All posts tagged: health care

Britain’s Conservatives just agreed the world’s toughest smoking ban. Tory MPs hate it – POLITICO

Britain’s Conservatives just agreed the world’s toughest smoking ban. Tory MPs hate it – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

Blue fury In the event, 59 Tory MPs voted against the measure at its second reading Tuesday night. Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch — seen as a key contender to become the next leader should the Tories lose the election — was among those in Sunak’s own ministerial ranks voting against the bill, citing what she called “significant concerns.” At least six members of the government payroll voted against Sunak, and Badenoch’s fellow Cabinet minister Penny Mordaunt — another post-Sunak leadership favorite — abstained. There were more than 100 Tory abstentions. Ahead of the crunch, and recognizing the likely opposition from his party, which contains a sizable libertarian caucus, Sunak had offered a free, un-whipped vote. That meant his parliamentary troops could rebel without punishment on a matter of conscience. The opposition Labour Party, riding high in the polls in an election year, painted the move as a sign of weakness on Sunak’s part. Labour MPs were ordered to vote in favor of the legislation. Sunak is genuinely set to make history — just don’t expect …

Ireland moves to allow assisted dying – POLITICO

Ireland moves to allow assisted dying – POLITICO

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“Dying people who want this valid, end-of-life option do not have time to wait or waste,” she said, adding that a general election in Ireland — which has to be held by March 2025 but which could come sooner given the Irish premier’s resignation on Wednesday — shouldn’t prevent legislation moving forward. But not everyone agrees. Eoin O’Malley, a Dublin City University politics professor, said there’s been “almost no public debate” on the issue. “It’s slightly concerning that the debate hasn’t happened, because of the tendency of the political system to plough on with important laws that can be labelled ‘progressive’ without considering their consequences (as happened on gender self ID),” he said. David Farrell, a politics professor at University College Dublin, said the “recent debacle” over the family and care referendums — which saw voters reject a bid to modernize constitutional language on social issues — means that a public vote on the issue “is not going to happen any time soon.” “I fear the political elite will now put the brakes on future referendums …

Why is it so hard to deliver a European health data deal? – POLITICO

Why is it so hard to deliver a European health data deal? – POLITICO

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It was supposed to be the final political negotiation to get a deal on a European health data sharing law over the line before the EU election. Instead, negotiators turned in at 5 a.m. Friday morning empty-handed, and by lunchtime, accusations were flying from tired attendees who sought to explain why they failed to reach an agreement. Members of the European Parliament and the Council blamed each other for being entrenched in their positions and coming to the meeting unwilling to budge. Some pointed the finger squarely at one political grouping, Renew, for its MEPs not even showing up. The European Health Data Space (EHDS) is designed to deliver an EU-wide system for citizens’ health data, to improve care across borders. It’s also pitched by the European Commission’s health division, which drafted the EHDS, as a boon for research, supplying academics and industry with reams of health data to study. But some have argued that the Commission’s drive to deliver a trove of valuable health data from 450 million citizens — and the public health …

A look ahead – POLITICO

A look ahead – POLITICO

Published by skeptic

Twenty years ago. 2004. The year the Olympics returned to their birthplace of Athens. I was also returning home to Italy to commence a new job in the biopharmaceutical sector, then and now a critical European industry.  It was also the year, in Brussels, that two directives — governing medicinal products for human use, and community procedures for the authorization of medicine products — were adopted. These directives provided the framework for medicine development since. Such medicine development takes time. Still in 2004, at AbbVie (or Abbott at the time), scientists were persevering with test after test to turn an idea into a molecule, and to turn that molecule into a cancer medicine.  Their winding road was long, but ultimately successful, during which time this group of researchers were the first to map a new protein family. In 2006, human trials began. Ten years later, the drug was approved in Europe for a type of blood cancer. Twenty years ago, chemotherapy dominated the treatment of these patients. It is not the case anymore.  Today, as …

5 Questions With Dr. Hugh Mighty on Diversity and Health Care | Healthiest Communities Health News

5 Questions With Dr. Hugh Mighty on Diversity and Health Care | Healthiest Communities Health News

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Key Black leaders in health care converged in the nation’s capital this week to take part in a two-day summit focused on health equity, examining how approaches are evolving to meet the needs of vulnerable communities and how executives can address hurdles and headwinds standing in the way of meaningful change. Among the summit’s participants was Dr. Hugh Mighty, senior vice president for health affairs at Howard University – one of the few historically Black colleges and universities in the U.S. with a medical school. U.S. News & World Report caught up with Mighty – an OB-GYN with extensive experience in medical higher education – to discuss the current state of efforts to improve diversity, equity and inclusion within health care, as well as the direction those efforts need to go. The interview below has been edited for length and clarity. Michael Robinson Chavez|The Washington Post|Getty Images Dr. Hugh Mighty receives a coronavirus vaccine at Howard University Hospital in 2020 in Washington, D.C. What would you say is the greatest challenge in the effort to …

