Hot Take: Health Care Copays are Placing Our Inmates at Risk

Hebron Kelecha – Class of 2021

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Imagine you work in the kitchen of a correctional facility and your copay for a doctors’ visit costs $5. However, you make a whopping 33 cents an hour.

That is the reality faced by many who are incarcerated in prisons throughout the United States. It is not surprising that most of our prison population is poor when they enter the prison system. Couple this with jobs that pay less than a dollar an hour and fees for accessing health care, and we are laying the foundation for negative health outcomes.

The Refocused Health Policy Sandstorm

Kate Dixon, M1, Class of 2023

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The world of health policy has been consumed with the concern of drug prices – just absolutely and utterly offended by the list price of brand name drugs. How could you not be? When you have drugs like Zolgensma – a brand new drug approved to treat spinal muscular atrophy – running $2.1 million for a single treatment course, it’s pretty easy to throw blame at Big Pharma for the egregious state of the United States’ health care spending. However, when you zoom out and compare drug spending to other expenditures in the vast and complex world of US health care, it becomes pretty clear where the true financial abuse is present – Big Name Hospitals.

The Past, Present, and Future of Abortion Legislation in the US

 Kate Dixon, M1, Class of 2023

Kate has worked in Washington D.C. for the past two years in policy.

We forthwith acknowledge our awareness of the sensitive and emotional nature of the abortion controversy, of the vigorous opposing views, even among physicians, and of the deep and seemingly absolute convictions that the subject inspires. One’s philosophy, one’s experiences, one’s exposure to the raw edges of human existence, one’s religious training, one’s attitudes toward life and family and their values, and the moral standards one establishes and seeks to observe, are all likely to influence and to color one’s thinking and conclusions about abortion.

• Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973)

 

The topic has never been an easy one. In the last few months, abortion has taken over the news (and social media feeds) as some states across the nation have passed new laws that greatly restrict abortion access. Alternatively, states such as Maine, New York, Illinois, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Nevada have passed laws to expand abortion access in various ways.

Medicare for All – What is it, Exactly?

Kate Dixon, Class of 2023

Kate has worked in Washington D.C. for the past two years in policy.

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We’ve all seen the political tweets. Typically, something incoherent with poor grammar from one extreme of the political spectrum or the other (see my personal favorite about “HealtCare”). And as of late those tweets have had a lot to do with Medicare for All. But what exactly is Medicare for All (M4A)?