Latest news with #SenateBill119
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New Hampshire lawmakers move to make ivermectin an over-the-counter medication
Ivermectin gained notoriety during the pandemic when people began using it as a treatment for COVID-19. Research was conducted on whether the drug could be repurposed for COVID-19 treatment. However, that research was never able to prove ivermectin was effective at treating the virus. (Getty Images) State lawmakers are pushing to allow ivermectin — an antiparasitic drug that became notorious during the COVID-19 pandemic — to be purchased without a prescription in New Hampshire. And they're doing it by tacking on a provision to a Medicaid cost-efficiency program. Senate Bill 119 was introduced in the New Hampshire Senate earlier this year with the goal of making the state Medicaid program more cost-efficient. The bill seeks to allow Medicaid to purchase name-brand drugs when they are cheaper than generics. Medicaid has long been prevented from buying name brands because historically they are more expensive. However, recent market developments have made some name-brand drugs cheaper than their generic counterparts, so lawmakers have worked to alter that rule this year. This has been a priority in Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte's budget agenda amid a difficult fiscal environment this year. 'My wife loves to shop at Hannaford, and nine times out of 10, if there's a Hannaford brand, I pick the Hannaford brand up,' Sen. James Gray, a Rochester Republican and the bill's sponsor, said during a hearing on the bill last month. 'But you know what? Sometimes that national brand has a coupon. Sometimes that national brand has a discount. Sometimes it's just on sale. And that's exactly what this bill does. It says, 'Hey, you don't have to buy generic if the national brand is cheaper.'' The Senate approved SB 119 through a voice vote in March. However, when it got to House lawmakers, Rep. Yury Polozov, a Hooksett Republican, proposed an amendment that added a provision allowing ivermectin to be purchased at New Hampshire pharmacies without a prescription from a doctor. The House passed the amended version of SB 119 on Thursday, sending the bill back to the Senate for another vote. House Democrats criticized the change. 'It is very bad legislative policy to attach unlike things together in the hopes of forcing somebody else to do something that they would not otherwise do,' Rep. Lucy Weber, a Walpole Democrat, said on the House floor Thursday. 'Anything that is good legislative policy stands on its own and should not be attached to anything else.' Ivermectin was discovered in Japan in the 1970s and subsequently used to develop a veterinary drug to treat parasitic infections in horses, cattle, dogs, and other animals, according to the American Chemical Society. Years later, researchers from Merck Pharmaceuticals and the Kitasato Institute began experimenting on uses of the drug for humans. They were able to use the drug to treat river blindness and saw so much success they won a 2015 Nobel Prize. The medicine is now used to treat several kinds of worm and lice infections in humans. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cautions that high doses of ivermectin can cause seizures, coma, or even death. The Mayo Clinic also warns that the drug could interact poorly with other medications and that it hasn't been tested for safety and efficacy among small children, geriatric patients, and breastfeeding babies. Ivermectin gained notoriety during the pandemic when people began using it as a treatment for COVID-19. Research was conducted on whether the drug could be repurposed for COVID-19 treatment. However, that research was never able to prove ivermectin was effective at treating the virus. Still, online misinformation and faulty studies drove people to seek the drug anyway. In 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a sharp increase in the number of people calling into poison control centers due to ivermectin overdoses. It also said it received reports of people who, unable to get a prescription for the drug, had resorted to buying and taking formulations made for animals from veterinary suppliers unsafe for humans. Some online posts have claimed ivermectin could be used to treat cancer, a claim that is unsubstantiated, though there's early-stage research investigating its use for cancer treatment in combination with other drugs. A few other states have turned ivermectin into an over-the-counter medication. Legislatures in Arkansas, Idaho, and Tennessee have done so already. North Carolina, Louisiana, and several other states are considering following suit. This state-by-state approval marks a departure from the typical process for approving an over-the counter medicine. Typically, federal health authorities with the FDA have weighed scientific evidence and determined whether a drug can be sold safely over-the-counter. In these states, lawmakers have superseded that process and made the determination themselves. This isn't the first effort to make ivermectin over-the-counter in New Hampshire. In 2022, the Legislature passed similar legislation, but then-Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, vetoed it, arguing that, 'Patients should always consult their doctor before taking medications so that they are fully aware of treatment options and potential unintended consequences of taking a medication that may limit other treatment options in the future.' Introducing the amendment, Rep. Kelley Potenza, a Rochester Republican and one of its supporters, said the proposal 'lies at the intersection of public health, personal freedom, and frankly common sense.' Potenza claimed the drug 'carries a much lower risk than over-the-counter pain relievers like Tylenol.' She also called claims that ivermectin is dangerous and ineffective in treating COVID-19 'propaganda' and 'lies.' Potenza said when she had COVID-19 during the pandemic, she got a prescription from a doctor in Arizona for ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine. She attributes her recovery to it. She said the government's actions during the pandemic is what inspired her to run for office. The Mayo Clinic says that claims about ivermectin, hydroxychloroquine, or chloroquine being effective at treating COVID-19 are false. The CDC and FDA both say current research has been unable to demonstrate that ivermectin is effective at treating COVID-19.
