Feature in Media

On September 13th, Senator Bernie Sanders publicly unveiled a new version of his single-payer healthcare bill. The bill is increasingly gaining traction from prominent Democratic senators – but aside from political debate, what does universal health care need to succeed in America? 89.3 KPCC’s AirTalk dives into analysis with economists and policy experts, including a discussion of the economic considerations single payer and universal healthcare with Petris Center Director Dr. Scheffler.

You can listen to the full AirTalk Segment here. Dr. Scheffler’s comments run from 29:45 – 43:03

Health Affairs editor-in-chief Alan Weil recorded an audio introduction to the September issue of Health Affairs, including a discussion of the special market concentration section and a discussion of Dr. Scheffler and Dr. Arnold’s paper “Insurer Market Power Lowers Prices In Numerous Concentrated Provider Markets.”

You can listen to the full audio here.

The Petris Center’s associate director, Dr. Brent Fulton, was interviewed by Healthcare Dive about US market concentration trends and his new study in Health Affairs. Among other topics, the Healthcare Dive interview delves into physicians market concentration trends, as primary care physician concentration increased the most, in part due to such providers being acquired by larger care delivery systems. “My results are consistent with the fact that more physicians are joining larger physician organizations and that more physicians work either directly for hospitals or in organizations that are owned by hospitals,” said Dr. Fulton, “We knew hospitals had been buying up physician organizations but we didn’t know the extent. The increase of hospital ownership of primary care organizations was interesting, because we hadn’t realized the magnitude had increased so much.”

You can read the full interview on Healthcare Dive’s website here.

Dr. Scheffler was interviewed on March 7th on San Francisco’s KCBS radio station, discussing the newly unveiled Republican health care plan, part of the GOP’s efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.  In the interview, Dr. Scheffler discusses the implications of changing health care subsidies from being based on income to being based on age, the philosophical battle surrounding health care reform, and how likely the GOP plan is to pass through Congress.

You can listen to the full KCBS interview by clicking on the following links: part 1, part 2, part 3.

The Petris Center’s Dan Arnold was recently interviewed by California Healthline on the recent Health Affairs study, co-authored by Arnold, along with the Petris Center’s Dr. Scheffler, Dr. Fulton, and Jon Gabel from NORC, which analyzed consumer choice and premium increases in the California ACA marketplace.

“Consumers have to do their own research on these plans,” said Daniel Arnold, a University of California, Berkeley researcher and co-author of the study. “We hear [about] an increase of 13 percent, but when consumers switch plans, they might see an increase no larger than 5 percent.”

The full article, including Arnold’s comments, can be read here.

Dr. Sheffler was on Capitol Public Radio’s “Insight with Beth Ruyak” program this week to discuss Proposition 61’s rejection by Californians in the November 2016 election and the path forward for reigning in prescription drug prices. He was joined in conversation by Roger Salazar, the spokesman of the Yes on 61 campaign.

The full audio of the interview can be found here.