The American health care system is broken. Conflicts of interest dominate the structure, killing any chance we have for a healthier nation. Patients pay more and stay sick. Politicians argue and nothing changes.

But this problem presents a unique opportunity for our fractured society: as ‘Fox and Friends Weekend’ co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy said last week, better health outcomes may be the most unifying issue of our time.

In 2019, to no great fanfare, the Trump administration made vital adjustments to set the stage for transforming today’s chronic disease system that keeps patients sick to a true health system that makes people well. 

Under the leadership of Seema Verma, then director of our nation’s Medicaid and Medicare systems, we developed crucial infrastructure to demonstrate the transformative potential of integrated health care systems. Simply put, four new Medicare billing codes were added to fund chronic care management and continuous remote disease monitoring.

With this, we set a course to address more than 75% of the nation’s $4 trillion in annual health care costs: chronic disease management. Before we could implement this simple bipartisan reform, the coronavirus pandemic seized the world. Priorities changed quickly.

These codes, and the work that went into establishing them, are still the foundation of fundamental reform. The next administration, Republican or Democrat, must follow through on that work to transform structural health care problems. This will cut costs while improving the health of our nation.

Our problems are driven by the conflict of interest between health care providers and insurers. Providers are incentivized to maximize patient visits and treatments; insurers strive to minimize payouts. This misalignment plagues our nation with fragmented care, higher costs and poor patient outcomes. 

Indeed, this conflict kills. 

To address this, we must integrate health care services with insurance functions under a unified model. Integrated and aligned, health care providers and insurers work together to improve patient health outcomes.

By also leveraging advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and ‘internet of things’ (IoT), we will create continuous and proactive engagement with patients, particularly those with chronic conditions. This model provides personalized care and early interventions, reducing the need for costly emergency treatments and hospitalizations.

The primary focus of this model is patient well-being and improved outcomes. AI monitoring helps predict health issues and enables timely interventions which prevent complications and greatly enhance patient outcomes. Importantly, effective chronic disease management also reduces overall costs to the health care system.

Continuous monitoring and data analytics allow for better risk assessment and management. Insurers can dynamically adjust premiums based on real-time health data, rewarding patients for healthy behaviors and adherence to treatment plans. This incentivizes patients to take better care of their health and reduces the financial risk for insurers by minimizing high-cost claims.

The integration also leads to significant cost savings by reducing administrative overhead and eliminating redundant processes. With a unified system, there is a seamless flow of information between patients, health care providers and insurers. This brings better resource utilization and operational efficiency while improving workflows that highlight prevention. 

The savings can be reinvested into patient care and technology advancements. This will further improve the system and our nation’s health. 

For health care providers already integrated, like University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and Kaiser Permanente, the model improves crucial metrics for success: more consistent patient engagement and better health outcomes. 

Providers will be able to prioritize their time to those who will benefit the most while doctors supervise AI-driven routine interactions. Meanwhile, much healthier patients will enjoy personalized care and lower insurance premiums.

Technology advancements are key to addressing ongoing health care structural problems. AI and IoT devices monitor patient health in real-time, detecting potential health issues early and facilitating timely interventions. For instance, AI can help assess and identify patients at high risk of developing chronic conditions, prompting preventive measures to avert serious health problems. 

By understanding and engaging patient behaviors, we can encourage adherence to treatment plans and healthy lifestyle choices. To reduce the frequency and severity of claims, chronic disease patients can be urged toward more healthy behavior – ‘no more sweets today’ texts can save lives.

The integrated model has far-reaching implications for both the health care and insurance sectors. It challenges the traditional silos and fosters a collaborative approach to health care delivery and insurance management. By aligning the goals of both sectors, the model ensures financial incentives are directed toward maintaining and improving patient health, not just managing illness.

