(Dr. Aury Nagy) – Let’s be honest. Nevada’s healthcare system is broken.
And no, it’s not because we have bad doctors. It’s because big corporations – insurance companies, hospital chains, pharmaceutical giants – are putting profits ahead of patients.
As a doctor who’s served eight years on Nevada’s Board of Medical Examiners, I’ve seen this firsthand. And it’s time we called it what it is.
For too long, these corporations have been running the show, while the agencies meant to oversee them are underfunded, overwhelmed, or just plain ignored.
The result? Nevadans are paying the price – with their wallets, their health, and, in too many cases, their lives.
The Corporate Squeeze on Care
Ask any patient who’s been denied care by an insurance company. It’s frustrating, confusing, and sometimes deadly.
Insurance companies make their money by saying “no” or dragging their feet until people give up. They even hire out-of-state doctors who never see the patients, just rubber-stamp denials.
I believe if you pay into insurance your whole life, you shouldn’t have to beg for care when you need it.
That’s why I’m proposing we put some teeth into Nevada law – by letting trial lawyers take these insurance companies to court when they deny care unfairly.
Right now, the law is written to protect the insurance companies, not the patients. That needs to change.
Hospitals: More About Bonuses Than Bedside
Hospitals aren’t off the hook either. Many are run by corporate executives whose bonuses depend on cutting costs, not saving lives.
That means fewer nurses per patient, overworked doctors, and administrators who care more about profits than patients.
In California, they fixed this by setting nurse-to-patient ratios. And it’s saving lives. Nevada needs to follow suit.
Let’s Talk About Mental Health and Veterans
Our veterans, police officers, and firefighters see things no one should ever have to see. PTSD and depression are sky-high among these heroes, but the services to help them are almost non-existent in Nevada.
We can fix this with a small investment – $500,000 to set up centers in Reno, Las Vegas, and Henderson offering cutting-edge treatments like transcranial magnetic stimulation and even psilocybin therapy.
These treatments work. And they’ll save lives, families, and millions of taxpayer dollars down the road.
Fixing Health Insurance from the Ground Up
Here’s the deal: For-profit insurance companies are set up to make money for shareholders, not take care of people.
Mutual insurance companies – where the people who buy the insurance own the company – are a better model.
They focus on providing care, not denying it. Nevada should make it easier for mutual insurance to take root – and eventually phase out giant corporate health insurers altogether.
More ideas that just make sense…
Assistant Physicians: Let’s license medical school grads who’ve done an internship but haven’t yet landed a residency. Missouri does it, and they’ve seen no increase in malpractice.
Stop Red Tape: Healthcare providers waste hours fighting insurance denials for the care their patients need. They should be paid for that time.
Cut Out the Middlemen: Ban the leasing of provider networks that let insurers price-fix doctor payments behind closed doors.
Nutrition First: Require insurance companies to cover dietitians when it can prevent or reverse costly illnesses.
Local Control on Foods and Drugs: After what we’ve seen with the COVID crisis, it is clear that local governments need more say in which drugs and treatments are allowed in their states. This will lead to a boom in medical innovation and a reduction in the costs of pharmaceuticals in the US.
Nevada can do better. But we can’t wait for Washington or corporate lobbyists to fix it for us.
We need to take the wheel ourselves – by passing laws that put patients first, hold corporations accountable, and restore common sense to healthcare.
It’s just common sense.
If we don’t make these changes now, more Nevadans will suffer needlessly. And that’s something I can’t stand by and watch happen.
Dr. Nagy is a board-certified neurosurgeon and managing partner of Nevada Brain & Spine Care. He’s been recognized for pioneering neurosurgical techniques in Nevada and is former president of the Nevada Board of Medical Examiners. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
