Post Author: Naomi Freundlich

We live in a culture of mental health haves and have nots

Policy
July 4, 2016

In 2008, mental health advocates hailed the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act as “historic;” putting an end to what Sen. Edward Kennedy called “the senseless discrimination in health insurance coverage that plagues persons living with mental illness.” The law requires most group health plans to offer coverage for mental health and substance use disorders equal to that provided for medical problems. Two years later, the Affordable Care Act extended …

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Ignore Martin Shkreli. Focus on drug prices instead.

Meds
February 28, 2016

Activism over prescription drug pricing has reached a fever pitch. The recent House subcommittee hearings featuring testimony (or non-testimony in the case of bad-boy Martin Shkreli) from Turing Pharmaceuticals and Valeant executives provided an outlet for public outrage over those companies’ price gouging on life-saving drugs. Meanwhile, presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both talked up plans to rein in spending on prescription drugs, and even Donald Trump …

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Workplace wellness programs: Are they really failures?

Policy
September 27, 2014

There’s been a lot of controversy recently about workplace wellness programs: Do they save money for employers on health care costs? Can they produce measurable benefits for employee health? Do they unfairly punish people who are unable to participate? Are these programs just a ploy to shift medical costs to unhealthy employees?

Recently Austin Frakt and Aaron Carroll revisited these questions in a piece for the New York Times’ Upshot column, “Read more…

After Halbig: What’s next for Obamacare?

Policy
August 11, 2014

After more than 40 attempts to pass legislation calling for repeal or significant changes to the health law, opponents of the Affordable Care Act have moved their focus from the House floor to the courthouse. Currently at least four lawsuits are working their way through state and district court — and one case awaits a nod from the Supreme Court — that would make it illegal for the federal government …

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Generic drugs play a central role in reining in health care spending

Meds
November 20, 2013

It was a huge relief to Carol Thompson in 2011 when her breast cancer drug Femara (letrozole) went off patent and became available in a generic version. With a high deductible in her private insurance plan, Thompson was forking over $450 for a month’s supply of the life-saving drug. After the generic hit the market she was thrilled to find letrozole available for just $11 a month at Costco. But …

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Is it too soon to declare the Affordable Care Act a failure?

Policy
November 11, 2013

It is hardly an understatement to characterize the health insurance exchange rollout as a big disappointment. A botched website poses a serious problem and threatens to dampen enthusiasm for the new law — especially among the coveted “young invulnerables” who need to sign up for coverage to keep premiums affordable for all. In the short term, the website troubles put the Obama administration firmly back on the defensive, scrambling to …

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Turning health care into a giant used car lot

Policy
July 28, 2013

I’m not a big fan of bargaining and my half-hearted attempts to get a better price for a used car, garage sale find or contractor’s service have been mostly unsuccessful. There’s always that nagging feeling that the seller is laughing with delight once I’m gone, thinking, “I really pulled one over on that rube!”

And so it has come as somewhat of a shock to me that medical care has become …

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Buying private insurance for Medicaid recipients

Policy
May 25, 2013

Arkansas is now the first state to use Medicaid expansion dollars to buy private coverage for many of its 250,000 newly eligible residents rather than enroll them in the existing Medicaid program. The Arkansas House of Representatives approved the plan, followed by the  Senate, to confirm that the state will be implementing this “market-based approach” to expanding Medicaid.

The idea of buying private insurance for Medicaid recipients is emerging as a “conservative …

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Do annual physicals do more harm than good?

Policy
November 14, 2012

It sounds like heresy, but recent evidence challenges the long-held belief that the annual physical is beneficial for healthy adults. Researchers at the Nordic Cochrane Center in Copenhagen wrote that although a regular check-up with multiple screening tests might seem to offer the advantage of catching problems like heart disease and cancer early, their review of studies involving some 180,000 adults actually found no benefit. People who had …

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Is our high cost of cancer care worth it?

Policy
April 19, 2012

The U.S. spends far more on cancer care than 10 European countries, but according to a new study, it may be “worth it” as “the value of the survival gains greatly outweighed the costs.”

The study, published this week in Health Affairs, found that U.S. spending on cancer care, in 2010 dollars, increased by 49% from 1983 through 1999, from $47,000 per cancer case to $70,000 per case. Meanwhile, in …

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The safety of approved drugs needs to be closely watched

Meds
October 21, 2011

Over the past decade or so, there have been at least 20 prescription drugs removed from the market, including several cases of high-profile blockbuster drugs that were found to be harmful only after millions of patients had taken them. Vioxx, the pain reliever sold by Merck is one example; taken by an estimated 20 million Americans, it increased the risk of heart attack and stroke in some patients. The company …

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Implications of Nebraska’s ill-conceived fetal pain law

Policy
July 27, 2011

Danielle and Robb Deaver are living proof of the awful reality of Nebraska’s ill-conceived “fetal pain” law. The law, which took effect last October and is the only one of its kind in America, prohibits abortions in the state after the 20th week of pregnancy. It is based on the discredited notion that a fetus may feel pain at that stage of development. Physicians who break the law face …

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The government reversal on end of life planning

Policy
May 5, 2011

After all the ridiculous fear-mongering about “death panels,” Congress dropped a proposal to encourage end-of-life planning from the health reform legislation passed last March.

But the administration had in fact quietly included reimbursing doctors for end-of-life counseling along with a host of new Medicare regulations. The provision, which authorizes payment for “voluntary advance care planning,” went into …

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Physician barriers to EMR acceptance

Tech
December 19, 2010

Recently, I had my first visit with my new primary care doctor.

I picked him based on recommendations (plus he’s one of the few that accepts my insurance), and also because he seemed to be an eager adopter of electronic medical records (EMR). On his website, there was a portal for making appointments on-line, asking questions of the doctor and staff by e-mail and once a registered patient, I could also …

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Are Alzheimer’s disease screening tests ready for the public?

Conditions
September 18, 2010

In April, an independent panel established by the National Institutes of Health came to the disheartening conclusion that currently, there is nothing to prevent or delay the progress of Alzheimer’s disease in those of us who are destined to join the 5 million Americans currently suffering from this dreaded ailment.

The panel  found that: “Although numerous interventions have been suggested to delay Alzheimer’s disease, the evidence is inadequate to conclude that …

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Why abstinence only sex education is a waste of money

Patient
June 18, 2010

Since 1992, the federal government has spent close to $1 billion on abstinence-only sex education, despite growing evidence that these ideology-based programs are ineffective in delaying the onset of sexual activity, preventing teen pregnancy and the spread of sexually-transmitted disease among teens.

Meanwhile, comprehensive sex education—the kind where teens are given information about both abstinence and contraceptives—has received virtually no federal funding.

That’s why it was so encouraging when President Obama released …

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