Helping people find assistance with health care and prescription costs

Affordable Care Act
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Open Enrollment for 2023 Coverage

The Affordable Care Act (ACA; aka Obamacare) Health Insurance Marketplace is set to begin its Open Enrollment period today. American healthcare consumers can sign up on the federal insurance exchange at healthcare.gov or through their state marketplaces. In recent years there has been increased confusion surrounding Open Enrollment due to changes (and proposed changes) made to the ACA under the past administrations.    Open Enrollment lasts at least 75 days — running from November 1 to January 15, 2023. Some states have longer enrollment periods, and special enrollment periods are available for those with a qualifying life event. Premiums are […]

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NeedyMeds
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A Letter from NeedyMeds President, Rich Sagall, MD

  We need your help!   Ever since I started NeedyMeds 25 years ago, all the information on the website has been free. In the beginning, there were two very part-time employees — now we have a staff of thirty. When we started, we had information about only the patient assistance programs — now we have data on 40,000 programs covering nearly 15 different types of assistance. When we started, we were doing well to get 100 visitors daily to the website — now we get 10,000 to 15,000 each weekday.   In the past, we have been able to […]

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COVID-19
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Cold/flu Season During Ongoing COVID-19 Pandemic

The change of the seasons is in full swing throughout the country, and the United States is heading towards another cold and flu season in the midst of an ongoing pandemic. Children returning to school (which are significant sites of COVID transmission) amid the dangerous politicization of public health attempts to increase vaccination rates and promote mitigation measures such as masks and social distancing has created a risk-filled environment for many across the country.   It is vital to know the difference between symptoms for viral conditions such as a cold, the flu, and COVID-19. All three are spread in […]

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Awareness
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National Blood Cancer Awareness Month 2022

September is National Blood Cancer Awareness Month, also known as Leukemia and Lymphoma Awareness Month. Leukemia and lymphoma are types of cancer that can affect the bone marrow, blood cells, lymph nodes and other parts of the lymphatic system.    Someone in the U.S. is diagnosed with blood cancer every three minutes, with someone dying as a result every nine minutes. An estimated combined total of 186,400 people in the United States were diagnosed with leukemia or lymphoma in 2021, leading to an estimated 57,750 deaths last year.   There are multiple types of leukemia, some more common than others. […]

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Healthcare Reform, Safety
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Health Benefits Through Worker Solidarity

Labor Day is a national holiday to recognize and honor the American labor movement and the contributions of organizers and laborers to the development and achievements of the United States. In 1954, over a third of American workers were unionized; by 1983, membership dropped to one in five. Today, only one out of every ten workers in the U.S. is a member of a labor union. Labor unions not only advocate for healthy and safe work environments; they raise wages, decrease inequality, and improve the lives and promote the health of workers, their families, the community, and public health.   […]

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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.