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What We're Reading: Trump Signs Right-to-Try Law; NJ Individual Mandate; Poverty and Early Death
President Donald Trump has signed the so-called "right-to-try" bill into law, and claimed that it would result in lower drug prices within weeks; New Jersey will implememt a statewide individual mandate requiring residents to have health insurance or pay a fee; in the United States, poor people are dying younger, with low socioeconomic status leading to people being sicker and dying earlier.
President Trump Signs Right-to-Try Bill Into Law
The so-called “right-to-try” bill, which helps people with deadly illnesses try experimental treatments, has been signed into law. President Donald Trump supported such efforts to improve access to treatments during his presidential campaign, and the bill will allow patients with no other treatment options to access drugs that have not yet been approved by the FDA, reported The Associated Press. After signing the bill, Trump claimed that drug makers will voluntarily make big drug price cuts in just a few weeks, reported Politico. However, industry sources said they had no knowledge of what caused the president to say that.
New Jersey Governor Signs Law for State Individual Mandate
New Jersey will now require all residents to have health insurance or pay a fee. According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the bill’s sponsor said the state mandate would stabilize the insurance market and allow the Affordable Care Act to continue to be successful in New Jersey. Fees collected from people who choose not to have health insurance will be deposited in a fund to help pay the claims of people who are very sick in order to keep rates from rising dramatically.
The Cycle of Poverty, Bad Health, and Early Death
In the United States, poor people are dying younger, with low socioeconomic status leading to people being sicker and dying earlier. The Washington Post reported that an analysis of data found the increased likelihood of poorer people dying earlier means they have less political impact to pursue policies that could help improve their health or lengthen their lives. In addition, these disparities are worse in the United States than in other developed countries.
Urticaria Diagnosis Challenged by Overlapping Pruritic Skin Conditions
April 23rd 2025Urticaria is complicated to diagnose by its symptomatic overlap with other skin conditions and the frequent misclassification in literature of distinct pathologies like vasculitic urticaria and bullous pemphigus.
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New Research Challenges Assumptions About Hospital-Physician Integration, Medicare Patient Mix
April 22nd 2025On this episode of Managed Care Cast, Brady Post, PhD, lead author of a study published in the April 2025 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care®, challenges the claim that hospital-employed physicians serve a more complex patient mix.
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Personalized Care Key as Tirzepatide Use Expands Rapidly
April 15th 2025Using commercial insurance claims data and the US launch of tirzepatide as their dividing point, John Ostrominski, MD, Harvard Medical School, and his team studied trends in the use of both glucose-lowering and weight-lowering medications, comparing outcomes between adults with and without type 2 diabetes.
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ACOs’ Focus on Rooting Out Fraud Aligns With CMS Vision Under Oz
April 23rd 2025Accountable care organizations (ACOs) are increasingly playing the role of data sleuths as they identify and report trends of anomalous billing in hopes of salvaging their shared savings. This mission dovetails with that of CMS, which under the new administration plans to prioritize rooting out fraud, waste, and abuse.
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