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“Are you pregnant or hung over?” a colleague once asked as I exited the bathroom stall at work. After going three days without long-acting insulin to treat my Type 1 diabetes, I had been throwing up in the middle of my shift. But I had to get back to work, so I could earn enough tips to buy more. “No, this just happens sometimes,” I answered, downplaying how sick I really was. It was 2018, I was uninsured — and rationing my insulin because I couldn’t afford it. Being nauseated was a sign of diabetic ketoacidosis, a painful and serious condition that can lead to a diabetic coma or even death. (Zoe Witt, 10/7)

Last winter, I banged my right elbow playing hockey, and it became swollen and red. Doctors diagnosed bursitis, inflammation of my elbow’s bursa sac, and prescribed antibiotics. In late May, I became feverish and delirious. I checked into the only hospital in my hometown: Hoboken University Medical Center. An emergency-room physician diagnosed sepsis based on blood and other tests. I spent three nights in the hospital, during which an orthopedic surgeon operated on my infected elbow. In a previous column, I praise my surgeon and others who treated me. These caregivers boosted my evaluation of American health care, which I have criticized (see here and here). I didn’t mention the costs of fixing my elbow because the bills hadn’t come in yet. (John Horgan, 10/6)

When Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan announced they were creating a new health care company in 2018, it raised the possibility of the purchasing power such a company could have. Although the venture has since been disbanded, imagine the purchasing power the federal government could wield for buying drugs if all federal agencies that purchase prescription drugs were combined into a single purchasing pool. (Jeffrey R. Lewis, 10/7)

Americans want quality health care that is accessible and affordable. We share that conviction. In fact, it’s what we wake up every morning and go to bed every night thinking about. Some in Washington, D.C., are trying to force a false choice between affordable medicines and access to lifesaving, life-strengthening medical innovation. These efforts must be rejected. There is a push underway to drastically transform the way prescription medicines are priced in this country. A system in which insurers negotiate prices with manufacturers would be replaced by a paradigm in which the United States resembles other countries where governments dictate what medicines will cost and which treatments will be available to patients. (Mark Reisenauer, Tim Walbert and Peter Anastasiou, 10/6)

The COVID vaccines are working. Studies paint a clear picture, the FDA has now given full approval to the Pfizer version and public health experts are unanimous: you and yours should almost certainly get vaccinated. But expertise is of limited utility without public trust, and American society is in the throes of a terrible and growing crisis of trust. (Ian Corbin and Joe Waters, 10/6)

No one could have predicted the COVID pandemic and the need for ICU beds. No one could have predicted the sudden closure of an 88-year-old maternity unit by a healthcare corporation during the early months of the pandemic. The two services, an ICU and a maternity unit — are critically linked at Windham Hospital in Willimantic. Their loss has harmed our community to the core. (Brenda Buchbinder, 10/6)

Northwest Biotherapeutics has buried data from its completed brain cancer clinical trial for so long and so deeply, I might be one of the few people who remembers that results from the Phase 3 study are still, technically, undisclosed. “Technically” because biotechs never hide or delay the release of good news. As of Tuesday, the wait for Northwest Bio to disclose study results reached one year. Realistically, the only lingering suspense is how, exactly, management will try to spin the treatment’s failure. (Adam Feuerstein, 10/6)