This shift toward a proactive, patient-centered approach is particularly transformative for managing chronic diseases, which are major cost drivers in the health care system. With the continuous engagement and personalized care Director Verma envisioned in 2019, patients with chronic conditions can achieve better health outcomes. This saves money and lives.

The future of health care is clear and bipartisan: an integrated system focused on improved health outcomes. Building on the infrastructure we established in 2019, this model leverages advanced technologies and a unified approach to healthcare and insurance, promising sustainable and scalable improvements – and better care for all.

For most of the past three years, Vice President Kamala Harris has been even more unpopular than her historically unpopular boss, President Biden, due largely to her responsibility as a key player in the administration’s disastrous open border policies. 

In light of Harris’ failures and unpopularity, it wouldn’t have been surprising if Biden had decided to replace her on the ticket with someone more competent.  If Biden had done that going into the Democratic convention, and Harris had claimed that she got to keep the Biden campaign’s hard-earned campaign funds, she would have been laughed out of the room.

After all, the money was all raised into the ‘Biden for President’ campaign, with Harris’ name not included in ‘paid for’ disclaimers and Harris not mentioned in the joint fundraising committee notices. Donors were not informed that the money could go to Harris, perhaps because of her unpopularity, or perhaps because it was never intended to go to her. 

Either way, if Harris couldn’t have kept Biden’s money upon being replaced on the ticket, then she also can’t keep Biden’s money when he was forced to withdraw because of infirmity.

Within hours of Biden’s announcement that he was withdrawing from competing to be his party’s nominee, the Harris team amended the Biden campaign’s Federal Election Commission (FEC) Statement of Organization to instead be for ‘Harris for President,’ with the bizarre committee e-mail address of fec@joebiden.com. 

There is no legal authority for this unprecedented maneuver of replacing one candidate’s name with another on a FEC Form 1, and FEC Chairman Sean Cooksey diplomatically noted that ‘it raised a host of open questions about whether it is legal.’

Cooksey was no doubt being circumspect because he knows that the FEC is going to need to evaluate forthcoming complaints regarding the legality of this maneuver, but the reality is that because of timing issues, the FEC is not suited to take action until it is too late. 

The Harris campaign is aware, for example, of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit’s recent ruling regarding the illegal actions of Correct the Record coordinating with the Hillary Clinton for President campaign. If it has taken eight years to deal with the Clinton campaign’s illegal coordination, then the Harris team likely believes that any penalty they are sanctioned with for impermissibly using the Biden campaign’s money will be years in the future.

While the FEC usually has exclusive jurisdiction for regulating federal campaign fundraising, many state attorneys general have a consumer protection mandate that is implicated by the now Harris campaign’s deceptive fundraising practices. 

The funds in question here were raised for candidate Biden and 11 C.F.R. § 110.1(b)(3) makes clear, ‘If the candidate is not a candidate in the general election, all contributions made for the general election shall be either returned or refunded…’ 

Donors understood that the $3,300 per donor raised for Biden’s general election account would be refunded to them if Biden didn’t become his party’s nominee and make the general election. Now, Biden clearly isn’t in the general election, and instead of refunding millions of dollars of such money to donors, the Harris campaign appears to be simply taking it. 

That sounds a lot like the definition of fraud, which is in most cases a state crime within the jurisdiction of state attorneys general.

In the course of investigating Republican campaign fundraising practices in 2021, the Democrat attorneys general offices for Maryland, Connecticut, Minnesota and New York jointly explained that ‘Political donors have the right to be safe from fraud and deception.’  

Now, you have money that was raised under the Biden disclaimer being simply transferred to a different candidate without notice to or consent from donors.  That looks like fraud and deception and should be investigated.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., criticized the Biden administration’s handling of Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, arguing that it has fed his regime’s strongman image and emboldened him in his more authoritarian aims. 

