@michalhorny
Assistant Professor of Health Policy and Management at @umassamherst.bsky.social * Health care affordability * Private insurance * Patient cost-sharing * Price transparency * Medical billing * (personal account)
I’m so excited to announce that I’m joining the Tufts School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine this summer! It’s a dream come true to join an interdisciplinary department that does important policy-relevant work around health disparities.
Latest paper @jamapediatrics.com led by SPHERE postdoc @emilydore.bsky.social finds longstanding disparities in infant health by poverty status using national data, e.g., for preterm birth and low birthweight. www.doi.org/10.1001/jama... @ameracadpeds.bsky.social @harvardpopcenter.bsky.social 1/
Excited that @michalhorny.bsky.social and I are featured in today's @ashecon.bsky.social newsletter!
We write about studying insurance claim denials in health data and important open questions. So many interesting papers to be written here!
Read the article here: www.ashecon.org/newsletter/h...
Increasing patient cost-sharing to address rising health care costs is a lazy solution.
gazettenet.com/2026/02/11/w...
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@alexhoagland.bsky.social and I wrote an overview on health insurance claim denials, what they mean for patients and health care providers, and what data researchers can use to study them.
www.ashecon.org/newsletter/h...
“We measure the impact of increased immigration on mortality among elderly Americans, who rely on the immigrant-intensive [health care] sectors… [we find] striking effects on mortality: a 25% increase in the steady state flow of immigrants to the US would result in 5,000 fewer deaths nationwide.”
He was so close to saying "your body, your choice," but caught himself in the last split second.
It sounds appealing at first, but it means paying $2,400 for primary care and still having no insurance in case one needs expensive medication or gets in a car accident. Insurance, especially in the US, has many problems, but doctors not accepting it is not a solution.
www.kitv.com/news/honolul...
The biggest risk in this moment is something sociologists call “symbolic compliance.”
That’s when an institution that is violating civil rights gives the public just enough symbolic victories that accountability efforts lose steam before there has been any meaningful change.
Václav Havel’s moral philosophy (of the Power of the Powerless) is still timely and relevant even after nearly 50 years…
Authors who publish in clinical journals are screwed...
A good guy with… bare hands.
This is college in the United States. Video from inside a Brown University building shows the moment that police found a group of students who were sheltering after the shooting on campus. This isn't freedom.
So thrilled!!
@mirandayaver.bsky.social
MEPS seems to be gone as of now. This is very bad. These are critical pieces of data about health care and they belong to the American public.
Latest study by SPHERE postdocs A. Ali & @emilydore.bsky.social finds that expansions of EITC for young adults w/out kids boosted mental heath. This group is often excluded from safety net policies, but they are at a critical juncture of life course. doi.org/10.1111/1468... @mdrc-news.bsky.social 1/
Do you have a paper on health insurance policy in the Marketplace, MA, or group markets that you would like to present @ashecon.bsky.social in a panel with @dmaanderson.bsky.social @paulshafer.bsky.social sky.social and me? If so, please shoot me an email or DM!
Health care: the only product that you can buy while unconscious.
I wouldn't mind if this is how we get a single-payer health care system...
Tired: “Financial toxicity”
Wired: “Financial hardship”
(based on research)
#PIC25
“More patients worry about medical bills than about dying.” #PIC25
“Why is crowdsourcing the [health care] payment model?” #PIC25
“When insurance was expanded [ACA], we saw fewer people with perforated appendix, because they came to get care sooner.” #PIC25
Annual premium of $26,211.60, plus $8,000 deductible, plus co-insurance (most likely 20%). That is brutal!
Important: this is exactly how propagandists operate.
Postdoc @emilydore.bsky.social @hsph.harvard.edu provided an interview to @healthyfutures.bsky.social discussing the findings of this study, highlighting the importance of social policy design for improving #healthequity. www.healthyfutures.blog/p/how-social... @rwjf.org @policies4action.bsky.social
This is why we fund scientists to study things like oyster slobber even if you don’t think it sounds important
Contrary to what Trump is saying, there is a “down side” to separating MMR into three separate vaccines. That’s three unnecessary office visits and three unnecessary copays.
This type of policy puts up more barriers to vaccination.
