AARP and the Commonwealth Fund Send Congress a Warning: We Oppose Dismantling Medicaid.

If Tom Price and the Republican Congress plan to roll over health care, they are in for a fight. That is becoming increasingly clear. The latest messenger was the powerful AARP – not commenting (yet) on Medicare, but rather putting out opposition markers to the idea of Medicaid block grants. The complete AARP statement is […]

Uncoupling Scientific Progress From Human Progress: Part III. The Loss of Checks and Balances: “Bayhing for blood or Doling out cash?”

Mike Magee The results of the Bayh-Dole Act were dramatic, at least for health care institutions. While 380 patents were granted to them in 1980, that number soared to 3088 by 2009. Those patents, now under the control of individual scientists and their parent academic institutions, were subsequently licensed to corporations for the development of […]

Uninsured Rates Vary Geographically. The Election Could Change That.

The national uninsured rate is at its lowest – 8.6% of the population. But pockets of hold-outs exist nationwide. WalletHub’s analysts compared the 2016 rates for 548 U.S. cities as well as the 50 states then broke down the figures by age, race/ethnicity and income level. J. Oberlander, in this week’s NEJM, has projected that […]

An FDA Golden Voucher That’s Too Good To Be True.

Mike Magee Thirty-six years ago, as Ronald Reagan assumed the presidency, Congress cried “uncle”, in the face of America’s perceived global non-competitiveness in pharmaceuticals. They had been convinced by the persistent voices of Louis Lasagna and University of Chicago economist Sam Perltzman that there was a “drug lag” in America, and that it was the […]

Mylan EpiPen? What About Medicare Part D?

Mike Magee Pediatric drug prices have led the news recently with the fantastic and purposeful price escalation of Mylan’s EpiPen. With all that going on, it would have been easy to miss the analysis of the complete Medicare Part D year over year costs (2014 vs. 2013) that were recently released. 70% of Medicare patients […]

Lessons from Ebola in the Age of Zika

Mike Magee In the run up to the Olympics, and now as they have drawn to a close, Zika has been top medical news when it comes to exotic infectious diseases. It’s story has been so compelling that the mosquito borne disease has pushed Ebola to the sidelines – an epidemic which infected 28,616 Africans […]

The Medicalization of Public Health: “Precision Medicine” vs. “Precision Health”?

NIH Director Francis Collins Mike Magee Last week I was at a small, invitation only dinner in New York City, and left a bit downcast and feeling “odd man out”. I saw the failure as mine alone – an inability to articulate succinctly, and in few enough words, my concerns about the evening’s topic: Precision […]

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