Terry’s Hot Take is a monthly resource for lawmakers by the Executive Director of Patients Rising, on behalf of the 133 million Americans living with chronic disease.
- National Health Issues Survey: In May 2021, Patients Rising conducted a national survey of 1,500+ registered voters on national health issues, including patient access and affordability, drug pricing policies, and trust among healthcare stakeholders.
SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS:
- Voters find their health insurance premiums to be a greater financial burden than the cost of prescription drugs.
- Overall, voters are more concerned with reducing healthcare premiums than copays by a margin of 43% to 35%.
- Only 18% of voters say it is difficult to pay for prescription drugs, but 30% of voters with 5 or more prescriptions have difficulty paying for prescriptions.
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- Those on private plans and with fewer prescriptions are more concerned about premiums.
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- Those on Medicaid and with 5 or more prescriptions are more concerned about lowering copays
- Americans are wary of systems like those used in Europe to contain drug cost
- At least one-third of those surveyed are unsure about the role independent agencies like ICER should play in setting health policy
ON BEHALF OF PATIENTS, our comments on ICER’s Draft Evidence Report:
ICER’s Draft Evidence Report entitled, “JAK Inhibitors and Monoclonal Antibodies for the Treatment of Atopic Dermatitis,” Patients Rising Now provided comments on the myopic, cost-fixated approach in ICER’s report that will likely reduce access to therapies and impair the kind of patient-clinician care planning and coordination essential to treating this condition.
- What the FDA Approval of Aducanumab Means For Patients and Caregivers: According to the Alzheimer’s Association, there are over 11 million unpaid caregivers caring for those with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia. On a recent Patients Rising Podcast, we dissect the controversial approval for these patients and families.
- Patients Rising Defends Patients’ Rights to Advocate for Themselves
Click here for my statement against those who do not want patients to have a voice in policy.
- Helping Patients Manage the Link Between Mental Health and Chronic Disease: The barriers for mental healthcare are two-fold: the high cost of treatment combined and a lack of trained health care professionals. To serve the patient community, Patients Rising provides mental health education and resources and promotes information from the National Institute of Mental Health on the connection between mental health and chronic disease.
- More Patient Tools: The Patients Rising Concierge service and Triage Cancer’s Legal and Financial Navigation Program are providing roadmaps to traverse the complexities of healthcare and beyond.
- The Latest on the Patients Rising Podcast: We take a deep-dive into the debate over the newly-approved FDA drug Aducanumab for Alzheimer’s. In this episode, I interview Sue Peschin, President and CEO of the Alliance for Aging Research and we hear from Allison Wilson, who provides a caregiver’s perspective as she reflects on her mother’s diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s.
- Other recent weekly episodes:
- Legal Issues with Cancer
- Crash Course: FDA Advisory Committees
- How to Humanize Healthcare
- Don’t be Fooled By Some Supplement Ads
- We hear from patient correspondent Jody Quinn from Massachusetts, Congressional District 9 (38:10). She lives with psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis and highlights the issues with step therapy that left her with irreversible joint damage and unable to access the treatment her doctor recommended.
- You can listen to these episodes and subscribe to Patients Rising Podcast via your favorite podcast app, like Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast
- Patients Rising Podcast is published every Friday to update patients on issues in Washington that affect them. Each week patients are interviewed on policy challenges associated with managing and treating their disease, along with new information on the latest health issues, legal help for patients, and other resources.
- Other recent weekly episodes:
Every month I hope to add value to your inbox by providing a look at legislation and regulation through the patient lens. If Patients Rising can be of assistance to your office, please reach out to me directly via twilcox@patientsrising.org or at 202-750-4331.
Take Care,
Terry
