Tag: corporate influence

A Health Care Betrayal: The Ethical Crisis Surrounding Steward Health and the Demise of Community Hospitals

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by Stephen Wood

In an era where health care inequities already burden marginalized populations, the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care culminating in the closure of several hospitals in Massachusetts, represents an unconscionable ethical failure. As these hospitals prepare to shut their doors, the communities they serve — comprising many uninsured, underinsured, and socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals — are left abandoned. Behind this crisis is not only fiscal mismanagement but the outright theft of funds by executives such as Ralph de la Torre, whose actions are tantamount to a betrayal of public trust.

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Hundred dollar bills rolled up in a pill bottle

To Address the Overdose Epidemic, Tackle Pharma Industry Influence

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By Liza Vertinsky

A recently released government report estimates that 93,000 people died from drug overdose in 2020. This estimate reflects a jump in the death toll of almost 30% from 2019 to 2020, with opioids as a primary driver.

In response, President Biden has called for historic levels of funding for the treatment and prevention of addiction and drug overdose.

Transforming mental health and addiction services is a critical part of tackling the overdose crisis, but it is not enough, on its own, to address this epidemic, or to prevent a future one. We must also alter the conditions that fueled expanded use, and abuse, in the first place. As I argue in Pharmaceutical (Re)capture, a forthcoming article in the Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law and Ethics, this includes a change in how we regulate markets for prescription drugs.

To truly combat the epidemic, I suggest, we have to understand how pain became such a lucrative business and how regulators failed to protect the public health as the market for prescription opioids grew. Then, we need to put this understanding to work in the redesign of pharmaceutical regulation.

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