Yahoo
22-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Union-Regional merger application available for public review
The document in which Union Hospital and Terre Haute Regional Hospital seek to merge — under state regulation rather than Federal Trade Commission approval — is now available online for public viewing. Also, public comment on that application is being accepted by the Indiana Department of Health, and that comment period ends March 23. The 2025 Application for a Certificate of Public Advantage was submitted to the health department by Union Hospital Inc. and Terre Haute Regional Hospital LP on Feb. 5. It can be viewed at A link also is available on that page for those who wish to comment. Meanwhile, a bill that could have ended that merger attempt by essentially killing the state act that allowed for Certificates of Public Advantage has been amended; it cleared the Senate on Friday in a 49-0 vote. Senate Bill 119 now heads to the House, where it is sponsored by state Reps. Brad Barrett, R-Richmond, and Bob Heaton, R-Terre Haute. Amendment 3 to Senate Bill 119 specifies that a hospital may not file an application under the COPA act after Feb. 15, 2025. It also specifies that the Indiana Department of Public Health must review and make a determination on any application filed under the act between Jan. 1, 2025, and Feb 15, 2025. And, under the amended bill, Indiana Department of Health must rule no later than Aug. 13 of this year. In other words, the amendment — which cleared the Senate on a voice vote — allows the Union-Regional merger application to continue before the COPA process is shut down. State Sen. Greg Goode, R-Terre Haute, who had previously testified in opposition to SB 119, spoke in the Senate in favor of the amendment on Wednesday and again on the bill itself Thursday. Said Goode on Thursday, "This is a discussion about not losing a hospital, about not allowing a hospital facility to be abandoned, not allowing the loss of about 600 healthcare workers, not allowing for the loss of hospital healthcare services that my constituents need." Goode also dismissed the Federal Trade Commission's recorded opposition to the COPA process and the proposed merger, saying Indiana state government showed more common sense. "Instead of deferring to federal FTC bureaucrats in their cubicles — or perhaps they were working from home streaming 'Game of Thrones' while they're analyzing this important project — instead ... this body very wisely said let's project some Hoosier common sense, and we can figure it out together with the Indiana Department of Health." Added Goode, "This legislation has evolved to allow the COPA process to play out, but it also wisely makes it clear for the Department of Health to do its job and [says] let's get to a decision." On Friday, Goode said he was grateful to SB 119 author Sen. Ed Charboneau, R-Valparaiso, who continued to meet with him about the bill and who submitted the amendment. Goode and others had previously noted the original COPA law was narrowly crafted to allow Vigo County and perhaps one other underserved area in the state seek a two-hospital merger under the COPA process. This bill now simply closes the process without harming the Union-Regional application already submitted. Indiana is one of about 20 states with COPA laws, which allow hospital mergers that the Federal Trade Commission otherwise might prohibit because they could reduce competition and could create monopolies. In exchange for allowing these deals, the merging hospitals typically agree to meet a number of conditions imposed by the state to mitigate the harms of a monopoly. But some healthcare economists and the FTC argue that state oversight cannot replace competition, and they contend such mergers can ultimately harm patients. Indiana's COPA law was passed in 2021. Union and Regional submitted their first application in 2024, but withdrew it November of that year, with Union saying it wanted to resubmit after further work with the Indiana Department of Health. It resubmitted in early February. Union's acquisition of Regional is supported by the Terre Haute area's political leaders and by the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce. Among the arguments put forth by proponents of allowing Union to acquire Regional: • When Tennessee-based HCA Healthcare, Regional's owner, looked for someone to buy its for-profit hospital in Terre Haute, it found only one interested party: not-for-profit Union Health, which is based in Terre Haute and has another hospital in Clinton. Were this merger to fall through, it's possible no one would buy Regional and its associated offices, and both the