While Congress seems paralyzed or, at best, willing to shrink significantly its efforts to help Americans deal with the punishing costs of care in the U.S. medical system, could federal lawmakers be confronted at the same time with more compelling evidence about the need for aggressive, not timid, action? Do beleaguered constituents need to barrage….
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FDA bans Juul vaping products and seeks to slash nicotine in cigarettes
Federal regulators have cracked down on Big Tobacco and its zealous, profit-seeking promotion of products that fuel some of the leading causes of preventable disease in this country: cigarette smoking and vaping. The federal Food and Drug Administration ordered the maker of Juul, a pioneer in pushing so-called e-cigarettes and vape flavorings on the young,….
Continue ReadingWith medical ‘news’, paying attention to two N’s can matter to nth degree
While hope can be a remarkable element in healing the sick and injured, can there be anything crueler than raising false hopes among the vulnerable? Patients with serious illnesses like cancer — of the pancreas, breast, and rectum — may need to take in with extra care journalistic reports on medical advances that might affect….
Continue ReadingBanning menthol from cigarettes will save many Black lives, researchers say
Federal regulators say they soon will ban the manufacture, distribution, and retail and wholesale selling of menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, an action expected to take effect in a year or two and which anti-smoking advocates argue could save hundreds of thousands of lives of black and young Americans. The Food and Drug Administration says….
Continue ReadingSpecialized cancer hospitals hike drug costs by up to 630%, study finds
While patients often seek treatment at big, fancy hospitals, in part because they are designated as National Cancer Institute centers, these institutions provide a sticker-shock surprise for those receiving their specialized care: They jack up the already sky-high cost of prescription cancer drugs with markups going up from 120% to 630% above what they pay….
Continue ReadingFDA takes new fire for approving drugs too fast, with too little evidence
Taxpayers and lawmakers may be grasping just how far in the wrong direction the federal Food and Drug Administration has gone in approving prescription drugs for sale on U.S. markets — in too much haste and with too little facts about whether the new drugs really work and are safe. The issue, of course, may….
Continue ReadingAs ‘synthetic’ nicotine loophole shuts, warnings about cannabis edibles
Grownups have gotten stark reminders why they must stay vigilant against buck-raking enterprises that exploit young people’s experimentation with intoxicants. Even as Congress has shut a legal loophole used by the vaping industry to keep addicting its customers to harmful nicotine, other dealers are pushing candy-like marijuana edibles on youths. In passing a $1.5 trillion….
Continue ReadingAs Biden reprises ‘moon shot,’ cancer battle’s constraints are clear, too
President Biden, returning to an important health issue with which he has deep, tragic personal connection, has reprised a White House call for a “moon shot” campaign to keep the public and the medical establishment focused on finding even more effective ways to battle cancer, a leading killer of Americans. Biden wants the nation to….
Continue ReadingU.S. has hit blood crisis and donors needed urgently, Red Cross says
It has no artificial replacement. Patients can require enormous amounts of it, suddenly and quickly, as well as on a sustained basis. But safe, abundant supplies of blood are desperately needed now, the Red Cross says, having declared what it says is its first-ever national crisis with the country facing its most dire shortages in….
Continue ReadingPatients can’t escape reminders of U.S. health care’s brutal costs
Soaring medical costs crush the finances of far too many patients, as the public was reminded by the release of an annual report on the high toll of cancer-care spending and a surprising congressional reverse aimed at reining in runaway prescription drug prices — or at least attempting to. Leading organizations dealing with cancer treatment….
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