‘In my view, it strengthened them internally, and I think gave him the boldness to say: I can get away with this now,’ Rubio argued. ‘I’ll be condemned. They’ll snap back some sanctions, people will say mean things about me, but in a few months… 2 million more people will leave Venezuela. I’ll put some people in jail and crack down on them, and the people around me and the regime will remain loyal, because I’ve proven that I can win and, I can win in negotiations.’ 

Rubio explained that he believes the root problem lies with the people President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have around them, which includes ‘people who are convinced that you can negotiate a good outcome anywhere.’

‘There are some people that you simply can’t just close because of their nature and because of their interests,’ Rubio insisted. ‘There isn’t going to be a diplomatic solution, unfortunately, in the short term… particularly when you’re dealing with authoritarians that are trying to figure out how to stay in power.’ 

Anti-government protests have continued in the days following the late July presidential election that the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council handed to the incumbent with an alleged victory margin of 51%, compared to 44% support for the opposition. 

Pre-election polling (which is illegal in the country) showed that opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez had double the support that Maduro and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) had. Venezuelans took to the streets in peaceful protest, but Maduro sent out police to crackdown on them and to clear the streets, leading to violent clashes and escalation. 

Maduro on Wednesday asked the country’s Supreme Court to audit the election, responding to claims that the opposition had won the election and international claims that the election was not fair and free, but many argue that PSUV has such thorough control over every part of the country’s judiciary it is ‘compromised.’ 

Ultimately, the Biden administration on Thursday declared Gonzalez the rightful winner of the election, arguing that, ‘Given the overwhelming evidence, it is clear to the United States and, most importantly, to the Venezuelan people that Edmundo González Urrutia won the most votes in Venezuela’s July 28 presidential election.’ 

‘The democratic opposition has published more than 80% of the tally sheets received directly from polling stations throughout Venezuela,’ U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a press release. ‘Those tally sheets indicate that Edmundo González Urrutia received the most votes in this election by an insurmountable margin.’

The U.S. State Department stressed that Maduro’s victory followed with ‘no supporting evidence’ and that the U.S. ‘consulted widely with partners and allies around the world’ and ‘none have concluded that Nicolás Maduro received the most votes this election.’ 

The U.S. helped broker the Barbados Agreement between the Venezuelan president and the opposition parties in his country last October, seeking free and fair elections in exchange for sanctions relief. Maduro immediately backtracked on the agreement by suspending primaries over alleged corruption just one month after signing the deal. 

The State Department then in April allowed the relief, known as General License 44, to expire. The license allowed Venezuela to perform transactions related to oil and gas sector operations, despite acknowledging that Maduro had delivered on ‘some of the commitments’ on the electoral roadmap. 

A National Security Council spokesperson told Fox News Digital that it is ‘inaccurate to characterize’ the Barbados Agreement as a ‘quid pro quo.’ 

‘We significantly changed the sanctions policy we inherited from the previous administration because there is no question that the previous administration’s sanctions policy was not working and led to the exodus of 8 million Venezuelans,’ the spokesperson said. 

‘In October we calibrated our sanctions policy following the Barbados Agreement to show Maduro and his representatives that things could be different, if only they followed through on their commitments — which they now are not doing, and you can anticipate swift USG [United States Government]action very soon,’ the spokesperson argued. 

Jorge Jraissati, a Venezuelan foreign policy expert and President of the Economic Inclusion Group, bemoaned that the Biden administration has ‘not done enough at all’ through an ‘erratic’ policy towards Venezuela at a time when America’s support remains essential to achieving meaningful progress.

‘It lacks strategy,’ Jraissati said. ‘It has relied on empty promises on the part of Maduro, and, as a result, the Maduro regime has been able to strengthen their position internationally, as well as their finances.’

‘To bring freedom to Venezuela, we need a real strategist in the White House,’ Jraissati added. ‘We need a foreign policy doctrine that leverages America’s mind power and its vast geoeconomic tools. We need a president that understands the national security and economic importance of Venezuela.’

