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For most of his life, Harris Marquesano struggled to live inside his own skin. He was a sweet boy — affectionate with his parents, protective of his little sister and devoted to his friends. But he had more energy than he knew what to do with, and he worried almost constantly. In preschool, when his teacher had to have surgery, he was so distressed by her absence that he tried to take over his classroom, presiding over each playgroup like a tiny, anxious general. By junior high, he was acting out in earnest. Some of Harris’s teachers suggested to his mother, Stephanie Marquesano, that he was just testing limits. But she knew it was more than that. “He was crawling out of his own skin half the time,” she said. “Running around and acting out was the only way for him to manage that feeling.” (Jeneen Interlandi, 6/24)

When asked the question “Why do health insurance companies exist?” A reasonable person would likely respond that the role of health insurance companies is to use their influence to negotiate and keep healthcare costs low for members. This same person might then be infuriated to find out that as a single person with effectively no negotiating power, oftentimes, they could potentially end up paying less out of pocket for medical services than what insurance companies negotiate on their behalf. (Ross Klosterman, 6/23)

For years, racism mandated that Black people and other people of color in the United States use back doors to enter restaurants, movie theaters, and other public places. While these practices have ended, digital back doors may once again make them and others second-class citizens when it comes to health. Digital back doors are technological processes and tools used in health care, such as racially biased algorithms, infrastructural limitations, and dirty data. These unwittingly exacerbate existing health inequities, which the World Health Organization defines as “systematic differences in the health status of different population groups.” (Kim Gallon, 6/24)

In 2021, BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee paid out a record-high of $16.76 billion in claims costs to meet the health care needs of our members. Unfortunately, rising costs are predicted to continue: the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services reports that health care costs are expected to rise another 3.6% in 2022. This is especially relevant now as the Wall Street Journal has reported that hospitals want to continue raising treatment costs, even as consumers face the daily effects of inflation. (Robin Young, 6/24)