physical hospital and about 500 to 600 healthcare jobs would be lost to the area. • The area already has well-documented high incidence rates and poor health outcomes and should not be put in a one-hospital position. • Union already has a dominant market share of the hospital health services market in the area, and is well aware of the area's modest financial standing. (Vigo is 71st of 92 Indiana counties in terms of per capita income.) Union has said nearly half of Union's inpatient days in 2024 came from Medicaid patients. • Union says it's owning Regional will not result in price gouging. Union Health CEO President Steve Holman said in Senate committee testimony: 'So the thing that we are just going to raise prices everywhere and gouge the community — [that] doesn't work. It hasn't been [the case in the] past 137 years [of] history, it's not now and [it] won't be in the future,' he said. Opponents have argued that COPA laws are a ploy to dodge FTC oversight; that a FTC review concluded economic harms outweighed the benefits in the proposed Vigo County merger, and that the Indiana attorney general largely agreed; and that public comments opposed the merger under COPA by a 4-to-1 ratio. Those critics say a shutting down of the COPA process would not disallow a Union-Regional merger. The hospitals could, they argue, still avail themselves to the FTC process and review by the Indiana attorney general and face the same scrutiny as other mergers and acquisitions.
Yahoo
21-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Democrat's effort fails, and the death penalty lives on in ‘pro-life' South Dakota
State Sen. Jamie Smith, D-Sioux Falls, participates in a South Dakota Senate Health and Human Services Committee meeting on Jan. 22, 2025. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight) Admittedly, the death penalty isn't used often here, but thanks to the actions of the Senate Judiciary Committee, South Dakota will continue to have the right to kill its citizens. The committee ensured that death is still an option when it defeated Senate Bill 119, a measure to repeal capital punishment. The main sponsor of SB 119 was Sen. Jamie Smith, a Sioux Falls Democrat. While his testimony was short because he had to be in another committee hearing, Smith raised some points not usually heard when the subject is repealing the death penalty. He covered the common themes like the cost of death penalty appeals versus the cost of lifetime incarceration and the irony of such a pro-life state having capital punishment as the law of the land. It was more interesting when he noted that an inmate who gives up his death penalty appeals may be causing the state to take part in assisted suicide. A former candidate for governor, Smith said he didn't know if he could make the call to the penitentiary to order the warden to take a life. Smith's hesitance to make the call points to the fact that the death penalty has many victims. Everyone who touches a death penalty case has a chance to be changed by it, and not necessarily for the better. Former state Sen. Arthur Rusch, who testified in favor of SB 119, served as judge for the trial of Donald Moeller and sentenced him to death. One of his rulings was that the jurors in the case would have access to free counseling. The defense and prosecution lawyers can also suffer effects from a death penalty case, not to mention the poor person who has to pull the switch at the prison. Bizarre legal debate shows it's time to talk about the death penalty Senators heard from SueZann Bosler of Journey of Hope, an organization that lobbies against death penalty laws. Bosler and her father, a minister, were attacked during a home invasion. Bosler was stabbed multiple times; her father was killed by the intruder. An opponent of the death penalty, Bosler's father had told her that if he was ever the victim of a homicide, that the killer should not face the death penalty. Bosler testified in her attacker's multiple trials, seeking to get his death penalty overturned. Eventually, she was successful. Bosler told the senators her father was known to ask, 'Why do we kill people who kill people to show Americans that killing is wrong?' Also testifying in favor of the bill was Denny Davis of South Dakotans Opposed to the Death Penalty. He said that in the United States since 1976, there have been 200 exonerations of prisoners on death row, an average of four per year. This raises the specter of wrongly executing an innocent person. Testimony opposing SB 119 led off with Attorney General Marty Jackley who said it was his job to speak for crime victims. He said South Dakota's capital punishment law was 