We love our kids dearly, and most of us would do most anything for them. So why can’t folks with sway get it together to make some straight-forward, common sense changes that would significantly benefit young people? Here are three suggestions, based on recent reports: Congress should make clear that it not only supports but….
Continue ReadingArchives for June 2017
Here’s why you’re getting those unsolicited mailings about clinical trials
When consumers around the country started getting letters from a company that they had never heard of, inviting them to participate in clinical trials for medical conditions that they hadn’t disclosed to many or didn’t even have, the alarms started to sound, quietly at first but with increasing urgency. Were doctors, hospitals, or other providers….
Continue ReadingWhy do drug prices soar? Blame PBJs, PBMs, weak regulators, and CME
What do PBJs, PBM “black boxes,” industry friendly advisory panels, and CME (aka doctor training programs) all share in common? They’re blamed for contributing to Big Pharma’s skyrocketing prices—and it’s worth diving into recent reports on these disparate causes to understand how Americans got into such dire shape with the costs of their medical care. Let’s….
Continue ReadingGOP senators’ Trumpcare: Meaner in many ways than even House plans
After weeks of huddling in partisan secrecy, majority Republicans in the U.S. Senate have coughed up what they’ve dubbed the Better Care Reconciliation Act , aka their version of Trumpcare. In brief, the GOP Senate bill would: Slash Medicaid, faster and more than the House version, aka the American Health Care Act End the Obama-era….
Continue ReadingObesity spreads as global bane, afflicting 604 million adults, 108 million kids
Although weight issues plague Americans as gravely as anywhere on the planet, obesity also has become a global woe, increasing sharply over the last three decades in 195 countries and afflicting an estimated 604 million adults and 108 million children—roughly 10 percent of the world’s population. No nation on earth, even with the terrible toll….
Continue ReadingBig Tobacco, preying on poor and uneducated, also hikes health inequities
Although most Americans finally may be breaking out of cigarette smoking’s killer grip, Big Tobacco keeps inflicting terrible harm on some of the nation’s most vulnerable—the poor, uneducated, and those who live in rural areas. The federal Centers for Disease Control has just offered its annual assessment on Americans’ smoking habits, providing some rare good news….
Continue ReadingUncle Sam’s bad reverse: nursing homes returning to forced arbitration
Look out Baby Boomers and Gen Xers: Just when you or your elderly loved ones may be most vulnerable and needing nursing home care, the government is going back to allowing nursing home administrators to push a pile of documents for you to sign at you at admission time. And when you put your John Hancock….
Continue ReadingWhat’s the Senate hiding on health care bill?
Bernie Sanders recently offered on Twitter what he described as a display of all the Senate Republicans’ public considerations of the American Health Care Act, aka Trumpcare: a photo of a blank piece of paper. Not a bad jibe, and a window into the deepening bipartisan dismay that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Republicans soon….
Continue ReadingBicycling injuries, medical costs rise as older, male riders crash with cars
As more Americans try to stay healthier and to beat the pains of commuting by car, bus, or light rail systems, many (including yours truly) have turned to bicycling. But as a result, non-fatal bike injuries have skyrocketed—especially for men and for riders older than 45—and two-wheel collision treatment has become expensive: The annual cost….
Continue ReadingA new infectious threat at hospitals & nursing homes: deadly Legionnaire’s
Hospitals and nursing homes, by failing to properly maintain their water systems, may be putting older patients at high risk of an unusual form of pneumonia, with federal officials tracking 1 in 5 suspected or confirmed cases of life-threatening Legionnaire’s Disease to health care facilities. Anne Suchat, acting director of the Centers for Disease Control….
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