Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
Pulmonary & ICU doctor, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, past president PNHP, author "To Heal Humankind", dabbler, tweets my own.
Webpage: https://dradamgaffney.com/
Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KChlDTsAAAAJ&hl ..
more
Pulmonary & ICU doctor, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, past president PNHP, author "To Heal Humankind", dabbler, tweets my own.
Webpage: https://dradamgaffney.com/
Google scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=KChlDTsAAAAJ&hl
Economics
37%
Public Health
31%
Our article in Health Affairs Forefront on the “real waste, fraud, and abuse” in healthcare — Medicare and Medicaid privatization — is now up.
MA Overpayments & excess Medicaid managed care overhead could cost as much as $1.9 trillion in coming decade.
www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/f...
MA Overpayments & excess Medicaid managed care overhead could cost as much as $1.9 trillion in coming decade.
www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/f...
Congratulations on this publication - important work
@awgaffney.bsky.social starting with our 2025 data update!
Another great PNHP annual national conference !
Reposted by Adam Gaffney
Amin
@aminad.bsky.social
· 9d
Social Determinants of Health and Racial Disparities in Lung Function: Findings from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2007–2012 | American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care...
doi.org
🗞️Hot off the press in @atsblueeditor.bsky.social!
Our analysis shows that unfavourable social and environmental exposures
explain a much larger share of racial disparities in lung function than previously thought.
Details: doi.org/10.1164/rccm...
@msafavi.bsky.social @awgaffney.bsky.social
Our analysis shows that unfavourable social and environmental exposures
explain a much larger share of racial disparities in lung function than previously thought.
Details: doi.org/10.1164/rccm...
@msafavi.bsky.social @awgaffney.bsky.social
Reposted by Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social starting with our 2025 data update!
Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Claims on Healthcare Aren’t Just Xenophobic—They’re False
Far from draining the nation’s healthcare coffers, immigrants are actually shoring them up. But that reality is inconvenient for Republicans.
inthesetimes.com
... that they are SUBSIDIZING it. Yes, immigrants (including undocumented) pay more into public and private healthcare programs than they use in services, subsidizing the native-born.
inthesetimes.com/article/trum...
inthesetimes.com/article/trum...
...eligible for Medicaid were it not for their immigration status, so-called "Emergency Medicaid" (<0.5% of Medicaid spending).
That is it.
This is just non-stop lying & scapegoating. Immigrants are not "taking" native-born Americans healthcare. In fact, research shows...
That is it.
This is just non-stop lying & scapegoating. Immigrants are not "taking" native-born Americans healthcare. In fact, research shows...
...for whom it matters: Undocumented immigrants are not eligible for Medicaid, Medicare, or ACA subsidized plans, full stop. There is a negligible amount of Medicaid funds for hospitals that (as they should and legally must) provide emergency care to some people who would be...
It's not clear to me how to respond to this endless stream of unrepentant, shameless lying from unrepentant, shameless liars like this. To be clear: I believe in taking care of everyone no matter where they're from, so I'm not so interested in these distinctions. But for those...
* associated with it amongst the powerful and influential
Easy to feel despondent now, but it’s important to remember that there is a real possibility that the Trumpian political project crashes & burns, anyone remotely associated with it is permanently discredited politically & morally, & a window opens for substantive positive change.
‘It’s only gotten worse’: As ACA premiums are set to climb, some Americans opt to go uninsured
Enhanced subsidies for Obamacare have kept premiums affordable. Absent action from Congress, they will expire at the end of the year.
www.nbcnews.com
"Unless you are extraordinarily rich, it is effectively not possible to save enough money to cover the costs of a serious illness or major trauma,” Gaffney said. “For the uninsured, medical debt and bankruptcy is just one major illness or injury away.”
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
www.nbcnews.com/health/healt...
So an anonymous billionaire Trump ally is dispersing $130 million in personal cash to US troops.
Truly crossing new rubicons weekly
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...
Truly crossing new rubicons weekly
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/10...