‘When it comes to the American people, we need their brightest minds to join our cause,’ he urged. ‘We need the strategic mind of U.S. businessmen, new technologies built in Silicon Valley and the intellect of America’s greatest experts.’

The State Department did not respond to a Fox News Digital request for comment.

In the biggest prisoner swap with Moscow since the Cold War, the Biden administration on Thursday secured the liberation of 16 American and German nationals held prisoner in Russia and Belarus in exchange for the release of eight Russians. 

The top of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s list was hit man Vadim Krasikov, who used the cover name Vadim Sokolov and was convicted by a German court for the 2019 assassination of a former Chechen commander near Berlin’s parliamentary building. 

‘Krasikov is a high-ranking colonel in the elite Spetsnaz unit of the FSB,’ Rebekah Koffler, former DIA intelligence officer and author of ‘Putin’s Playbook,’ told Fox News Digital in reference to Russia’s intelligence agency the Federal Security Service (FSB).

‘Krasikov is a very high-value asset who will be debriefed by the Russian security services on the operation, how he got apprehended, what he learned during the interrogations in Germany, and everything the Russians are interested in,’ she explained. ‘These debriefings will help the Russians to make improvements in their operational tradecraft for Russian intelligence.’

Koffler also said it is likely the Putin operative will be used to train ‘would-be assassins for future operations, making them even more lethal and difficult to detect and apprehend. … Putin also wants to show to would-be recruits that he would personally get involved in getting his people out if they are caught. It’s a huge recruitment incentive.’

Reuters reported that Krasikov, who was born in Kazakhstan in 1965 while it was still part of the Soviet Union, became a specialist assassin while working for the FSB, according to Bellingcat reporting. 

Despite multiple witnesses to his assassination of the Chechen commander, which was carried out in daylight, Krasikov pleaded innocent and maintained he was a St. Petersburg construction engineer visiting Berlin as a tourist who went by the name Sokolov.

Though he was never directly confirmed as an agent by Moscow, Putin indirectly spoke of Krasikov in 2023 when he expressed a desire to secure the release of someone who ‘eliminated a bandit in one of the European capitals.’

Ukraine’s Security Service helped investigators identify the Russian FSB agent after obtaining footage of the man during his second wedding held in Kharkiv in 2010. 

According to Reuters reporting, Krasikov never recognized the court during his trial and frequently refused to listen to the translation of the proceedings provided to him.

Reports have suggested the prisoner swap would not have taken place without the release of Krasikov, placing an enormous weight on the shoulders of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

‘Our obligation to protect German nationals and our solidarity with the USA were important motivations,’ the German government said Thursday, according to a Reuters report.

President Biden also championed Germany’s efforts in the prisoner swap and said, ‘I particularly owe a great sense of gratitude to the chancellor.’

‘The demands they were making to me required me to get some significant concessions from Germany,’ he said. ‘But everybody stepped up. Poland stepped up, Slovenia stepped up, Turkey stepped up.’

‘It matters to have relationships. It really does,’ Biden added.

Among the prisoners set to return to the U.S. are Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former Marine Paul Whelan and Russian-American journalist Alsu Kurmasheva, along with legal permanent resident Vladimir Kara-Murza.

The other 12 prisoners to be brought back from Russia are all German nationals who were held as political prisoners. 

The massive swap involved at least seven countries over a number of months to pull all the Russian prisoners requested by Moscow from the U.S., Germany, Norway, Slovenia and Poland, the White House said on Thursday.

‘There has never been, so far as we know, been an exchange involving so many countries, so many close U.S. partners and allies working together,’ National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan told reporters.  ‘It’s the culmination of many rounds of complex, painstaking negotiations over many, many months.’

Biden called the historic swap a ‘a feat of diplomacy.’

‘Some of these women and men have been unjustly held for years. All have endured unimaginable suffering and uncertainty. Today, their agony is over,’ he said in a statement.

Reuters contributed to this report.