McCaughey: Shake up U.S. health policy

The American public is being sold a bill of goods that enrolling everyone in government-approved health insurance — primarily managed care — will improve the nation's health and close the troubling disparities between the health of Black and white Americans.

Former President Barack Obama made insurance coverage the signature issue of the Democratic Party.

Now Democrats in Congress are revving up for a fight to spend hundreds of billions of dollars more subsidizing managed care plans, while Republicans are opposed. Politics aside, the facts show the money could be far better spent.

The trillions spent have not resulted in improved health. The uninsured rate has been cut in half, but Americans are sicker, and their life expectancy is stagnating. Doing more of the same can't be the answer.

New research in Lancet shows that life expectancy for Black Americans stalled during the vast expansion of Medicaid managed care and Affordable Care Act plans. The opposite of what was promised.

The U.S. ranks a disappointing 49th in life expectancy — lower even than Costa Rica and Chile, and trending downward.

We can't rely on the managed care industry and the lackadaisical public health establishment to make the urgently needed changes. They've failed us.

Under the ACA, Americans ceded too much control of their medical decisions to insurers instead of the doctors examining them.

Managed care preceded the ACA, but Obama became managed care's biggest booster, telling the public to trust insurers instead of greedy doctors he blamed for prescribing unnecessary tests procedures to get rich.

That was demagoguery to sell his health law. In 2011, Stanford researcher Mark Duggan showed that managed care does not produce health improvements. National Bureau of Economic Research shows that putting Medicaid patients with high medical needs in managed care is detrimental.

Americans are feeling the impact of insurers second-guessing their doctors and demanding prior authorizations of routine medications and procedures.

Nowhere has managed care failed more miserably than in responding to the nation's stagnating life expectancy and its chief cause: obesity.

Drug-related deaths account for roughly 10%-18% of life expectancy declines, but obesity is the biggest culprit, according to Pennsylvania State University research.

If you don't have a weight problem, your life expectancy isn't affected, but your wallet is. The obesity epidemic is costing taxpayers and premium payers a fortune.

The Trump administration needs to launch a campaign against unhealthy eating the way the U.S. government successfully combatted smoking.

The Food and Drug Administration updated its definition of "healthy" foods in December, but the new guidelines won't go into effect until 2028. Why the snail's pace?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it's still "studying what works" for people to "have a healthier diet." Ridiculous.

It's not U.S. medical care that is failing us. U.S. cancer survival rates are among the world's highest.

But the public health agencies, including the CDC, "don't want to take responsibility" for obesity and lives cut short, says Dr. Ravi Sawhney, a former National Institutes of Health researcher on shortened American lifespans.

Trump advisers Elon Musk and Mehmet Oz also are pushing for wider coverage of semaglutides such as Wegovy, which in Oz's words do "massive good."

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressed skepticism, but he needs to consider the evidence. Research in Current Cardiology Reports on "Curbing the Obesity Epidemic" confirms the benefits of semaglutides to prevent cardiovascular, kidney and other metabolic conditions.

JAMA Health Forum revealed on Dec. 13 that the U.S. obesity rate declined for the first time in more than a decade, reflecting the success of semaglutides.

As Congress fights over Trump's health nominees and spending on health plans, both sides of the aisle need to look at the science. It's time to change course — curbing managed care controls and focusing resources with laser-like intensity on combatting obesity. Otherwise Americans will be doomed to shorter lives.