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Thanks Rob
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
but also lead us to unhelpful remedies or to misunderstandings of our illness. Particularly during this age of unprecedented and politicized anti-vaccination fervor, the establishment of a dubious 'post-vaccination syndrome,' on shaky science, is dangerous."
Link below.
Link below.
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
This was how I concluded my STAT piece in March on "post-vaccination syndrome":
"But diagnoses are pragmatic constructs, structured both by biomedical realities and by social and political discourses. They can help us identify useful treatments and avoid injurious exposures,
"But diagnoses are pragmatic constructs, structured both by biomedical realities and by social and political discourses. They can help us identify useful treatments and avoid injurious exposures,
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
No doubt: this is a complex issue in the clinic, requiring care, nuance, and humility.
But **enshrining diagnoses** premised on cause-and-effect processes that may not be present helps no one.
But **enshrining diagnoses** premised on cause-and-effect processes that may not be present helps no one.
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Challenging popular understandings of the underlying cause of non-specific symptom complexes is not popular, whether in the vaccine realm or in other domains.
These challenges are often criticized as "medical gaslighting", or more academically as "epistemic injustice."
These challenges are often criticized as "medical gaslighting", or more academically as "epistemic injustice."
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
... higher depression/anxiety scores in the Yale study. This does not mean the vaccine caused it: it could also well be that depression was a driver of their physical symptoms, which is extremely common, a hypothesis that was not considered by the study authors.
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
as the New York Times put it. Of course, as I wrote at the time, differences in some such parameters (many very small) could have many explanations — including depression itself, which is a biological process. Indeed, those with self-described post-vaccination syndrome had ...
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Once you accept that premise, and then run huge numbers of assays examining average differences in biological parameters, you will find some differences that can then be used to conclude that those with post-vaccine syndrome (PVS) have "distinct biological changes,"
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
...published earlier this year, which generated so much excitement in right-wing anti-vaccine circles (not the fault of the authors) was the implicit premise of a "post-vaccination syndrome" definable by individuals' understanding of their symptoms being caused by vaccines.
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
... issue in depth in March.
The widespread attribution of non-specific symptom complexes, including depression, to vaccinations should not be accepted as causal, even if that is how many people experience it.
The fundamental flaw of the Yale preprint,
The widespread attribution of non-specific symptom complexes, including depression, to vaccinations should not be accepted as causal, even if that is how many people experience it.
The fundamental flaw of the Yale preprint,
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 15
Anti-vaccine myths surged on social media ahead of the CDC shooting
Before the shooting, social media companies relaxed their protocols around misinformation.
www.nbcnews.com
In wake of the CDC shooting, so-called "post-vaccination syndrome" has come back into discussion, as this report from
@nbcnews.com describes. The assailant attributed health issues including depression to COVID-19 vaccines.
I'm quoted, & wrote about the...
www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...
@nbcnews.com describes. The assailant attributed health issues including depression to COVID-19 vaccines.
I'm quoted, & wrote about the...
www.nbcnews.com/tech/interne...
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 3
Senate HELP Committee Hearings: Healthcare Affordability, the "Big Beautiful Bill", and Medicare for All
Last Thursday I had the opportunity to present at the Senate HELP Committee at a hearing entitled "Making Health Care Affordable: Solutions to Lower Costs and Empower Patients." Chairman Sen.
open.substack.com
A quick short post on Thursday's Senate HELP hearings on healthcare affordability:
open.substack.com/pub/healthcl...
open.substack.com/pub/healthcl...
Adam Gaffney
@awgaffney.bsky.social
· Aug 1
Debt and delayed care forecast for some who lose insurance under tax and spending law
Delayed treatments, canceled doctor visits and skipped prescriptions: Researchers say all will increase because of the tax and spending bill signed into law by President Donald Trump earlier this…
apnews.com
The AP has a story on the impact of Medicaid cuts for patients and our study quantifying those effects nationally — the accompanying video is powerful as it presents the story of a patient with cancer worried about falling between the cracks.
apnews.com/article/medi...
apnews.com/article/medi...