Eliminating cervical cancer to save women’s lives – POLITICO

Eliminating cervical cancer to save women’s lives – POLITICO

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In an unprecedented era of medical breakthroughs, we now have the possibility to eliminate cervical cancer in Europe. The ‘Advancing Cervical CancEr ScreeningS’ (ACCESS) International Consensus Group on Cervical Cancer, a multidisciplinary coalition at the forefront of this battle, is calling for urgent political action to ensure that this historic opportunity is not lost. Cervical cancer is considered a major health concern worldwide. In the EU, there are around 33,000 cases of cervical cancer and 15,000 deaths each year (1). HPV vaccination is now available as a highly-effective prevention intervention with the primary target group of adolescents, but it will take many years before the entire population is protected. National screening programs for adult populations have been very successful in reducing the burden of cervical cancer.” Where in place, national screening programs for adult populations have been very successful in reducing the burden of cervical cancer. Since the 1980s, they have helped to reduce cervical cancer rates by up to 80 percent (2). Despite their success, it is alarming that we are seeing a significant …

End War Profiteering in the Defense Industry

End War Profiteering in the Defense Industry

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America’s national priorities are badly misplaced. Our country spends, with almost no debate, nearly $1 trillion a year on the military while at the same time ignoring massive problems at home. We apparently have unlimited amounts of money for nuclear weapons, fighter planes, bombs, and tanks. But somehow we can’t summon the resources to provide health care for all, child care, affordable housing, and other basic needs. The United States remains the world’s dominant military power. Alone, we account for roughly 40 percent of global military spending; the U.S. spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined, most of whom are allies. Last year, we spent more than three times what China spent on its military. David Frum: Yes, the U.S. can afford to help its allies Not counting supplemental spending, the United States plans to dedicate about $900 billion to the military this year. Almost half of this amount will go to a handful of huge defense contractors enjoying immense profits, which have significantly increased as a result of the war …

Israel pounds Gaza, formally rejects ‘unilateral recognition’ of Palestinian statehood – POLITICO

Israel pounds Gaza, formally rejects ‘unilateral recognition’ of Palestinian statehood – POLITICO

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“Both yesterday and the day before, the WHO team was not permitted to enter the hospital to assess the conditions of the patients and critical medical needs, despite reaching the hospital compound to deliver fuel alongside partners,” he said. He estimated that there are still “about 200 patients” in the hospital with 20 in urgent need of referral to other hospitals to receive health care. The Israeli strikes come amid growing fears of a regional escalation of the Israel-Hamas war and growing international calls for a cease-fire.  Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Sunday likened the war to the Holocaust, telling reporters during an African Union summit in Addis Ababa: “What is happening in the Gaza Strip with the Palestinian people has no parallel in other historical moments. In fact, it did exist when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the remarks as “disgraceful and grave.” The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said it would summon the Brazilian ambassador for a reprimand. Israel on Sunday also formalized its …

Half of trans people in US have considered moving out of state because of anti-LGBTQ laws: survey

Half of trans people in US have considered moving out of state because of anti-LGBTQ laws: survey

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Nearly half of transgender people in the U.S. have considered moving to another state because of legislation in their home state that threatens to curtail access to things like gender-affirming health care, public restrooms and school sports, according to a survey published Wednesday by the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). Roughly half, or 47 percent, of the more than 92,000 transgender and nonbinary people surveyed by NCTE, a nonprofit group that focuses on transgender policy reform, said they had thought about moving to another state at some point during the past year because their state government had either pursued or passed laws that target the transgender community. Around 5 percent of respondents — just north of 4,500 people — said they had already moved because of anti-LGBTQ legislation, according to Wednesday’s report, the latest iteration of NCTE’s U.S. Transgender Survey. The report reflects responses collected by the group at the end of 2022, after the pandemic and a string of organizational blunders caused NCTE to forgo its original 2020 deadline. “It’s truly astonishing to know that …

Hospitals Are Happy for Patients to Try GoFundMe

Hospitals Are Happy for Patients to Try GoFundMe

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GoFundMe started as a crowdfunding site for underwriting “ideas and dreams,” and, as GoFundMe’s co-founders, Andrew Ballester and Brad Damphousse, once put it, “for life’s important moments.” In the early years, it funded honeymoon trips, graduation gifts, and church missions to overseas hospitals in need. Now GoFundMe has become a go-to for patients trying to escape medical-billing nightmares. One study found that, in 2020, the number of U.S. campaigns related to medical causes—about 200,000—was 25 times higher than the number of such campaigns on the site in 2011. More than 500 campaigns are currently dedicated to asking for financial help for treating people, mostly kids, with spinal muscular atrophy, a neurodegenerative genetic condition. The recently approved gene therapy for young children with the condition, by the drugmaker Novartis, costs about $2.1 million for the single-dose treatment. Perhaps the most damning aspect of all this is that paying for expensive care with crowdfunding is no longer seen as unusual; instead, it is being normalized as part of the health system, like getting blood work done or …