enrollee.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
The medical industrial complex buys the health policy that normalizes profits over patients in US health care. Join us in a people power campaign to change how we do health care business. Read the Utah Cares Act at www.utahcares.vote and DONATE!!!
“The Citizens Initiative Reform Committee filed a request for extraordinary writ with the state's high court last month, asking the justices to require Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson to roll back her rejections of three ballot initiatives.” www.ksl.com/article/5134...
“As health insurance companies jacked up their premiums-an employer-sponsored family policy now costs more than $35,000 on average, triple what it cost in 2005 –more small employers have thrown in the towel and stopped offering subsidized coverage to their workers.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
Americans need better, simpler health care financed fairly for all. Just like what is proposed in the Utah Cares Act. Read the Act and supporting studies here www.utahcares.vote AND DONATE!!!!
Those you refer to can never be convinced and will never fairly look at data and experience. We can’t calibrate our proposals to placate their obstructions. Fighting for universal care in fifty states is a shorter path to the goal than waiting on Congress
Did you read the economic studies on our website? If so, please point out what we are failing to account for. If not, please reconsider taking a position without carefully looking at the data. Dr Friedman of the University of Massachusetts authored our principal study. Are you familiar with his work
Count Utah as one state that can afford a universal health care system. Check out the economic studies that support that assertion a www.utahcares.vote. We’ve drafted legislation that would make better simpler care financed fairly for all a reality in Utah. The Utah Cares Act is also on the website
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The comment was published in JAMA so intended for the AMA audience basically calling them out for failing to do the right thing for patients
From the comments: “The entire concept of health care driven solely by profit is corrupt to the core. Organized medicine must boldly confront the reality that CMS has been bought and paid for by the insurance companies.” jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...
The medical industrial complex cares about profits not patients. Join the movement to change how America does healthcare business. Learn about the Utah Cares Act (www.utahcares.vote), and demand that the Utah Lt Gov allow the act go forward as a ballot initiative. Help by donating to the cause.
“52% of Utah nurses are considering leaving their job primarily due to insufficient staffing, work negatively affecting health and well-being, and inability to deliver quality care.” www.deseret.com/lifestyle/20...
One cannot maximize profits and optimize care. In the United States, we have the most profitable health-care system in the world. And, consequently, we have the worst health-care quality in the first world, at the highest price. open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
The medical industrial complex is stealing us blind. Better simpler care financed fairly for all is possible. Demand that Utah’s Lt Gov reverse the rejection of the Utah Cares Act. Learn more at www.utahcares.vote and DONATE!!
“144 rural hospitals across the country with labor and delivery units are at risk of closure or severe service cutbacks” based on the Medicaid cuts outlined in the bill. That’s in addition to the over 100 rural labor and delivery units that have closed or since 2020. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/09/o...
Join us. Let’s heal the harm in American health care by excising the for-profit health insurance business model. Demand that Utah’s Lt Gov allow the Utah Cares Act to go forward as a ballot initiative. Learn more at www.utahcares.vote AND DONATE!!
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“Shouldn’t you care that your low-income neighbors and those with disabilities may get booted from their health care coverage?”https://www.huffpost.com/entry/medicaid-cuts-rural-hospital-close_l_686bd1f0e4b0762f74e1ad44
Exactly why we have drafted an act to get rid of the health insurance business model. Read about it and join in with support at www.utahcares.vote
“The U.S. insurance giants have devised ingenious methods for evading payment — like high deductibles, narrow networks, limited lists of permitted drugs, and pre-authorization, so that the insurance adjuster, not your doctor, determines what treatment you get.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
“America’s leaders are casting aside empathy as dangerous. .The belief that we have a responsibility to others isn’t sentimentalism; it’s the moral foundation of life.”https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/07/opinion/moral-argument-global-health.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare
The Utah Cares Act-universal health care financing without co-payments, co-insurance, or deductibles. Call/write Utah’s Lt. Gov. and tell her to let the people decide. Learn more and donate to the cause at www.utahcares.vote
Point taken. Utah Cares will finance health care for everyone. The issues related to Medicaid will be permanently resolved.
No
The Utah Cares Act-better, simpler health care fairly financed for all—no bills to pay, no uninsured. Call/write Utah Lt Gov Henderson and demand she let the ballot initiative go forward. Learn more and DONATE to the cause at: www.utahcares.vote
“Let your concern about the ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ drive you to push on the Utah Lt. Gov. to reverse her decision to reject the Utah Cares Act.” open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
Deidre Henderson, Lt. Gov. of Utah: Reverse Your Decision And Allow the Utah Cares Act to Go Forward to Public Hearings. Let the People of Utah vote on better, simpler health care financed fairly for everyone. open.substack.com/pub/josephqu...
“By 2033, we Americans will be spending an astonishing $8.6 trillion on health care, up from $5.6 trillion this year and more than twice the $4.1 trillion we spent in 2020, according to the a new report from the federal government.” open.substack.com/pub/healthca...
“If I hadn’t had insurance, I wouldn’t be here. And it’s always haunted me that some young man in America that same year had malignant melanoma, he didn’t have insurance, he didn’t get that checkup, and he died. That’s wrong. It’s immoral.” Sen. Angus King I-ME open.substack.com/pub/heatherc...
Gallows humor. Kick out every congressional incumbent for mistreating Medicaid, Medicare, other federal health programs. Join us at www.utahcares.vote—Donate and change how health care business is done.
Out of the 356 drugs that were approved by the FDA from 2010-2019, NIH funding contributed to 354 of them, totaling $187 billion, only 2 were privately funded. From the NYTimes www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
And tax them such that they pay for fairly financed medically necessary care for all, as in the proposed Utah Cares Act www.utahcares.vote
“Hundreds of rural hospitals have closed over the past two decades while others eliminated services. Rural hospitals serve as major employers. Their workers patronize local businesses, support schools, pay the taxes that keep police, firefighters and road crews on the job.” usw.org/letting-rura...