Tag Archives: Healthcare

but not enough for everyone.” A partial taken from The Conversation on Drug Prices The impact of the drug negotiations has been modest at best. There is a lot of talk and hurrahs. The results are not there yet. When I go to the outside for care, the VA pays the doctors at a minimum. If they want VA patients, them they accept minimal payments. If the VA disappeared those minimal payments would disappear. Like healthcare, pharmaceuticals are...

I would like to use Veteran Healthcare. However, the backlog is months out. So, I go to the outside for care. It is not that I want to do so. The VA has been short of staff for a while now. Much of this is a concerted effort to kick us out into public care. The present head a holdover from the Trump Admin. has not been doing much to staff the VA. This last go-around for my spine was a disaster. I met the surgeon who was good. She decided it might...

I wanted to put up the entire report. It is just too long. However, the link is there for addition reading to back up the Executive Summary. Angry Bear has been reporting on the rising costs of pharmaceuticals. Hopefully, the Executive Summary will add to Angry Bears knowledge base. PBM Report Final with Redactions House.gov Report Pharmacy Benefit Managers’ (PBMs) role as intermediaries between drug manufacturers and health insurance...

This not much of a post. It is promoting an extension of the premium credits for those who could not afford healthcare insurance previously. A simple read and a necessary one to make people aware. 195 Congress Members were Calling for an Extension of Enhanced Premium Tax Credits – MedCity News, Marissa Plescia In letters, members of Congress were urging their leadership to extend the enhanced premium healthcare tax credits which are expiring in...

by Chris Dall University Minnesota.edu “ambient air pollution and heightened antibiotic use” A new study by Spanish researchers suggests that short-term exposure to air pollution may be tied to increased antibiotic use in people experiencing respiratory symptoms. The study, was published in JAMA Network Open, found that increases of daily ambient air pollution in 11 Spanish cities over 7 years were associated with increased antibiotic...

Big Pharma has become a familiar whipping boy in the debate over healthcare costs. CAR-T therapies to treat certain cancers, for example, can cost between half a million and a million dollars for a single treatment course. What’s the prospect of a cancer cure worth to you?GLP-1 receptor agonists like semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) and tirzepatide (Mounjaro, Zepbound) are transforming the lives of obese patients. For most people, these drugs will have...

As I posted yesterday, Medicare Advantage, which now covers more than half of the Medicare-eligible population, is a rip-off for taxpayers and for policy holders. Apparently, this is finally sinking in for hospitals and health systems across the country:“In 2023, Becker’s began reporting on hospitals and health systems nationwide that dropped some or all of their Medicare Advantage contracts.“Data on this topic is limited. In January, the Healthcare...

Previouly . . . As Dr. Perry Wilson explains; “Different chronic diseases have different patterns of price increases. The biggest increase was seen in diabetes care (1993 – 2013) and driven largely by the rising prices of pharmaceuticals” of which the cost of manufacturing did not increase. Now Secretary of HHS, Alex Azar as the CEO of Eli Lilly raised the price of the century old drug Humalog used to treat diabetes by 345% taking it from...

It should come as no surprise to regular AB readers that the US for-profit healthcare system is a disaster for everyone except the executives and stock-holders. Here’s yet another confirmation:“A report out Thursday shows that the United States’ for-profit healthcare system still ranks dead last among peer nations on key metrics, including access to care and health outcomes such as life expectancy at birth. “The new analysis from the...

Bit of an Introduction ; The above chart shows the extent of the consolidation of PBMs which also portays the growing lack of competition. The chart comes from the Oklahoma petition filed in the Cleveland County District Court. Cleveland County is the fifth fastest-growing county, encompassing vibrant communities such as the southern part of Oklahoma City, Moore, Norman, Noble, Lexington, Slaughterville, Little Axe, as...