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Big Pharma Says Drug Prices Reflect R&D Cost. Researchers Call BS (Wired)

United States. The ALS community rejoiced; the drug’s authorization was described as a “long-sought victory for patients.” But the next day, the price of the medicine was revealed: $158,000 a year. This was far higher than what the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review, an independent nonprofit that analyzes health care costs, had estimated would be a reasonable price, which […]

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Yes on California Proposition 29: This measure would protect dialysis patients’ lives (San Diego Union Tribune)

BY CARMEN CARTAGENA AUG. 24, 2022 3:45 PM PT Vote Yes on Proposition 29 on the Nov. 8 ballot would make California dialysis clinics have certain reporting requirements, ownership disclosures and at least one physician, nurse practitioner or physician assistant on-site while patients are being treated. Here, two essays argue for and against the ballot

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Some hospitals rake in high profits while their patients are loaded with medical debt (NPR)

September 28, 20225:01 AM ET PROSPER, Texas — Almost everything about the opening of the 2019 Prosper High School Eagles’ football season was big. The game in this Dallas-Fort Worth suburb began with fireworks and a four-airplane flyover. A trained eagle soared over the field. And some 12,000 fans filled the team’s new stadium, a

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Health plan shake-up could disrupt coverage for low-income Californians (LA Times)

BY BERNARD J. WOLFSON KAISER HEALTH NEWS Almost 2 million of California’s poorest and most medically fragile residents may have to switch health insurers as a result of a new strategy by the state to improve care in its Medicaid program. A first-ever statewide contracting competition to participate in the program, known as Medi-Cal, required commercial

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Biden hopes ending cancer can be a ‘national purpose’ for U.S. (LA Times)

By ZEKE MILLER and CARLA K. JOHNSON Associated Press SEPT. 12, 2022 4:33 PM PT BOSTON — President Biden on Monday urged Americans to come together for a new “national purpose” — his administration’s effort to end cancer “as we know it.” At the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Biden channeled JFK’s famed moonshot speech 60 years ago,

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US Life Expectancy in Decline – Why Aren’t Other Countries Suffering Same Problem (Council on Foreign Relations

Despite being a top spender on health care, the United States is an outlier among its peers on life expectancy. It sits well in the bottom half of countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a grouping of several dozen mostly high-income nations. FULL ARTICLE

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Largest-ever Medicare premium hikes: Biden just handed a huge “gift to McConnell” ahead of midterms (Salon)

By JAKE JOHNSON PUBLISHED JUNE 1, 2022 1:30PM (EDT) he Biden administration quietly announced last week that it will leave in place one of the largest-ever Medicare premium hikes for the remainder of 2022, despite federal health officials’ decision to restrict coverage of the expensive and potentially ineffective Alzheimer’s drug that drove the increase. Progressive

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Medicare Advantage Plans Often Deny Needed Care, Federal Report Finds (NY Times)

By Reed Abelson April 28, 2022 Investigators urged increased oversight of the program, saying that insurers deny tens of thousands of authorization requests annually. Retired municipal workers at City Hall Park in Manhattan protested in February against being switched to a Medicare Advantage plan.Credit…Lev Radin/Pacific Press/ZUMA Press Wire, via Alamy Every year, tens of thousands

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