Merrill Goozner
@gooznews.bsky.social
Journalist, former editor of Modern Healthcare, specializing in health care for past 24 years. In prior two decades I served as business, economics, foreign and national correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and other publications. .. more
Journalist, former editor of Modern Healthcare, specializing in health care for past 24 years. In prior two decades I served as business, economics, foreign and national correspondent for the Chicago Tribune and other publications.
Merrill Goozner, is an American journalist, author and educator. He served as editor of Modern Healthcare and ModernHealthcare.com, a weekly news magazine and daily news website covering the healthcare industry, from December 2012 to April 2017. Since then, he writes a weekly column for the magazine as well as writes and edits GoozNews, an online newsletter. .. more
Economics
52%
Public Health
23%
Border Patrol Boss And Agents Could Be Leaving Chicago This Week: Reports
Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino and federal immigration agents are expected to leave the city within days for another assignment, the Tribune and CBS News reported.
blockclubchicago.org
ICE may be reducing presence in Chicago this week. Bovino's masked goons leave behind: two people shot, one dead; protesters & first responders tear-gassed, shot with rubber bullets; citizens handcuffed & detained, including kids; and more. blockclubchicago.org/2025/11/11/b...
Capitulation put millions at risk
Soaring premiums for ACA plans are only the start of GOP plans to ransack health care
open.substack.com
Capitulation puts millions at risk of losing their insurance. And don't expect Republicans to offer relief in those December negotiations. They have other plans. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
A changed landscape for health care reform
Republicans have stopped pretending to care about universal coverage, a prerequisite for bringing costs under control.
open.substack.com
With the GOP deliberately raising the uninsured rate, there's now a transformed landscape for health care reform. It's time for Democrats to abandon the gradualist approach. open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
Republicans Have Stopped Pretending to Care About Health Care
The long-term medical cost crisis can’t be solved without universal healthcare coverage. The GOP doesn’t even have a concept of a plan.
washingtonmonthly.com
"The Republican wrecking ball has shattered one of the core beliefs of centrist health care reformers, which states: Incremental reforms will eventually lead the U.S. to the promised land of health insurance for all."
washingtonmonthly.com/2025/11/06/r...
washingtonmonthly.com/2025/11/06/r...
Stop streaming ICE recruitment ads NOW!
The Trump administration has funneled billions of dollars into these dystopian ICE recruitment ads. Meanwhile, cities are being terrorized by ICE agents who are running rampant with abuses of power, s...
sign.moveon.org
I use Spotify a lot. My wife uses Amazon Prime a lot. I think we have to start talking seriously about targeted boycotts to force corporate tech America to stop supporting the Trump regime.
sign.moveon.org/petitions/st...
sign.moveon.org/petitions/st...
The beginning of Medicare Advantage's downhill slide?
Insurers are pruning plans; purging providers; and pushing people out. John Oliver explains why consumers are souring on this over-hyped privatization program.
open.substack.com
Is Medicare Advantage about to fall to less than half of all seniors in the Medicare program? There's good reason to think so as this open enrollment season gets underway.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
"You are no longer wanted or needed"
A first-hand account of the White House purge of expertise from health-related advisory committees.
open.substack.com
Lawrence O. Gostin, JD on the White House purge of expertise from health-related advisory committees and the CDC. Reprinted with permission from the always excellent Milbank Quarterly.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
The CDC Diaspora Fights Back
How America’s scientific army is trying to stand up for public health—and stand up for itself.
open.substack.com
Insightful piece by @CitizenCohn on how infectious disease docs and researchers are fighting back against RFK Jr.’s destruction of the CDC. open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa...
The affordability crisis grinds on
Republicans push skimpy plans, health savings accounts and stricter limits on Obamacare subsidies as their non-answer to the rising cost of employer-based health insurance.
open.substack.com
Health insurance for the 154 million Americans who rely on their employers for coverage isn't working so well, either.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
Reposted by Merrill Goozner
The affordability crisis grinds on
Republicans push skimpy plans, health savings accounts and stricter limits on Obamacare subsidies as their non-answer to the rising cost of employer-based health insurance.
open.substack.com
Good perspective on rising enrollee costs in employer sponsored insurance as reported by KFF today from @gooznews.bsky.social
Indivisible Illinois At No Kings Chicago Rally! Stand With Us · Indivisible Illinois
Stand Up for Democracy with Indivisible Illinois at the No Kings Chicago Rally!
