Recently Peggy, an Indiana woman and reader of this column, sent me a lengthy email about her 94-year-old mother who is rapidly spending down her minimal savings to pay for prescription drugs. Peggy didn’t hold out much hope that prices would come down before it was too late for...
You’re not alone in wanting to fix a broken system that perpetuates high prices.
Across the country, expanding the dental workforce to include dental therapists is one of a very few health care proposals that attracts support from lawmakers in both parties.
With Congress set to debate “Medicare-for-all,” Tarbell examines efforts by health insurers to take over past health care reforms.
Oral Health in America:Removing the Stain of Disparity details inequities to an oral health care system that disproportionately affects the poor, those without insurance, underrepresented and underserved communities, the disabled, and senior citizens. This book addresses issues in workforce development including the use of dental therapists, the rationale for the...
Researchers at Brown and Columbia Universities found that disenrollment from MA plans “may indicate that plans do not meet the preferences of enrollees with significant chronic illness.”
The Democratic debates may make you think Americans are scared of "losing" private insurance. But candidates who Medicare For All are still going strong.
"Even I was dismayed when I learned I'd have to go into an NHS hospital."
Consumers hoping a couple of recent policy proposals might lower prices for their prescription drugs may be out of luck, at least for now. Earlier this year, the Trump administration had proposed a rule that would have required prescription drug manufacturers to disclose list prices for drugs advertised on TV. ...
David Lichtenstein A new treatment could extend David’s life by 33%. But he can’t afford to take it. David Lichtenstein has ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, and likely has only 3 to 5 years to live. This summer, the FDA approved a new treatment called Redicava that could extend...
Even if investors are still unsure how the Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Celgene merger might pan out, one thing is certain: executives will get bigger salaries and the resulting Big Pharma company will likely get a surge of power. With investors’ initial hesitance pushed aside, Bristol-Myers Squibb investors approved...
“We need to give the criminal purveyors of these products no quarter,” Scott Gottlieb, FDA Commissioner, said.
“There are millions of people in this country who can’t afford to go to the dentist. Millions.”
The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main trade association for the drug industry, wrote $14.3 million in checks in 2015 to a panoply of nonprofit think tanks, disease advocacy groups and charities. The money is spread around liberally to win friends, to win influence, and to win the...
Yes, Novartis secretly paid Trump lawyer Michael Cohen $1.2 million to gain insights into the president’s thinking on health care. But there is more to it.
Is the U.S. ready for a discussion about paying for caregiving, an increasingly vexing and costly problem for a growing number of Americans? The answer may be “yes.” It has become obvious that long-term-care insurance is not the answer to paying for nursing homes and other kinds of care for...
Maybe – just maybe – Americans will get some relief from the relentlessly rising prices of pharmaceuticals. That of course depends on Congress pushing back against the drug companies’ formidable lobbying machine, their generous campaign contributions, and the industry’s historical coziness with members of Congress. But this year seems different. When...
If ever there were a weak link in hospital care, it's what happens when you or a loved one leaves the hospital. It's becoming clear that the process known as discharge planning is deficient, can be harmful, and sometimes results in a patient's decline. One in five patients across the...
There is clear evidence the pharmaceutical industry manipulates well-intentioned laws to increase prices and profits. We’ll use two laws as our case studies, the Orphan Drug Act of 1983 and the Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984 which jumpstarted the generic drug industry. The first was designed to give incentives to drug...
Studies show life expectancy in the United States is going down while it continues to go up in other developed countries.