Forbes January 5, 2026
In my year-end look back at healthcare in 2025, I described a medical system consumed by chaos, conflict and relentless drama. Yet despite unprecedented political turmoil, cultural division and major technological breakthroughs, there was little meaningful improvement in how care is paid for or delivered.
That outcome was not surprising. American healthcare is extraordinarily resistant to change. In most years, even when problems are obvious and widely acknowledged, the safest bet is that the care patients experience in January will look much the same in December.
But when meaningful change does occur, it is usually because motivated leaders find themselves in rare political and economic conditions. Think of President Barack Obama in 2009, with unified Democratic control of Congress and...
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