Education in Modern Web Development for the University Community / The Healthcare Sector and the Failure of Single-Payer Health Plans in the United States

What are the institutional barriers to optimum service delivery? To succeed, institutions must solve problems, and as problems change, institutions must be adaptable. By slowing adaptation and innovation, entrenched ideas and procedures can prevent institutional problem solving.

Relevant web development education can yield attractive career opportunities, yet it is largely inaccessible at the University of Virginia. In fall 2021, non-profit Forge offered Source, a 10-week web development course, to develop students’ industry skills through project-based learning. In the course, students used the React.js user interface library and explored fundamental web technologies, a Backend-as-a-Service, and version control systems. Students ultimately built and presented portfolio-ready web application projects. Future iterations of the course should emphasize software architecture and offer students more opportunities to use fundamental web technologies.

In the U.S., how have hospitals, pharmaceutical firms, and health insurance companies thwarted single-payer health insurance proposals? The U.S. healthcare system leaves many uninsured, produces worse outcomes than most other OECD nations, and costs more per person than any other country. In response, a growing movement, now with majority support, favors a single-payer system. Health insurance firms, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies have mobilized to prevent implementation of a single-payer system. To pursue its objective, the healthcare sector exploits its advantage in resources to wage public relations campaigns and to lobby legislators. These enterprises claim that single-payer plans would limit freedom, increase taxes and costs, decrease quality of care, and disrupt popular institutions.