Posts Tagged ‘healthcare’

Progress in Genetic Testing Leads to a New Cancer Treatment

Friday, June 10th, 2011

dna.jpg
(photo credit: micahb37)

When you or someone you love develops a terminal illness, you’re often motivated to do everything you can to fight for a cure. But progress can be frustratingly slow, and it can be hard to know which projects and organizations to donate to.

But there’s a new frontier on the fight against cancer, and it’s all due to advances in DNA sequencing. Now cancer researchers are using genetic information about individual patients to engineer targeted treatments – treatments that appear to be more effective than current methods.

The treatment still has to gain FDA approval, but it’s being prioritized because of its potentially revolutionary results.

The fight goes on, of course, but this is a nice reminder that funding research and development really does get results.

If you’re interested in helping out, check out TILE’s partner nonprofits that focus on health. If there’s an organization close to your heart that isn’t listed, just send us a message to let us know.

2010 Health Care Law Being Challenged In Congress

Friday, January 21st, 2011


credit: Waldo Jaquith

The health care act of 2010 was revolutionary in its scope, but are its days numbered?

  • One of the first things Republican representatives did in the House this year was schedule a vote to repeal the sweeping health care bill passed last year.
  • Their effort to repeal the law isn’t likely to succeed, because of the power Democrats currently wield in Washington. But each party has made promises to its constituents, and keeping or destroying the health care bill is at the center of their obligations.
  • The official name of the proposal to end the health care act (in the House, anyway) is “Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act.”

Facts & Figures

  • The health care bill aims to cover 32 million uninsured Americans
  • 26% of Americans want to repeal it
  • 25% want to repeal select parts of it
  • 41% want to keep the law as it is or expand it

What do you think?

How do you feel about the cost of implementing the health care bill? Would you be affected if you could no longer be on your parents’ insurance plan until age 26?

Budget Cuts Kill Hope For Arizona Transplant Patients

Friday, December 3rd, 2010

To help balance budgets, most states are trimming Medicaid benefits, but so far none have opted for denying people lifesaving transplants. That is, until now.

  • In October, Arizona stopped funding organ transplants for low-income patients relying on Medicaid (the state-funded healthcare program).
  • Transplants cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but they’re the only hope of survival for many people. Doctors say these cuts are basically a death sentence for these patients, many of whom are already on a waiting list to receive an organ.
  • Some politicians are trying to reverse the situation, but the governor of Arizona, Republican Jan Brewer, blamed “Obamacare” (referring to the newly passed health care bill) for the cuts. Actually, Arizona voted to approve the measure before the national health care bill was signed into law.

Facts & Figures

  • The cuts affect roughly 100 people currently waiting for a transplant
  • Lung transplants, certain liver transplants, and some bone marrow and pancreas transplants will be discontinued, saving the state about $4.5 million
  • Private donors are now stepping in to help patients fund their operations

Best Quote

“I know times are tight and cuts are needed, but you can’t cut human lives. You just can’t do that.” –  Flor Felix, wife of denied liver transplant patient Francisco Felix

Handing Out Money for Profit: Meet Chris Jacobs, Founder of Honest Discounts

Thursday, November 25th, 2010

Chris is another fine lad we met at the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards event at the NYSE. He’s been a business-starting maniac since age nine, but it took him until 2009 to be named Business Week’s Top Young Entrepreneur. In the same year, he was a finalist in the GSEA.

Today he runs a company that provides free discount cards to people without prescription drug insurance, making it more affordable for the underinsured to get the medication they need (and making a profit in the meanwhile). Here’s Chris:

Watch the oh-ficial GSEA 2010 recap video here. To see all our GSEA interviews, click here.

Making A Legal Profit With Marijuana

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Colorado’s medical marijuana industry is hampered by a slew of rules and restrictions as lawmakers attempt to establish standards of respectability within this promising new market.

  • Amendment 1284, a new set of regulations for the marijuana industry, is expected to put many dispensaries out of business. But some dispensaries are welcoming the regulations since the more regulated (and respectable) their business appears to be, the easier it will be for them to operate.
  • In order to succeed as a dispensary of medical marijuana, entrepreneurs must grow their own weed (which vastly increases profits), and secure “caregiver rights” (the more customers who give your establishment caregiver rights, the more marijuana you can grow).
  • Thus far, the industry has failed to generate anywhere near the amount of revenue predicted by the lawmakers who supported the drug’s legalization. In fact, the people making the most money from the business are not dispensaries, but the medical professionals who issue medical marijuana certificates.

Facts & Figures

  • To date, 80,000 people in Colorado have medical marijuana certificates, and the number of certificate holders is increasing by about 1,000 people per month.
  • Americans spend approximately $25 billion per year on marijuana. The sales in Colorado so far are expected to generate about $2.7 million in license fees (not including the $681,000 in income taxes collected from July 2009 to February 2010). By contrast, Dr. Boland, a certificate-issuer interviewed by the newspaper, has grossed $1 million over the past year.
  • 13 states and the District of Columbia currently have medical marijuana laws.

Best Quote

“We’re past the days when people call here to ask if marijuana will give men breasts. Now, the calls are from angel investors, or REITs – people who are looking for ways to invest or offer their services.” – Allen St. Pierre, Executive Director of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML)