Trending News Today: Medication Access Lacks for Released Prison Inmates With Chronic Diseases

Many former inmates are being released from prison without proper access to medications they need for survival and to avoid relapse, in some cases. According to Kaiser Health News, many of these former inmates have mental illness, drug addiction, diabetes, HIV, or hepatitis C infection. The expansion of Medicaid promised to give health insurance to many more adults, including a majority of people released from prisons and jails, but states like Maryland enroll less than one-tenth of those people.

UnitedHealth Groups Inc’s Chief Executive Stephen Hemsely has seen a decline in his total compensation package from $14.9 million in 2015 to $14.5 million in 2015. Though the company has announced its plans to remove itself from health exchange markets due to below target income, Hemsely’s base salary rose from $1.3 million to $1.35 million. According to The Wall Street Journal, UnitedHealth stated Hemsely’s performance was “outstanding and distinctive.”

Young patients with Duchenne muscular dystrophy and their families plan to lobby, and hopefully participate, in a meeting where a panel of scientists and physicians will vote on whether an experimental drug is effective or not. One patient who has been taking the drug for 4 years wants to show the panel that this drug is effective by throwing a football. The Washington Post states that there were 12 boys included in the trial, but close to 900 community members are expected to attend the meeting.