Join Indivisible Illinois at 12:30pm in front of Trump Tower Chicago as we take our place in the Indivisible Block of t...
www.mobilize.us
I'm attending Indivisible Illinois's event, “Indivisible Illinois At No Kings Chicago Rally! Stand With Us” - sign up now to join me! www.mobilize.us/indivisiblei...
Reposted by Merrill Goozner
More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
The government does not track how often immigration agents grab citizens. So ProPublica did. Our tally — almost certainly incomplete — includes people who were held for days without a lawyer. And near...
www.propublica.org
ICYMI: Immigration Agents Have Held More Than 170 Americans Against Their Will, ProPublica Finds, by @nicolefoy.bsky.social w/ photos by @sbmaneyphoto.bsky.social
WGN employee released without charges after she was 'violently detained' by federal agents, her lawyer says
Debbie Brockman, of WGN's creative services department, is a U.S. citizen who was not acting in a professional capacity when she was arrested Friday in Lincoln Square.
chicago.suntimes.com
"Ms. Brockman was taken to the ground, battered, handcuffed and her pants pulled down exposing her bare buttocks. No one should be treated like that in this city, in this country, or anywhere else in the world,” Brad Thomson, her lawyer said. She plans to sue.
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
chicago.suntimes.com/immigration/...
One million rally in Chicago!
That's right, 1 million people from 100 countries and all 50 states came to inner city Chicago yesterday to watch over 53,000 runners in the city's annual marathon. Not bad for a hellhole.
open.substack.com
A scene from yesterday's Chicago marathon and a reposting of a compelling op-ed from today's Chicago Sun-Times.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
Merrill Goozner
@gooznews.bsky.social
· Oct 10
"The commercial market will start to fall apart"
A conversation with Shawn Gremminger, head of the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. He fears the rising number of uninsured under Trump could undermine employer-sponsored plans.
open.substack.com
This week's GoozNews podcast interviews Shawn Gremminger, president National Alliance of Healthcare Purchasers Coalition. Given what's going on in Washington, he is concerned about the long-term viability of employer-based insurance. Give a listen.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
Merrill Goozner
@gooznews.bsky.social
· Oct 8
Feds Had 'Less Evidence Than A Ham Sandwich' In Dismissed Armed Protester Case, Lawyer Says
In a rare move, a federal grand jury refused to indict a couple arrested while legally carrying firearms in Broadview. Prosecutors also abandoned charges against a third protester arrested on Sept. 27...
blockclubchicago.org
Grand jury refuses to indict Chicago protesters carrying legally registered guns who were arrested by ICE as "armed rioters." "Less evidence than a ham sandwich," judge says.
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/08/f...
blockclubchicago.org/2025/10/08/f...
Merrill Goozner
@gooznews.bsky.social
· Oct 8
The cost crisis beyond the ACA
No matter what Congress does on ACA premium subsidies, both employer and employee premiums will rise at near double-digit rates next year. Democrats need to be talking about that, too.
open.substack.com
To keep the government open, Democrats insist the GOP renew the enhanced premium subsidies for ACA health insurance plans. It's a worthy fight. But they need to start talking about the cost crisis facing the 164 million Americans with private health insurance, too.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
Merrill Goozner
@gooznews.bsky.social
· Oct 8
The cost crisis beyond the ACA
No matter what Congress does on ACA premium subsidies, both employer and employee premiums will rise at near double-digit rates next year. Democrats need to be talking about that, too.
open.substack.com
To keep the government open, Democrats insist the GOP renew the enhanced premium subsidies for ACA health insurance plans. It's a worthy fight. But they need to start talking about the cost crisis facing the 164 million Americans with private health insurance, too.
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...
open.substack.com/pub/gooznews...