Dave Chase: Community-owned health plan catalyst

As Medicare cuts loom let’s compare fee for service compensation: Veterinarians=cash or credit. Dentist=insurance+your portion cash or credit. Doctors=insurance+0-50$ copay. Since doctors can’t charge more for overhead, the private practice is being replaced by patient mills.

One of the healthcare industry’s biggest problems is our ability to “call our baby ugly.” Make no mistake—it’s an ugly baby. Maybe the ugliest. But when we fail to see things clearly, when we normalize the abnormal, we rob ourselves of opportunities to improve. We hold ourselves to lower standards. We start enabling and supporting industry practices that we ourselves would never want for ourselves. So in 2025, I urge you to start seeing things clearly—and help others see them clearly yourself. To quit gaslighting yourself and others. To stop celebrating things that are fundamentally anti-patient. To quit representing incremental as innovative. And from whatever corner of the industry you work—start working towards making things *truly* better. But it starts with: 1) Calling things what they are 2) Being more authentic; and 3) Leading from first principles. Wishing you an impactful, honest, and authentic 2025.