I see more mass graves in our future:
Category: The Best Healthcare in the World
Don’t worry
RFK Jr. is on the job!
They think this gets votes?
Not from anyone who’s not an insurance executive!
The concept of a health plan
I haven’t written about this because 1) They don’t have a compelling chance of winning and 2) it’s too upsetting. Even the thought of these assholes taking us back to those days makes me sick.
Health care plan
Cautiously optimistic
But we don’t have enough mental health professsionals, and a lot of them won’t accept insurance anymore.
Happy anniversary
It’s been five years since I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and my surgeon told me yesterday I have no signs of disease. That’s good, right?
I still have to get a mammogram every year, but that’s a decent tradeoff.
Best healthcare in the world
I called my doctor’s office for an appointment yesterday. I was feeling ambitious; I’d finally gotten a replacement inhaler out of my insurance carrier, even if it did take me an exhausting two weeks.
Even though my primary is still out on maternity leave, another doctor is supposed to cover for her (I just saw her last week.)
Well! Turns out the person I saw just quit, and they won’t have any appointments until September. “So you’re telling me to find another practice,” I said to the office manager.
“No, no,” she said. “But there won’t be any appointments until then.”
“I’m having knee replacement in three weeks, and I need someone who can follow up after the surgery,” I said. “So you’re basically telling me to find another practice.”
“I’ll try to get Dr. M. to call you,” she told me.
I called my previous internist, who used to be at this same practice but has since moved to a less convenient location. I got an appointment for Friday. The office manager told me, however, he was retiring — in December. (I would have sworn he was only in his forties.)
I told her the other practice was driving me crazy, and she starting laughing. “So I’ve heard,” she said.
And then I called the nurse navigator, who’s now in charge of the practice I’m leaving. (He was brought in to clean up the mess. Ha!) He’s out of the office until next week.
Now, here’s the thing. This is a university hospital practice, in a part of the city that’s been steadily gentrifying for 15 years. It’s been a mess. The people who work in the front office seem to be competent only when the mood hits them. They don’t follow up on things, there’s constant turnover with the physicians, and the parent hospital just can’t seem to get a grip on this place.
So when people bitch to me about how awful universal health care would be, I just roll my eyes. How much worse can it get?
Good
Grieving moms are pushing back against a new wave of harsh drug-war laws.https://t.co/DSzDB244wj
4 years after my sister’s death, it’s good to see families challenging these harmful laws that are cynically implemented in our names.
— Maya Schenwar (@MayaSchenwar) May 12, 2024
High Anxiety
NEW YORK CITY — A single dose of an LSD-containing investigational drug rapidly alleviated symptoms of moderate-to-severe generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), a phase IIb randomized trial showed.
Tested at four doses — 25, 50, 100, and 200 μg — the 100-μg dose of MM120 yielded the highest level of clinical activity, significantly reducing Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM-A) total score by 7.7 points compared with placebo by week 12 (-21.9 vs -14.2, P<0.003), reported Daniel Karlin, MD, chief medical officer of drugmaker MindMed, at the American Psychiatric Associationopens in a new tab or window annual meeting.
Furthermore, 65% of the patients on the 100-μg dose had a clinical response rate (a ≥50% improvement in HAM-A) and 48% were in clinical remission (HAM-A score of 7 or less).
“The idea that a single dose of drug could produce almost 50% remission rate for people suffering from moderate-to-severe anxiety 12 weeks after treatment — pretty remarkable,” Karlin told MedPage Today.
So many people have bad anxiety as part of long covid. This could be a lifesaver for many.