Health stories in the news

Washington state boosts coverage for transplants

Washington state Gov. Christine Gregoire has signed legislation that will boost the minimum lifetime health insurance coverage for transplantation from $250,000 to $350,000, reports Seattle Times health reporter Kyung Song.

Health insurers in Washington are not required to provide such coverage, but most do, she writes.

“Beginning Jan. 1, all policies sold or renewed from that date that include transplant coverage must provide at least $350,000 in coverage.”

To learn more:

• Read Kyung Song’s article: Minimum Transplant Coverage Cap Raised.

Growth in the use of antipsychotic drugs for children slows

Growth in the use of antipsychotic drugs in children has slowed as doctors hear more about side effects and state Medicaid agencies scrutinize the drugs’ usage more closely, David Armstrong reports in the Wall Street Journal.

“The softening in sales for children is the first sign that litigation, reaction to improper marketing tactics, and concern about side effects may be affecting what had been a fast-growing children’s drug segment,” Armstrong writes.

Armstrong cites Washington as one of the states that is scrutinizing the use of these powerful drugs more carefully.

Washington has created a system to flag the use of psychiatric drugs that may contain too high a dose for young children or have side effects that it regards as particularly dangerous. From May 2006 to April 2008, the system flagged 1,032 cases for review by outside consultants.

To learn more:

• Read David Armstrong’s article: Children’s Use Of Psychiatric Drugs Begins To Decelerate. (Subscription or fee may be required.)

Single-payer health-reform advocates vs. Sen. Max Baucus

Columnist Amy Goodman writes in the Seattle Times about efforts of those who want a Canadian-style single-payer health-care system to have their views presented to the Senate Finance Committee, run by Chairman Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT).

So far no one advocating a single-payer system has been allowed to testify before the committee, which is holding hearings on health-care reform, so single-payer activists have resorted to disrupting the hearings and demanding to be heard. So far 13 protesters have been arrested.

One of them, Keven Zeeses, points out that Sen. Baucus has received $1,170,313 in campaign contributions from the health insurance industry, $1,016,276 from health professionals, $734,605 from the pharmaceutical and health-products industry, $541,891 from hospitals and nursing homes, and $439,700 from health services and HMOs.

“That’s almost $4 million from the very industries that have the most to gain or lose from health-care reform,” Ms. Goodman notes.

To learn more:

1. Read Goodman’s column: Status quo in, single-payer out at the raucous Baucus caucus.

Terminally ill patients fight for treatments not shown to be safe or effective

Amy Hardon has written a moving piece in the New York Times about the fight by young man with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and his wife to get access to unproven drug Iplex that might prolong his life. 

She writes:

At a time when terminally ill patients have more access to medical research than ever before, and perhaps a deeper conviction in its ability to cure them, many are campaigning for the chance to be treated with drugs whose safety and effectiveness is not yet known.

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