Tackling Cancer While Battling the Insurance System
Co-published with The Washington Post. Even plans that are supposed to save patients money can end up costing them dearly.
On Our Last Legs
Co-published with The Nation. Due to high costs, many Americans have to ration the medicine and medical equipment they rely on.
My Mother Was Dying of COVID. Being Poor Made It So Much Worse.
Published in The Washington Post. I realized long ago that there are two separate and very different health-care systems in this country.
37,000 U.S. Veterans Are Homeless. I Was One of Them.
Co-published with Newsweek. So many veterans who leave the tangle of war end up on America's streets, still fighting daily for their survival.
John Koopman: Stars and Stripes and Strip Clubs
Co-published with The Nation. How a war correspondent found himself bouncing rowdy customers at a strip club—and what came next.
The Trap Doors and Dead Ends of Trying to Get Treated for Long Covid
Co-published with The New Republic. Experts say the long-Covid crisis will mirror the pandemic itself, creating a “tsunami of disability” that will take a disproportionate toll on …
Appalachia’s Hospital Closures Are a Slow-Motion Health Care Emergency
Co-published with The Nation. Unless there are drastic changes to how we apportion health care in this country, the future of rural care will be either …
My Year Without Health Insurance
Co-published with The American Prospect. Christian health shares market themselves as a cheaper alternative, but have no obligation to actually pay health care bills. Life under them …
The Feds Are About to Stick It to Pain Patients in a Big Way
Co-published with VICE. Doctors are already getting spooked out of prescribing painkillers, and new rules could make life in some of America's struggling communities even worse.
Faith and its Limits
Co-Published with the Virginia Quarterly Review. If faith fosters separateness, how do you navigate healthcare for your children? A #VQRTrueStory essay.
Inequality Has Gotten So Bad That We’re Offshoring Our Grandparents
Co-published with The Nation. Americans can’t afford to retire in the United States, so many are moving south of the border, trading one form of inequity for …
When Doctors Took ‘Family Planning’ Into Their Own Hands
Co-published with The New York Times Magazine. In 1975, 10 women filed a class-action lawsuit claiming that a Los Angeles medical center was systematically sterilizing Spanish-speaking mothers.