Category: Hyeongsu Park

By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang

• As individual states continue their internal political debates over state-by-state Medicaid expansion, Florida’s Senate Committee rejected the measure. However, the panel continued to debate a possible compromise that would allow the state to receive more federal funding while also encouraging citizens to seek alternative options to Medicaid.
• An opinion piece in the New York Times called for holding generic drug manufacturers more accountable for damaging side effects. The case of Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. v. Bartlett will be argued this month in the Supreme Court. Bartlett, who experienced painful, debilitating effects from taking a generic drug manufactured by Mutual, is seeking to hold Mutual liable for its defective drug design.
• A new UN report frames bioethics from another point of view, calling for its application as an “anti-torture” ethic. This report on torture and healthcare phrases many of the health and rights violations of torture practices as important bioethical considerations.
• In the international sphere, the Australian state of Tasmania has taken steps to liberalize its abortion laws.
• As debate swirls around the mandatory labeling of foods with GMO ingredients, Whole Foods has announced that it will require such labels in all its stores by 2018.
• Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are expecting a litigious year, as reported by a survey of chief IP counsels working in the industry. This highlights the growing importance and conflict over the protection of patents and intellectual property in the sector.
• Small businesses have been trying to exploit a “loophole” in the ACA requirement for small business health insurance marketplaces by offering self-insurance. This practice, more typical of large companies, allows small businesses to simply pay most of their workers’ health expenses directly.
• Employers are protesting a fee charged by the federal health care law, which would require them to pay $63/person that they insure. This fee was intended to offset the cost of covering people with high medical bills, but opponents claim it is unfairly subsidizing individual plans.

By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang

• As the federal government clambers to meet deadlines and broker deals ahead of the sequestration, Medicare remains, again, one of the more contentious issues. While Medicare spending has slowed, Democrats are resisting any further spending cuts to such entitlement programs beyond the $300 billion reduction agreed upon last year.
• The healthcare sector has been suffering from a lack of consensus and resources, both financial and in human capital. Adding to these burdens is the federal panel on the health care work force that, two and a half years after its creation, has never met because they were never appropriated any funding. The commission was created to debate over crucial details of the health care law.
• Despite the hullabaloo in Europe over the contamination of beef products with horse meat, the U.S.D.A. is on the verge of approving a horse-slaughter plant in New Mexico for the human consumption of equine meat.
• Lower-income consumers have been waiting for the release of knockoff versions of highly expensive biotech drugs, but it seems that they will have to wait some more. Pharmaceutical company projects to create such “biosimilar” drugs have faltered and policy has not been clearly established as to how to proceed.

By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang

• In an unexpected reversal of policy, Florida Governor Rick Scott announced his support for a three year expansion of Medicaid in Florida. Once a critic of the federal health care proposals, Governor Scott joins a growing number of Republican officials who have swapped sides on the Medicaid expansion debate.
• While considering the terms of health care packages, the Obama administration decided that mental health care coverage must be a component in health care insurance. This mandate was met with mixed reactions, as health insurance plans have been also split into multiple tiers offering varying degrees of services and provisions.
• In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court reinforced the authority of the Federal Trade Commission to block hospital mergers under antitrust legislation. While hospitals have been arguing that these mergers allow for a broader provision of services, the FTC pointed out it also increases hospital leverage with insurance companies, potentially raising prices.
• A Kentucky hospital and 11 cardiologists are facing a lawsuit backed by hundreds of individuals over the use of unnecessary, risky procedures over more than two decades of operations.
• The FDA recently released warnings strongly advising against the use of codeine for children. Codeine had been used as pain relievers after the removal of tonsils or adenoids, but there had been a series of overdoses and deaths even when it was prescribed within an acceptable range.
• A controversial piece of legislation pending in Texas offers the possibility of allowing doctors to place do not resuscitate (DNR) orders on their patients if the patients are deemed “medically ineffective.”
• A recent NPR debate showcased various experts considering the question of whether we should prohibit the genetic engineering of babies, and to what extent parents’ choices could constitute genetic engineering.

By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang

• In the continued push to strengthen the mental health care system, a bipartisan group of senators advanced a bill that would improve access to mental health care at a community level. This was met with vocal support from many mental health rights groups.
• The issue of assisted suicide has become increasingly pushed into the political arena, with several states reporting a considerable push for the legalization of physician assisted suicide. Such proposals are being seriously considered in over half a dozen states around the country.
• Confusion has swirled in Louisiana after the recent law change to no longer accommodate smokers in psychiatric hospitals. This defies a tradition where those suffering from mental illness were even encouraged to take time everyday to smoke.
• From a detailed analysis of the recently released White House-ordered spending cuts, it seems that food inspections, meals for the poor young and old, and other public services would face severe cuts. However, entitlements such as Medicare and Medicaid seem to be relatively stable in government funding.
• State and federal officials have been working to preserve “MinnesotaCare,” its subsidized health care plan for the working poor. Policy makers have been moving swiftly to protect the thousands under MinnesotaCare’s purveyance before the federal health overhaul takes place.
• The FDA has released a warning of a new fake batch of anti-cancer drug Avastin. This is the third such case of counterfeit Avastin in the past year and there has been legal pressure to ensure further counterfeit drugs are not introduced to the market.

By Hyeongsu Park and Kathy Wang

• 40 years after the Supreme Court decision of Roe v. Wade, the legal fight over abortion continues on.  Washington and Arkansas legislatures have been debating new restrictions on availability and coverage of such procedures by state and private insurance.
• In light of renewed concerns over gun control, there has been a focus on mental illness and corresponding health care. However, critics point out that this may be unfair, cautioning lawmakers to avoid making rushed decisions regarding mental health services.
• With Washington state introducing the possibility of introducing a ballot initiative to require the labeling of foods with genetically modified ingredients, major food companies and advocacy groups have been began pushing for a uniform system of food labeling.
• Biotechnology firms have been increasing their lobbying efforts to limit generic competition of their top-selling drugs, citing research costs, patient safety, and loss of revenue. Several states have already begun considering these proposals and acting upon them.
• Earlier this week, House Speaker Will Weatherford announced that in the coming session, lawmakers would finally reach a decision over expanding Medicaid in implementing the Affordable Care Act.
• Since the full legalization of marijuana in Colorado and Washington state, the decriminalization of marijuana at the state level has been a rising issue. Advocates of the legalization of marijuana have now turned to the possibility of influencing national legislation as well.
• After last week’s vote by the FDA to toughen the restrictions on certain painkillers, critics have immediately begun voicing their concerns that  this action would not help drug addiction or overdose, and instead simply make it more difficult for patients to actually receive adequate dosages, leaving them in pain.