We review recently published studies of US health policy and the nation's health care system. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, health inequalities were widening and care was inequitably distributed. Although the Affordable Care Act's coverage expansion improved access to care and timely cancer diagnoses, a large proportion of US residents continued to avoid medical care due to concerns about costs, and access to mental health services remains particularly inadequate. Yet more evidence of private insurers' profit-driven misbehaviors and of corruption among medical leaders continues to emerge. Misguided incentives and lax regulation encourages nominally nonprofit health care providers to mimic for-profits' misconduct, and rapacious investors own and control an increasing share of physicians' practices. Pharmaceutical firms wield outsize political influence and devote far more funds to rewarding investors than to research and development effort. Yet despite vigorous efforts by pharma and other commercial interests to denigrate national health insurance, polls indicate that the COVID-19 pandemic has led to increasing support for such reform.
Keywords: access to care; health care costs; health insurance; health policy.