I am a varsity softball player, a goalie for my soccer team, and I regularly hike and stay active, but without insulin, I would die, likely within weeks, or even days.
Health Care
Panelists who impressed at health cost trends hearing
The Health Policy Commission’s annual cost trends hearing didn’t attract much media coverage this year, so I thought I’d summarize what I thought was most interesting.
Senate pushing again for drug pricing legislation
The Senate is preparing to take up drug pricing legislation that would also create a licensing process for pharmacy benefit managers.
Pharmacy benefit managers are engaging in thievery
Pharmacy benefit managers were created with the intention they would negotiate discounts and pass them on to patients. Instead, they’ve taken advantage of not being regulated using several tactics to reap profits, sometimes in the billions.
SJC case raises interesting questions about tenure
Can Tufts Medical School cut the pay of tenured professors who fail to reach targets for outside fundraising? The Supreme Judicial Court will decide.
Senate passes menstrual period equity bill
IN A STEP toward menstrual equity, the Senate unanimously passed a bill on Wednesday that would make disposable menstrual products available at no cost in prisons, homeless shelters, and public schools. “I don’t say that very often for bills coming through the Legislature, but this one is simple,” said Senate President Karen Spilka at a press […]
State on course to improve dental care
DESPITE THE CLEAR link between oral health care and an individual’s overall health, approximately one-third of all American adults between the ages of 19 and 64 lack dental insurance. As a practicing dentist in Quincy, I am fortunate to see many patients who do have coverage, though barely a day goes by when I do […]
Advice from 2 mothers whose children died from meningitis
AS MOTHERS who have both lost a child, we often say we’re in a club that we want no one else to ever join. We started our individual foundations and the Meningitis B Action Project after we each lost our young, healthy daughters too soon to a now vaccine-preventable disease, Meningitis B. Kimberly (Patti’s daughter), […]
State public health commissioner leans into ‘hard things’
WHEN ROBBIE GOLDSTEIN took the reins as the state’s new public health commissioner in April, he brought national experience dealing with the public health crisis of our time. As senior adviser to Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Goldstein was at the center of the country’s public health response to […]
Massachusetts is a 21st century frontier state
AT THE SAME time that chaos was brewing in the House of Representatives in Washington and our Patriots flamed out to the Cowboys in Dallas and then collapsed to the Saints at Gillette, we also witnessed stunning achievements that help to position Massachusetts for the future. Consider just a few of the historic developments of […]