Here we are, decades beyond the first use of proton beam therapy in a clinical setting in the US, and insurance companies still call it experimental. For me, this is annoying. For those who want proton therapy but are denied insurance coverage because of its “experimental” status, this is much worse than merely annoying. When a cancer patient who recognizes proton therapy as their best option for controlling their cancer while minimizing the risk of side effects is told they …

Happy, sad, good, or bad—it’s all in the words we choose to use. Thanks to Kaiser Health News reporter Jay Hancock’s choices, readers of the New York Times might be led to believe people don’t want proton therapy and that daring to provide it is therefore unwise. His April 27, 2018, unhappy headline declares: For Cancer Centers, Proton Therapy’s Promise Is Undercut by Lagging Demand. Undercut. Lagging demand. Sounds bleak. Although the article is not “fake news,” the overall feeling …

Are you thrilled and excited about the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force’s (USPSTF) proposed rating upgrade from “D” to “C” for PSA testing for prostate cancer in men aged 55-69? Dancing in the street, expressing your jubilation, celebrating victory? Or are you bemoaning the inadequacy of a too-meager upgrade? Maybe you’re in the “couldn’t care less what they say” group? Regardless, the USPSTF does seem to garner a ton of attention, and with their every announcement they ignite impassioned and fierce …

Who is your health insurance company? Or a better question might be, do you have an actual health insurance company? I bet not. At least theoretically, all types of insurance policies—auto, homeowner, renter, life, disability, business, and even health—should have something in common. After all, companies offering such policies are members of the same category of business: insurance—and the qualifying characteristic of such membership is (drum roll, please) insuring. Writers write, dancers dance, chefs cook, pilots fly, and I suppose …