Janice Hopkins Tanne

US says that first negotiated drug prices for older people will save $6bn

Over-the-counter painkillers may not be sufficient when fitting IUDs, says US agency

Social media: Add tobacco-style warnings to protect children, says US surgeon general

US healthcare spending will reach nearly 20% of GDP by 2032, predict experts

FDA approves first over-the-counter blood glucose monitor for diabetes

Congress must tackle crisis in physician numbers in the US, says AMA president

The US spends twice as much on healthcare as comparable nations in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) but Americans experience worse health and are the only citizens who are not guaranteed universal healthcare, a report by the Commonwealth Fund has found.1 The Commonwealth Fund, which supports research to promote better healthcare, focused its latest analysis on excess US health spending. It found that about 60% of US excess spending was from administrative costs, p…

Doctors should no longer use only body mass index (BMI) when assessing patients for overweight or obesity, the American Medical Association (AMA) decided at its annual meeting in Chicago.1 The new policy criticised the use of BMI because body shape and composition differ across race and ethnic groups, sex, gender, and age, and because the measure had been used for racist exclusion. AMA past president Jack Resneck Jr said at the meeting on 14 June, “There are concerns with the way BMI has been…

Guns were used in more than three quarters of murders in the US in 2020, the first year of the covid-19 pandemic, up nearly 35% on 2019 and a 25 year high, data have shown. Some 19 350 people died in gun homicides in 2020, up from 14 392 in 2019.1 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which carried out the analysis, described firearm homicides and suicides as “important public health concerns in the United States with substantial inequities by race and ethnicity and poverty leve…

Covid-19 cases in the US rose by 43% over the past two weeks, with especially high rates seen in north eastern states, according to the New York Times coronavirus tracker.1 Cases rose to a seven day average of 39 000 on 18 April, up from 27 000 on 4 April, although health officials say that the actual numbers are uncertain because the results of many home tests are not reported to public health authorities. The number of cases is far below that at the height of the latest wave, however, which s…