Drug Shortages
A free public service for a better community
A Good Day To Advocate for Better Healthcare
If there are subjects you’d like to see or improvements made, please let me know using the comment button below.
Videos of these newsletters appear on Youtube on this channel. Let me know what you think.
Universal Single Payer Healthcare Cost
The Health Justice Monitor provides good insights into the need for universal healthcare, like HR 3421. Dr. Don McCanne is the force behind it.
They have produced a Medicare For All calculator so you can see what your costs will be.
Here is the site. Very cool. Give it a try.
Drug Shortage Background
Manufacturing quality issues are the major reason for drug shortages. However there have been other reasons such as production delays at the manufacturer and delays companies have experienced receiving raw materials and components from suppliers. Discontinuations are another factor contributing to shortages. FDA can't require a firm to keep making a drug it wants to discontinue. Sometimes these older drugs are discontinued by companies in favor of newer, more profitable drugs.
With fewer firms making older sterile injectable drugs, there are a limited number of production lines that can make these drugs. The raw material suppliers the firms use are also limited in the amount they can make due to capacity issues at their facilities. This small number of manufacturers and limited production capacity for older sterile injectables, combined with the long lead times and complexity of the manufacturing process for injectable drugs, results in these drugs being vulnerable to shortage. When one company has a problem or discontinues, it is difficult for the remaining firms to increase production quickly and a shortage occurs.
Drug Shortage Tragedy
In 2022, Jeff Bolle, of Milwaukee, learned he had bile duct cancer, which has a dismal long-term survival rate. At the time, doctors hoped that surgery and chemotherapy could prolong his life. He was in good health prior to his diagnosis, which made everyone feel optimistic. He underwent surgery and four rounds of chemotherapy before the chemotherapy shortage stopped. (Today)
More Drug Shortages
Laying ahead of drug shortages is a constant battle for hospital pharmacists. "We definitely feel that. Every year, there are more drug shortages to worry about," said Rebecca Taylor, vice president of UPMC pharmacy services. New American Society of Health-System Pharmacists data shows 323 medications are in short supply across the country, the highest since tracking started in 2001. (CBS)
Solutions
Solutions to drug shortages are complicate. Here is a list prepared by the Brookings Institute.
One of the serious problems they identify is quality. Another is helping hospitals buy from reliable sources. Another is to build in inflation adjustments to Medicaid reimburse so manufacturers can adopt better quality, advanced manufacturing that would have fewer factory quality closures.
Perhaps a solid analysis of the problem and solution space would help.
Action
You can send an email to Laquita Brooks-LaSure, who manages the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services and ask them to study the Drug Shortage problem and report on solutions.
Click this link to send the email and feel free to personalize it. Make sure to put your name and city and state at the bottom.
Abortion News
When a new abortion ban goes into effect in Florida this week, it will rob people across the south of one of the last few options they had. Floridians and those in neighboring states will instead have to travel to North Carolina or even farther to get an abortion. Abortion funds were already straining to meet the need of patients. Now, they must raise more money for people traveling longer distances, later in pregnancy when abortions can be more complicated and expensive. This is the post-Dobbs reality: For all the optimism surrounding state ballot measures in November, abortions are increasingly out of reach or financially ruinous for large numbers of people.
If you need help paying for an abortion check the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project. https://wrrap.org/assistance-services/find-abortion-funds/
Also see the Resources section below.
Extra Credit Action
Help those who need abortion care. Donate to the Women's Reproductive Rights Assistance Project. The help women who can't afford an abortion. Here's a link https://wrrap.org/donate/.
Resources
Healthcare Advocacy (Us)
Website
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare
Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Find My Elected Officials
Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact State and Federal Representatives
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: democracy.io
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All
Physicians for a National Health Program
One Payer States
Healthcare Now
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Charley. chatbot abortion resource - make sure to use a secure incognito browser if you live in a state that has banned abortion
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision
Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Disinformation Management
Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency
Save Democracy
Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Cravens
RESISTBOT
Link to the RESISTBOT site to learn more
Link to Chop Wood, Carry Water RESISTBOT write up
Thanks for reading Healthcare Advocacy! Subscribe for free to receive new posts
I was able to find the follwing email address for the recommended action: chiquita.brooks-lasure@cms.hhs.gov
Is it possible that allopathic medicine’s reliance on drugs is the problem? We are awash in chemicals, plastics, EMFs, polluted water and air….to say nothing of the crappy food and drinks we imbibe. Rather than ask what the root cause of our diseases is, we just pick a drug. And we congratulate ourselves on inventing more and more drugs. Aren’t we clever.!!! It’s not a paucity of particular drugs that is a problem, let’s consider that we have been sold on drugs as miracles of speed and efficiency. Good ole Capitalism at work. Everything is about the economy. We should be able to figure out that it isn’t.
Too bad we are more clever than we are wise.