Category: Healthcare Reform

Health, Healthcare Reform, Patient Advocate, Safety, Social Media and Healthcare
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Social Justice & Healthcare

Today is World Day of Social Justice, when we promote efforts to tackle issues such as poverty, exclusion, and unemployment. Social justice is the concept that all individuals deserve equal rights and opportunities — including the right to health. Even in 2019, inequities remain in healthcare that are avoidable, unnecessary, and unjust. These inequities are the result of established policies and practices that maintain an unequal concentration of money, power, resources, and perceived value within society among communities based on gender, age, race, ethnicity, religion, culture, country of origin, or disability.   Racism, homophobia/transphobia, and misogyny are all insidious forms […]

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Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform, Prescription Drugs
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The Donut Hole is Closed!

The year 2019 is here, and there is some good news to those who have had experience with the Medicare Part D “donut hole.” Since the passage of the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the “donut hole” has been on track to close by 2020. Due to the passing of the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, which stopped last year’s nine-hour shutdown of the federal government, the Part D “donut hole” has actually closed a year ahead of schedule. Medicare, one of the publicly funded health insurance programs for people over 65 or people younger than 65 with a qualifying […]

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Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform, Social Media and Healthcare
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State of Healthcare 2018

Healthcare in America and Americans’ access to healthcare have faced changes in 2018. There have been Medicaid eligibility changes, laws proposed and promises made to reduce drug costs, as well as public health concerns highlighted such as gun violence. People in the United States continue to count healthcare costs as a major concern. We at NeedyMeds prefer to remain apolitical, but it is difficult to avoid the partisan nature of the changes in healthcare in America. The effort to undermine the Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) was continued with the expansion of short-term health insurance with lower premiums but high […]

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Awareness, Health, Healthcare Reform, Specialty Drugs
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Transgender Awareness Week

Transgender Awareness Week falls between November 12-19 every year and is meant to help raise visibility of a vulnerable and underserved community.  ‘Transgender’ is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity is different from the sex assigned at birth; ‘gender identity’ is one’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither. Transgender and gender-nonconforming people can face significant problems with accessing health care. Finding a healthcare provider who is knowledgeable of transgender health issues can be a hurdle itself; some healthcare professionals may believe that there is something wrong with someone because they are […]

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Affordable Care Act, Healthcare Reform
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ACA Open Enrollment

The Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace begins its sixth Open Enrollment period today. American healthcare consumers can sign up on the federal insurance exchange at healthcare.gov or through their state marketplaces. Last year there was increased confusion surrounding Open Enrollment due to changes (and attempted changes) made to the ACA under the Trump administration, leading to the U.S. uninsured rate to rise for the first time since 2014 and the largest single-year increase since 2008. Open Enrollment period ran 90 days after November 1 until the end of January during the Obama administration but was cut […]

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About Us

Welcome to the NeedyMeds Voice! We look forward to presenting you with timely, provocative pieces on healthcare reform, patient advocacy, medication and healthcare access, and other health-related news. Our goals are to educate, enlighten, and elucidate; together, we will try to make sense of the myriad and ongoing healthcare-related changes in the U.S. today.