Category: Prescription Drugs

The Causes for Increased Cost of Medications

Medication prices continue to be a major concern for many Americans.  Recent months have seen a deluge of stories of drugs with $100,000+ price tags.  A 2015 poll found that a third of patients saw a price increase in their medications last year.  The problem is that these price increases have different causes, making it difficult to solve all the issues. With advances in science we have seen development of new, highly successful drugs sometimes costing as much as $1000 per pill.  These prices are often seen as justified when researchers look at the benefits of a curative versus the […]

Presidential Candidates Weigh In on Prescription Prices

In a previous blog post, we went over why drug prices can rise seemingly without explanation and how the cost of medications ranks as a top priority to a majority of Americans.  We are now in the midst of primary elections in the United States, and candidates from both parties have addressed the issue and proposed different policies. In the same prior blog post, we mentioned a proposed bill for the Prescription Drug Affordability Act.  Independent Senator from Vermont and Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sanders proposed the bill aimed at assisting individuals with Medicare with the high costs of medications, […]

Transgender Awareness Week

The week leading up to November 20 is observed as Transgender Awareness Week. While new healthcare laws may have expanded access for more Americans, there are still populations that continue to have little to no access to appropriate health care. In the United States, over 27% of transgender/gender non-conforming people have been denied health care. As transgender/gender non-conforming have become more mainstream terms in recent years, one should be aware of the concept of gender identity: “Gender identity” shall mean a person’s gender-related identity, appearance or behavior, whether or not that gender-related identity, appearance or behavior is different from that […]

Medication Safety at Home

We hear in the media of mistakes made in hospitals including errors in administering medication. A new study shows that a child is improperly medicated at home every eight minutes. The study published by the journal Pediatrics is based on data from the National Poison Database System between the years of 2002 and 2012. The statistics don’t reflect the real scope of the problem since not everyone reports an error to poison control or may even be aware they made a mistake. In the 10-year time period, 696,937 children younger than 6 years old experienced out-of-hospital medication errors. The most common […]

How to Protect Yourself and Your Loved Ones Online

Rogue Internet drug sellers are widespread and the problem is growing.  The criminals that operate these illegal websites make millions of dollars each month peddling counterfeit and otherwise illegitimate medicine to unsuspecting patients. As a result, patients are just a click away from dangerous or even deadly consequences.   As the holiday season draws near, beware of what you buy online. “Too good to be true” prices and claims of legitimacy are usually ploys to lure you to buy. And when you do, you give your personal and financial information (credit cards, home address, etc.) to criminals, and put your […]

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.