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Full-Text Articles in Health Policy

The Citizens Health Prescription: Coping With Rising Drug Costs, Shannon Cadres Sep 2002

The Citizens Health Prescription: Coping With Rising Drug Costs, Shannon Cadres

New England Journal of Public Policy

Prescription drug prices have climbed to unaffordable levels in recent years, creating a serious public policy problem for lawmakers at both the state and federal levels. The U.S. Medicare program only covers the costs of inpatient prescription drugs, and only seventy-five percent of beneficiaries are receiving coverage through some other means. But because of the tremendous power of the pharmaceutical industry on Capitol Hill, lawmakers in Washington have been unable to agree upon a workable solution. As a result, many states are experimenting with different strategies to provide some relief. Massachusetts has attempted to solve the problem through the Prescription …


Environmental Public Health Awaits Rediscovery, Anthony Robbins, Phyllis Freeman Mar 2002

Environmental Public Health Awaits Rediscovery, Anthony Robbins, Phyllis Freeman

New England Journal of Public Policy

Preventing environmental exposures that threaten human health remains among the best but least attended to opportunities to improve everyone’s health. For more than a decade, medical care concerns, exacerbated by voracious competition among medical empires and the implacably growing number of uninsured, have often been misconstrued as constituting a complete agenda for health system reform. The authors explain the predicament from an historical perspective — how defining events moved U.S. health policy away from protecting the public against dangerous exposures toward unrealistic expectations that doctors will fix whatever goes wrong, at least for individuals with ample medical insurance. They explain …


Why More Is Required To Address Maine’S Childhood Lead-Poisoning Problem, David Littell Jan 2002

Why More Is Required To Address Maine’S Childhood Lead-Poisoning Problem, David Littell

Maine Policy Review

Although largely hidden from the public eye, childhood lead poisoning has been identified as one of Maine’s leading environmental health problems. Recent data show not only that lead-poisoning levels are unacceptably high among Maine’s children, but also that screening rates are lower than recommended by national health organizations and lower than in other New England states. David Littell discusses why childhood lead poisoning is such a problem in Maine and what can be done to remedy the situation, providing a thorough examination of how children are exposed to lead and the magnitude of the problem. He reviews the state’s existing …