'responsible, humane and limited.' The death penalty, according to Jackley, prevents some murders and saves the lives of law enforcement officers. Repealing the death penalty doesn't come up every year in the Legislature, but when it does, it comes up against Lynette Johnson. She always makes a compelling case for keeping capital punishment on the books. Her husband, prison guard Ronald Johnson, was murdered by prisoners serving life sentences. It must be tough for her reliving her husband's murder each time legislation repealing the death penalty is offered. In that way, she has much in common with the family members of murder victims who must relive their ordeal every time the murderer's death row case comes up for appeal. This year, it sounded as if Johnson's presentation was particularly graphic. Those of us monitoring the committee hearing online couldn't see the photos of Ronald she shared with lawmakers, taken after the inmates had beaten her husband with a lead pipe. Her lesson was clear: This is what sentencing someone to life in prison will get you. Jackley urged senators to keep the death penalty because it serves as a deterrent. It certainly didn't deter the lifers who bludgeoned Ronald Johnson. On a 4-3 vote, the committee deferred SB 119 to the 41st day of the 38-day legislative session, in their own way, giving the legislation a death sentence. That vote doesn't change the fact that our death penalty is rarely used and of dubious repute when it comes to keeping the peace. Maybe someday South Dakotans will repeal the death penalty and truly live up to their pro-life values. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
14-02-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Union Health acquisition of THRH faces new hurdles with SB119
INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV) – A bill reversing the Certificate of Public Advantage (COPA) passed a senate hearing of the Health and Provider Services on February 12. If ultimately passed into law this bill could stop the acquisition of Terre Haute Regional Hospital by Union Health. Senate Bill 119 was introduced on January 8 by State Senator Ed Charbonneau, who had championed the original bill approving the COPA. In November, 2024, Union Health had withdrawn their first COPA. At the hearing on Wednesday, Steve Holman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Union Health, told the committee that the decision to withdraw was 'in collaboration with' the Indiana Department of Health. According to Holman, they were coming up on the 120 day deadline and felt they needed to get more information. Holman told the committee that Union Health is committed to the acquisition noting they have paid $3 million in legal fees. Union Health withdraws merger application A new (COPA) was filed in Union Health's acquisition of Terre Haute Regional Hospital on February 5. Holman testified to the need in the area for the acquisition explaining that in 2024 '47 percent of our inpatient days were Medicaid. Almost half. It's an area of poor health outcomes that we want to make transformational changes.' Senator Charbonneau explained that a lot of new data has come out since the original bill and that is why he is seeking the reversal. The main concern being monopolies. Charbonneau provided a timeline of SB119. 'I introduced the bill on January 8, on February 5th Union Health filed a new application and on February 11th the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) sent me a letter against the COPA. Senate committee members expressed concerns and support of the acquisition. The final vote was 7 to reverse and 4 to not reverse the legislation. The bill will need to go to the Senate for a full vote. If passed, it would take effect July 1, 2025. Kristin Craig, President/CEO of the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce also testified at hearing in opposition of SB119. In a statement Craig stated, 'The Chamber strongly supports keeping the established COPA process in place and will continue to work with legislators in the coming works to ensure they understand the value this holds for our community.' Union Health announces visitor restrictions Representatives from the Indiana Manufacturers Association, Hoosiers for Affordable Healthcare and the Employers Forum of Indiana testified in support of SB119. State Senator Greg Goode of Terre Haute told the committee the nearly 600 highly skilled employees of Terre Haute Regional Hospital 'are hoping Regional doesn't close it's doors. What bothers me most is leaving the Terre Haute area with a one hospital system. An unregulated monopoly.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
