Prescribing Love: Your Health Policy Valentines

Nothing melts our hearts like a health policy valentine. Each year we ask our readers to submit their sweetest health policy-inspired valentines. This year’s winner was inspired by a KFF Health News and PolitiFact HealthCheck that reviewed a claim from Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) made in an April 30, 2023, interview on CNN’s “State of the Union.”?In the claim he railed against high drug prices in the United States and compared what Americans pay with what people in other countries must fork over. Read the HealthCheck.

1st Place

Darling, this Valentine's Day,?

let's grab our passports?

and fly away to someplace,?

where the same drugs cost a fraction?

of what they do in the States.?

– Jennifer Reck?

Here are more of our favorite health policy valentines submitted by readers.?

Runner-Up

I saw the doctor for a check,?

I had a lump in my right breast.?

Two weeks for the answer.?

It wasn’t cancer.?

So instead of death, I’m in debt.?

– Sunshine Moore Anger?

Honorable Mentions

The paperwork flirts with my affections,?

A dance of denials, full of rejections.?

My heart yearns for you, my sweet medication, but insurance insists on prior authorization.?

– Sally Nix?

Woman Petitions Health Insurer After Company Approves — Then Rejects — Her Infusions

When KFF Health News published an article in August about the “prior authorization hell” Sally Nix said she went through to secure approval from her insurance company for the expensive monthly infusions she needs, we thought her story had a happy ending. But it was far from over. Sally Nix submitted a valentine-themed poem based on her own prior authorization nightmare. Read her story.

I was lost in the sadness?

and shock of you leaving,?

Tore my eyes away?

from my Morning Briefing?

?

How could you leave us,?

Why would you stray??

When you are loved so dearly by the ACA??

??

But I realized too late,?

’Twas not to be,?

My primary care no longer loved me?

– Zac Aulson?

Where Are the Nation’s Primary Care Providers? It’s Not an Easy Answer

The heartbreak of the nation's primary care provider shortage inspired these poetic lines. Read our recent story that examines why it's not easy to say where the nation's primary care providers are located.

Past Winners

Want more health policy valentines? Take a look at our newsroom’s favorites from last year.

Looking to catch up on the latest health care and health policy news? Check out KFF Health News’ daily newsletter, Morning Briefing! Subscribe here.?

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