If You Can't Afford $4,500 for a Dose of Medicine, You Don't Get to Live

https://goo.gl/u6HEqs

The war on opioids is in full force, and we are losing. More than 64,000 Americans will die overdose deaths this year. Tighter regulations on prescription narcotics may just be shifting those with opioid addictions back to heroin cartels. During his last term, President Obama signed a bill funding $1 billion into programs combating opioid addiction, including programs that increased access to naloxone, the antidote for opioid overdoses. The current administration announced this year its plan to grant $485 million from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to states to fight opioid addiction. At the same time, synthetic opioids like carfentanil are proving highly resistant to common doses of naloxone, sometimes requiring 10 or more doses of naloxone to reverse an overdose.

The opioid crisis quickly became a state of emergency. More than 40 states responded by making naloxone available without a prescription for the express purpose of enabling family members to revive their loved ones in case of overdose. Other local initiatives have involved the push to make naloxone available to all first responders, including the police and even their K9s who may be exposed to lethal levels of opioids at crime scenes.

While these initial strides have helped to combat deaths from opioid overdose, the financial burden is becoming exhausting. Naloxone has been on the market since 1971 and became generic in 1985. The drug itself is cheap, with current wholesale price cited as $0.33 for a 2ml vial or $11.70 for 10 2ml vials by the International Medical Product Guide. Comparatively, in the US, a simple vial of naloxone is 40 times that price. Price-gauging poster child Mylan of the now infamous EpiPen scandal sells naloxone at $23.72/ml, Hospira sells it at $14.25/ml, Amphastar at $19.8/ml and West-Ward at $20.40/ml.

These prices are for the drug naloxone only, and do not include any of the delivery devices like auto-injectors or nasal injectors. As a result, they are only helpful to medically-trained persons like paramedics, often funded by state and local taxpayer dollars. Citing cost concerns, communities have begun to propose "one and done" or "three strikes" rules where people are limited on the number of overdose responses they get from city ambulance services -- so the next time they call, the city will just let them die. Middletown, Ohio, was one of those cities -- a town that is on track to spend over $2 million this year responding to opioid addiction problems, with $100,000 on Narcan alone.


I’m Not “Better Off Dead”: The Problem With Assisted Suicide Legislation

https://goo.gl/rEmycU

Last week the Victorian Lower House passed an assisted suicide bill (euphemistically labelled a “voluntary assisted dying” bill) that has received significant opposition from disabled activists and palliative care bodies. The bill went to the Upper House, ironically, on Halloween and is currently being debated. A favourable Upper House vote seemed inevitable but some startling last-minute MP decisions have made the vote more precarious.

I am terminally ill and degeneratively disabled. Under the Victorian bill I would qualify for accessing assisted suicide as soon as it is available. And sorry, but that’s bullshit.

Disabled people are constantly taught that our lives are lesser because we are disabled, that disability is a tragedy, that disability is about suffering, that a disabled life is worse than death. Andrew Denton’s pro-assisted-suicide podcast is even titled Better Off Dead.

Disability is not a bad thing. We are disabled by our environments, by inaccessible infrastructure, by a world that values certain kinds of bodies and not others. Disabled suffering is not somehow more profound or unsalvageable than other kinds of suffering, like poverty, or domestic violence, or racism, or transmisogyny.

Euthanasia and assisted suicide, according to Palliative Care Australia, are fundamentally incongruous with palliative care. Assisted suicide is not designed to help disabled and terminally ill people. It is designed to help abled people who fear becoming disabled.


Michigan's no-fault auto insurance reform defeated in House of Representatives

This is a real victory. Of course, I suspect the insurance companies will be back at trying to screw people with severe disabilities from auto accidents this morning.....
https://goo.gl/xetHmS

In a stinging defeat to Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Speaker of the House Tom Leonard, the House of Representatives defeated an overhaul of Michigan's no-fault auto insurance system on a 45-63 vote Thursday night.

The vote came after 90 minutes of debate on the House floor with Republicans and some Democrats saying the bill may not be perfect, but it was a good start in providing relief from the highest auto insurance rates in the nation.


VA Delays Key Agent Orange Decisions

Of course, they postponed it. Then they will cancel it......
https://goo.gl/oJPQFa

(M)ore than eight months later — and after his department promised a decision by Nov. 1 — the VA essentially punted, issuing a statement late Wednesday saying it would “further explore” the issue and pushing its decision to some undisclosed point in the future.

The VA said the department would now work with others in the Trump administration to conduct a legal and regulatory review of conditions for awarding disability compensation to eligible veterans.



Trump’s Obamacare sabotage accidentally resulted in more free health plans

https://goo.gl/s7rBfF

People can start buying insurance on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace, otherwise referred to as Obamacare or the Federal Health Insurance Exchange, on Wednesday. Last year, 12.2 million people signed up for an ACA health plan through healthcare.gov or their state’s own health website. Given the dysfunction coming from Washington, D.C., consumer activists are concerned that not as many people will sign up for coverage this year. (Pro-ACA groups have projected anywhere between 1 to 3 million fewer people will enroll.)

This open enrollment period, things will be a little different. Nearly every health expert has found that the change in premium prices this year can largely be attributed to the current administration’s actions on health care. About 2 millionpeople who rely on the ACA for their health insurance and receive no federal assistance will see premium increases that range between 17 to 35 percent for the lowest-cost plans. Additionally, people in eight states, or 29 percent of enrollees, will have only one insurance company option — a nine percent increase from last year. More competition tends to drive costs down. Robust insurer options has always been challenging, even under the Obama administration.

But overall, things aren’t as bad as they could be. And despite President Donald Trump’s intentions, Obamacare isn’t dead. People, who do receive federal assistance for their health insurance, should know that if they take the time to shop, most could purchase a plan similarly priced to last year’s or — in some cases — even cheaper (despite the president’s intentions). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) released reports Monday on how the marketplace fares this year, and it doesn’t bode bad for all consumers. In fact, 80 percent of plans offered on healthcare.gov are $75 or less, just nine percent more than last year, according to HHS.

The Trump administration is making it harder for people to enroll in the ACA in a number of ways:

  • Shutting down the healthcare.gov website for 12 hours nearly every Sunday
  • Cutting funding by 40 percent to groups that help people enroll. (Cuts have shut down or scaled back a handful of navigator groups nationwide.)
  • Slashing the advertisement and promotion budget by 90 percent. (Now, most enrollees don’t know about key open enrollment dates.)
  • Made premium subsidies less generous at first. (The administration put in place a new rule that tethered the subsidy to a less generous plan.)
This is a pretty bleak description of open enrollment, but it’s not all that way.

To get a good deal, consumers are advised to shop around. This is true for most shopping experiences, but it is especially crucial (and harder) for people looking to buy plans on the Marketplace this year. Last open enrollment period, nearly 3 million people automatically re-enrolled in their health plan. This year, these people — and others tempted to do the same — are being told to browse around first.