Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: How Concerning Is The Siberian Plague Scare?; US Healthcare Crisis Is Becoming An Economic Crisis
The New York Times: The Siberian Plague Scare Reveals That America Is Unprepared
America is not prepared for a major disease outbreak. (Gigi Kwik Gronvall, 10/8)
Bloomberg: Healthcare's Risk To The Economy Is Now Too Big To Ignore
Americans 65-and-over cohort have exploded to 18% of the population, or 63 million people and an increase of 17 million in the past decade. Seniors consume much more healthcare than the rest of the population, and pay for it through Medicare, the US health-insurance program created in 1965 to help older Americans afford their medical bills. (Jonathan Levin, 10/8)
Stat: HHS Leaders On Fixing 340B Drug Discount Program
Some Medicare patients owe more in coinsurance than the hospital paid for their drug. That arithmetic sounds impossible. It is a consequence of the 340B drug discount program and Medicare’s payment formula. Now the Department of Health and Human Services, where I work, is proposing to narrow that gap. (Casey B. Mulligan, 10/8)
Stat: U.S. Must Catch Up On Hepatitis C Elimination
In September, “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson opened up about her hepatitis C diagnosis in the 1990s. “It was a death sentence,” she said while accepting the Award of Courage from amfAR, an organization supporting HIV/AIDS research and advocacy. When she was diagnosed, she said, her doctor told her that she might only live another 10 years. (Philip A. Chan, Alan Epstein and Amy Nunn, 10/8)
The Washington Post: Your Pain Is Real. But Beware Social Media Psychiatry.
The diagnosis is supposed to come after the symptoms. Online, it often comes first. (Nebyou Belay, 10/8)
