Archives for June 2017

Salt Lake City Tribune Op-Ed Supports Utah House Health Bill 266

Salt Lake City Tribune Publishes an Op-Ed Supporting Utah House Health Bill 266

On June 20, 2017, the Salt Lake City Tribune published an op-ed that I co-authored with some of my colleagues. The commentary is called “Patients should not be stuck with ‘fail first’ medicine,” and we wrote it in response to Utah House Health Bill 266.

What Is Utah House Health Bill 266?

Those who live outside of Utah may not have been following this bill. So let me explain that Utah House Health Bill 266 asks that insurers stop mandating “fail-first,” or step therapy, for patients. There are similar bills throughout the country.

Women, Opioids, Benzodiazepines and Pain: A Potential Deadly Combination

When we think of the segments of the population who have been most affected by the opioid epidemic, we tend to think of poor, unemployed people who live in rural areas. In September of 2016, I published a blog called “Tough Times Feed America’s Opioid Epidemic: What You Need To Know.” In it, I described how the disease of addiction and overdoses can infest an economically-challenged community. I referenced a CNN article written by Wayne Drash and Max Blau, “In America’s drug death capital: How heroin is scarring the next generation,” that tells the story of how addiction, poverty, and social issues together have opened the door to increased opioid use and deaths in America’s heartland. Additionally, I mentioned a book titled Dreamland: The True Tale of America’s Opiate Epidemic, in which author Sam Quinones ties the opioid epidemic to the same risk factors: poverty, hopelessness, and unemployment.

Danielle Byron Henry

Danielle Byron Henry’s Story

Danielle was born in 1981. At the age of eight, she began experiencing migraine headaches. One of the most common sources of pain, migraines are three times more common in women than in men. For most people with migraines, the pain is manageable with minimal medication, control of sleep, and a good diet. Yet, in about 10 percent of cases, the pain resists treatment. Danielle, unfortunately, fell into the latter category.

What Do You Do With the Mad That You Feel?

Many wonderful videos turn up on Facebook. Here is a video clip I found the other day. It features one of our country’s real heroes and inspirations, Fred Rogers.

Fred Rogers Inspires Us

This is a video of Fred Rogers testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications in 1969 to save funding for public television stations. It was a masterful display of generosity and humanity.

He had 6 minutes to convince the subcommittee members that public television was worth saving. As you’ll see in the video, Fred Rogers faced an unfriendly, brusque, and cynical group of politicians … and easily won them over to achieve his goal of saving government funding for public television.