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Documentary Examines Big Medicine, Anti-Depressants, and Suicide – Film Review
By Bonner Russell Cohen and AnneMarie Schieber Review of SICK: Unmasking Big Medicine (Daily Caller News Foundation), 52 minutes, 2024 The public health establishment’s response to COVID-19—prolonged lockdowns and school closures, vaccines that provided no immunity and didn’t stop transmission, and mask mandates that served no public health function—came as a rude awakening to many…
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Private Equity Skirts Malpractice Laws in Texas
A medical malpractice lawsuit claims the University of Texas at Tyler Health Science Center (UT Tyler) fraudulently hires physicians as medical school professors to protect them from malpractice litigation. The lawsuit claims Ruben Garcia, M.D., failed to share a cancer diagnosis with patient Michael Simington, aged 67, for a year and a half, costing Simington…
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Menthol Tobacco Ban Delayed Again
Menthol tobacco ban delayed again by Biden Administration; lacks any scientific justification, targets blacks, doesn’t deter smoking. By Jeffrey A. Singer, M.D. In April 2022, the Food and Drug Administration announced plans to ban all menthol cigarettes and cigars. In December 2023, after several civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, expressed concerns about…
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Small Firms Introduce More Drugs at Lower Costs—Report
Drug price controls in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) will not stymie the introduction of new products, because innovative drugs are increasingly being developed and marketed by smaller companies with less capital and revenue than Big Pharma, according to the Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity (FREOPP). A report by Gregg Girvan, FREOPP health care…
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States Expand Pharmacists’ Prescribing Authority
Colorado, Idaho, and Montana have broadly expanded the prescribing authority of pharmacists to make health care more accessible and to lower costs, a new report states. Expanding pharmacists’ scope of practice can decrease the burden on emergency departments and help cover physician shortages for basic care, especially in rural areas, because pharmacists are more numerous…
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Medigap Increases Medical Consumption and Drives Up Costs—Study
Medicare enrollees who purchase Medigap insurance spend an average of $2,300 more annually on health care than those who don’t, according to the authors of a Michigan Retirement and Disability Research Center (MRDRC) study. In an MRDRC working paper titled “Insurance Purchases of Older Americans,” funded by the U.S. Social Security Administration (SSA), University of…
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Does Medicare Underpay Physicians?
There is a shortage of physicians in the United States. There is especially a shortage of primary care physicians willing to treat Medicare enrollees. People nearing the age of Medicare eligibility are often advised to begin searching for a primary care physician who accepts Medicare a year in advance. Based on data published in 2020, the…
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Obamacare Searching for Success Stories 14 Years Out
Fourteen years ago, President Barack Obama signed into law the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or Obamacare, the most sweeping overhaul of the health insurance market in U.S. history, on March 23, 2010. To celebrate the anniversary, the Obama Foundation featured 26 interviews on its website that “bring to life so many moments of triumph, impact,…
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‘Facility Fees’ Are the New Surprise Medical Bills – commentary
The Wall Street Journal reports that facility fees are becoming increasingly prevalent in the U.S. health care system. In some cases, a facility fee for using a physician employed by a hospital nearly triples the cost of those services. The WSJ article describes how Tim Ebel’s visit to an Ohio ear, nose, and throat clinic in a local hospital…
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EPA Restricts Chemical Sterilizer of Medical Equipment
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced new limits on a gas widely used to sterilize medical devices called ethylene oxide (EO), as a suspected carcinogen, on March 14. The agency first proposed new restrictions in 2023, recommending an 80 percent reduction in the use of the chemical. The new standards seek a reduction closer to…
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