What We're Reading: Free Medical School Tuition; NJ Reinsurance Program; Downplaying Addiction With Opioids

NYU to Give All of Its Medical Students Free Tuition

Every single future medical student who will study at the New York University (NYU) School of Medicine, in perpetuity, will have their tuition costs fully covered. The New York Times reported that the school cited the “overwhelming” debt medical school graduates face, which causes students to seek careers in higher-paying specialties. The hope is that if students have their medical tuition paid for, it can help alleviate the physician shortage. NYU has currently raised more than $450 million of the $600 million it said it will need to finance the tuition plan.

New Jersey Latest State to Receive Approval for Reinsurance Program

HHS has approved New Jersey’s waiver request to create a reinsurance program that would help lower insurance premiums for everyone in the state. The waiver allows the state to reimburse insurers for covering high-cost patients, according to the approval. Other states have implemented reinsurance programs with great success, resulting in far lower premium increases than what other states have reported. New Jersey’s Department of Banking and Insurance expects that the reinsurance program will reduce premium rates by approximately 15% compared with what they would be without the program.

How Addiction to Opioids Was Downplayed

A new analysis from Kaiser Health News outlined how Purdue Pharma’s marketing documents for OxyContin in the mid-1990s downplayed addiction. The documents may be a “smoking gun,” according to one expert, in the thousands of pending lawsuits that allege drug makers engaged in deceptive marketing that fueled the current opioid epidemic. Meanwhile, President Donald Trump wants the federal government to get involved. He is asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to file lawsuits against some companies that supply and manufacture the powerful painkillers.