Drug companies face more lawsuits over opiate epidemic
The pharmaceutical industry is facing an onslaught of legal action by state, city and county governments on the mainland in response to the opiate epidemic. Read more
Latest Stories by Ira Zunin
Investment in Cancer Center will benefit health, economy
With continuing support from the state Legislature and the National Cancer Institute, the University of Hawaii Cancer Center will reach its full potential as a world-class institution at the forefront of groundbreaking cancer research, prevention and clinical treatment. Read more
Partnership could assist Hawaii’s shortage of doctors
The people of Hawaii continue to suffer from a severe and escalating physician shortage, especially on the neighbor islands. Read more
Hawaii won’t be immune to changes in health care
The Affordable Care Act of 2010, better known as Obamacare, now insures 20 million lives and covers roughly half of those who were without health insurance prior to its inception. Read more
Plague of painkiller deaths requires swift collective fight
Deaths from accidental overdoses of opiate pain medicines have more than quadrupled in the new millennium and currently outnumber deaths from heroin and cocaine. Read more
More must be done to find, treat serious brain injuries
This season the National Football League is responding to increasing concerns over traumatic brain injuries suffered during play. Read more
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Health care advances raise big fiscal, ethical questions
Given the current trajectory of pharmaceutical and biotechnical developments in the treatment of cancer, inherited diseases and infection, modern health care is on the precipice of unprecedented transformation. Read more
Accepting death as natural would alleviate fear, stress
Society continues to have difficulty accepting death as a natural part of life. We go on hoping it won’t happen to us, at least for now, and when death raises its head, we look the other way. The result is fear, confusion, denial, poor decision-making and an unskillful use of resources. Read more
Kidney disease prevention, therapy requires innovation
Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the kidneys are the root of Qi. They hold the basic life force, have much to do with how long a person lives and, when weak, make us vulnerable to myriad illnesses. Read more
Yearly festival hosts series of panels on local wellness
Almost everyone seeks health, prosperity and freedom from suffering for ourselves, our loved ones and the world around us. Read more
Sanders’ health care plan well-intentioned but faulty
Last week I accepted an invitation to serve as an observer at the Democratic caucus in Bonner County, Idaho. Bernie Sanders won by a landslide. Read more
Time will tell whether health insurer’s new model succeeds
Hawaii Medical Service Association is on the verge of making a historic change in how it reimburses primary care medical providers. Until now the largest private payer in the state has reimbursed physicians on a fee-for-service basis. Under its Payment Transformation Pilot, HMSA will instead pay selected providers a fixed dollar amount for each member in their practice each month. HMSA believes that this will benefit patients, providers and the insurer because it will improve clinical outcomes and contain costs. Will it work? That remains to be seen. Read more
Addressing homelessness is a worthwhile investment
About 3.6 percent of the Medicaid population in Hawaii uses 61 percent of the Medicaid budget annually. That’s right, 14,000 people — including those covered under Quest and AlohaCare — utilize $1.2 billion of Hawaii’s Medicaid. Read more
Health care would benefit from Big Pharma reform
Twenty million more Americans now have health insurance since the Affordable Care Act was signed into law six years ago. This brings the portion of those who are uninsured down to 11.5 percent of the population. Read more
Clinton is the best option to keep ‘Obamacare’ going
It’s been nearly six years since President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law and almost four years since the U.S. Supreme Court upheld it. Read more
Isle groups answering call to restore food sovereignty
Hawaii imports roughly 90 percent of the food it consumes and exports as much as 80 percent of what is grown here. Particularly, in view of climate change and the persistent El Nino, this leaves the health of island residents vulnerable to uncontrollable hiccups in container transport. Read more
Brazil’s slums are fertile ground for spread of Zika
Earlier this week I returned from Brazil, a nation in crisis over the Zika virus epidemic. This public health calamity creates a perfect storm when combined with the economic and sociopolitical woes now facing South America’s largest country. The lack of fiscal resources and waning confidence in the current government present dire constraints in managing the current epidemic. Read more
Modern nations must value first peoples above earnings
When Hokule‘a first sailed to Tahiti in 1976 using only noninstrument navigation, it became a major catalyst not only for the Hawaiian cultural renaissance, but also for a broader awakening among indigenous peoples throughout Polynesia. Hokule‘a continues this legacy, touching many during its around-the-world voyage. Read more
‘Blue economy’ must learn from green-washing errors
As Hokule‘a sails across the Atlantic from South Africa to Brazil, safety protocols require its crew to monitor other vessels, including large, commercial longline-fishing vessels and lumbering container ships bound for the great ports of the world. There is no mistaking the fact that for many the oceans are there only to extract a profit. Read more
Reconciliation, not revenge, will heal wounds of slavery
In the midst of the longest leg of the Hokule‘a’s around-the-world voyage, across the Atlantic from Africa to South America, I cannot help but think of the millions of Africans who, in centuries past, made the crossing in shackles, within the bowels of slave ships — and of the many more millions who never made it. In Brazil, our next destination following a stop at St. Helena, more than half the population is of mixed heritage. The majority have ancestors who were brought here as slaves by the Portuguese, initially to work on sugar plantations and later to work in gold and diamond mines. Read more
Long voyage brings to mind outsize players from history
As the Hokule‘a sails to the island of Saint Helena, the first planned port stop from South Africa en route to Brazil, during the longest leg of the Malama Honua around-the-world voyage, I am reminded of Napoleon Bonaparte, who was exiled there. Read more
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