The US health insurance industry resents being on the receiving end of surprise bills and price-gouging, so Blue Cross/Blue Shield are spending $55m to have the nonprofit Civica Rx tool up to make generics of off-patent drugs whose sole manufacturers are shkreliing the prices into the stratosphere.
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Tag: health
Heartwarming comic about breast-reduction surgery
Today on Oh Joy Sex Toy (previously) guest-artist Alex P Perkins offers us a graphic memoir of her breast reduction surgery in 10th grade, and the way it put her on a journey toward “loving my body for what it is: mine.”
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Fast-tracked South Dakota bill will felonize doctors who offer gender-confirmation therapy to trans kids
South Dakota’s HB 1057 (“The Vulnerable Child Protection Act”) was introduced by Rep Fred Deutsch [R-04/605-882-3323/@freddeutsch/<a href="mailto:[email protected]@sdlegislature.gov] on Tuesday with 40 cosponors, fast-tracked for a vote on Friday. It makes providing any gender-confirmation therapy to trans teens a Class 4 felony.
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Ars Technica’s dunk on Gwyneth Paltrow’s Netflix series is the best dunk of all
Ars Technica health reporter Beth Mole (previously) is a national treasure, and nowhere is her background in biology and science communications on better display than when she is puncturing the potentially lethal bullshit (vaginal jade egg -> toxic shock -> RIP) that Gwyneth Paltrow peddles through her Goop magazine and store (Mole was very good on Paltrow’s advice to squirt coffee up your asshole).
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Med-tech company repossess veteran’s artificial legs because the VA won’t cover them
Jerry Holliman received Bronze Stars for his military service in Iraq and Vietnam, where he was dosed with Agent Orange. Now 69, Hollman has survived multiple cancers, but lost both his legs to complications from diabetes.
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For the first time, you can search the database of money that publicly funded researchers in Illinois received from pharma companies
Researchers in Illinois who receive federal funding are required to file paperwork disclosing potential conflicts of interest, but these handwritten forms just moulder in the NIH’s filing cabinets…until now.
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Medicare for All would cut most Americans’ taxes, creating the biggest American take-home pay raise in a generation
When Americans get their paycheck every month, there are a ton of deductions from it — some represent money taken by state governments, some by the feds, but one of the largest line-items is the amount taken to pay a private insurance company for some of the most expensive, least comprehensive medical insurance offered in any country on the planet.
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Doctors who take pharma industry freebies prescribe more of their benefactors’ drugs
Doctors who accept pharma industry gifts (which can range from free coffees to lavish dinners to six-figure speaking fees) claim that they’re not influenced by these bribes/gifts, which is possibly why doctors are taking more pharma bribes than ever.
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Insulin prices doubled between 2012 and 2016
The historical excuse for pharma monopolists who conspired to rig prices on insulin was that hardly anyone paid full price — everyone got their life-saving, non-optional medicine through health plans that negotiated a knock-down price.
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AI Now’s annual report: stop doing “emotion detection”; stop “socially sensitive” facial recognition; make AI research diverse and representative — and more
Every year, the AI Now Institute (previously) publishes a deep, thoughtful, important overview of where AI research is and the ethical gaps in AI’s use, and makes a list of a dozen urgent recommendations for the industry, the research community, and regulators and governments.
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