Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Veterans Waiting Longer To Receive Prescription Drugs In The Mail
AP: Lawmakers: Postal Changes Delay Mail-Order Medicine For Vets
Policy changes that slow delivery at the U.S. Postal Service are taking a toll on military veterans, who are reporting much longer wait times to receive mail-order prescription drugs, according to Democratic senators. In a letter Friday, the 31 senators take aim at new Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a GOP fundraiser who took the post in June and has since imposed several operational changes that have led to mail backlogs across the United States. His cost-cutting measures have come as President Donald Trump rails against increases in mail-in voting and says he may hold up postal funding to impede the balloting in November. (Yen, 8/14)
In other news —
American Medical Association: What Your Patients Must Know About Rx Shopping Online
With millions of newly unemployed Americans facing the prospect of losing access to the prescription drugs they need, physicians are being urged to raise awareness with their patients about the dangers of shopping online for cheap medicines. The National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP) notes that 95% of websites that sell prescription-only medicine are doing so outside the law, without licenses to dispense medication in the U.S. They are dispensing medications that “are foreign, unapproved, substandard, and counterfeit,” the NABP’s Executive Director/Secretary Lemrey “Al” Carter, PharmD, MS, RPh, wrote in a recent letter to the AMA. (O'Reilly, 8/18)
Vox: 2020 Election Voters Want Covid-19 Vaccine And Treatments To Be Free
America’s long-running debate over prescription drug prices feels more urgent than ever during the Covid-19 pandemic. Most people are rooting for the US drug industry — self-styled, and not without reason, as the most innovative in the world — to develop a vaccine or a cure for the disease that has taken more than 160,000 American lives. But the hope is tempered by an unavoidable fear in the country with the world’s highest medical prices: Will it be affordable? (Scott, 8/12)
Health Affairs: Democrats Will Adopt Their Health Care Platform Next Week -- Here’s What It Says
After four years in the veritable wilderness of the Trump Administration and Republican-controlled Senate, Democrats have some pent up policymaking zeal to express. If Joe Biden succeeds in winning the presidency and the party takes control of the upper chamber, which polls suggest is within reach, they will have a wide avenue to institute these aspirations. (Wynne, 8/14)
Stat: Trump's Facebook Ad Blitz Casts Biden As Pharma's Choice
President Trump’s reelection campaign is appealing to swing voters by attacking “Big Pharma” in a new digital advertising blitz. In Facebook and Instagram ads launched on Sunday, Trump touts a plan to lower prescription drug prices and casts his Democratic opponent, former vice president Joe Biden, as the drug industry’s preferred candidate in November’s election. (Facher, 8/18)
