The Price We Pay: What Broke American Healthcare

Also, sounding the alarm for fire safety

• Scott LaMar
  BioRecent Stories

  

  Scott LaMar has worked in both radio and television for more than four decades.
  
  Currently, LaMar is the Host and Executive Producer of The Spark program on WITF-FM, 89.5 & 93.3 in Harrisburg, Pa.
  
  Previously, LaMar was WITF TV’s Sr. Public Affairs producer and produced the station’s award-winning weekly public affairs TV program, Smart Talk.
  
  In addition to his on-air duties, LaMar has moderated political candidate debates, including those for candidates running for Pennsylvania governor and the U.S. Senate and was a regular contributor to BBC World News TV before and after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
  
  LaMar often emcees or moderates local events and has gone as far as California to emcee a national event.
  
  The American Society of Civil Engineers honored LaMar with their national Excellence in Journalism award in 2020. He has been nominated for five Mid-Atlantic Emmy Awards.
  
  LaMar and The Spark have been recognized throughout the Central Pennsylvania community including ADVOZ Lancaster’s “Dignity in Dialogue Award”, the South-Central Assembly’s “Regional Citizen Award” and was named a “Humanitarian Hero” by The Humane Society of the United States/Pennsylvania.
  
  A native of Coatesville, Pa., LaMar has also worked as a broadcast news anchor, sports play-by-play announcer and manager.

 iStock

Healthcare in the U.S. is expensive — especially if it involves tests or being treated in a hospital and those are routine care. An extraordinary medical episode like a heart attack or cancer can result in bills that reach into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s one of the reasons health insurance is important but insurance often doesn’t pay the whole bill.

Best-selling author Dr. Marty Makary says it doesn’t have to be this way.

In his newly published book, The Price We Pay: What Broke American Healthcare — And How to Fix It, Makary writes that one in five Americans currently has a medical debt in collection, up to a quarter of medical tests and prescription medications may be unnecessary according to a nationwide survey of doctors, and what patients pay for the same treatments at hospitals vary sometimes by tens of thousands of dollars for no valid reason.

Dr. Makary will be speaking in Lancaster October 15 and he appears on Tuesday’s Smart Talk.

Dr. Marty Makary, M.D., practices surgical oncology and advanced laparoscopic surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital and is a professor of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

October 6 – 12 is Fire Prevention Week and the American Red Cross is taking the opportunity to talk about keeping your home and family safe from the dangers of fire. That includes practicing an escape plan and what homes should be equipped with to prevent fire or escape from a fire.

Appearing on Smart Talk to discuss fire prevention week are Laura Hughes, Executive Director, Central PA American Red Cross, and Lisa Landis, regional director of communications, American Red Cross.

For a deeper look at the changing tide of healthcare–check out WITF’s Transforming Health. Online at TransformingHealth.org. A partnership of WITF, WellSpan Health and Capital BlueCross. Resource referenced by Dr. Makary during the program: Fairhealth.org

Smart Talk

Lisa Landis and Laura Hughes appear on Smart Talk on October 8, 2019