> Having care depend on "being a successful advocate" does not sound like a good thing to me!
It's not. You have to become a horrible demanding person to get a decent level of care instead of things being nice.
It's not. You have to become a horrible demanding person to get a decent level of care instead of things being nice.
The requirement that patients fight for care isn't just a frustration. It's a documented cost driver: Health Affairs (2025) puts the total system-wide cost of prior authorization at $93.3B/year, including $35.8B borne directly by patients navigating the process. The persistence required to appeal a denial is unevenly distributed across income, education, and time availability. That is a structural equity problem as well as a cost problem. Issue #5 of this series covers the full mechanism.