Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Viewpoints: 'Pay For Delay' Keeps US Drug Prices Sky High; Hospitals Must Examine Plastic Use
The Atlantic: Antitrust Has A Generic-Drug Problem
Using a tactic known as “pay for delay,” brand-name drug companies who hold the patents to blockbuster medications pay other companies to put off introducing generic equivalents. This lets them keep charging high prices. (Sandeep Vaheesan, 6/15)
The Washington Post: Single-Use Plastics Are Everywhere In Health Care. That Must Change.
Every day, U.S. health-care facilities generate 14,000 tons of waste. One patient being hospitalized results in nearly 34 pounds of waste every day. Of that waste, up to 25 percent is plastic. (Leana S. Wen, 6/15)
The Boston Globe: An Olympian’s Death Highlights This Nation’s Maternal Mortality Crisis
I know three Black women who nearly died in childbirth. All were in their early 30s, in good health, and they had access to world-class medical care. But during their pregnancies they spoke of doctors who might have been well-intentioned but seemed more eager to allay their concerns than address them medically. (Renee Graham, 6/15)
Dallas Morning News: How Long Will My Damaged Brain Allow Me To Know The Face In The Mirror?
I have had a stroke diagnosis. There is absolutely nothing intrinsically heroic about this — my father-in-law had a stroke last summer, and his cognitive function took a bigger hit than mine. In fact, I may not have any cognitive damage; I may never know about cognitive decline until such a thing prevents its full acknowledgment. (David Newman, 6/15)
St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Protect The Pill
The current push by Congressional Democrats to pass a federal law guaranteeing that states can’t prohibit the sale or use of contraception might sound strange on its face. Isn’t that already protected by the privacy rights implicit in the 14th Amendment? Yes, it is, the Supreme Court said in 1965. That was then. The same legal theory of privacy under the amendment’s “due process” clause undergirded the court’s 1973 decision in Roe v. Wade — the one the current court’s conservative majority threw out last year. (6/15)
The New York Times: Is A Revolution In Cancer Treatment Within Reach?
Doctors do not know exactly why or how breast cancer can go dormant in a patient’s body for so long, not advancing for years, until it suddenly begins to grow. But that’s what had happened. Without treatment, Ms. MacKenzie’s cancer would most likely have made its way to her vital organs and killed her. (Kate Pickert, 6/16)
Stat: Dog Cancer Can Help Identify Treatments For Humans, Too
This year, nearly 6 million dogs in the U.S. will receive a cancer diagnosis. That’s approximately three times greater than the number of Americans who will be diagnosed with cancer this year, even though humans are estimated to outnumber pet dogs by nearly 4 to 1. Yet the genetic similarities between human and dog cancers may point the way to treatments that can save lives on both ends of the leash. (Christina Lopes and James Zou, 6/16)
