It is All About the Money
The rich get richer and the poor help the rich get richer. The only "people" who benefit in the current healthcare climate are the few multinational corporations that supply healthcare and the fewer national insurers. This has been the Republican agenda over decades across the globe, and it is having its impact on American medicine.
Unless you have been in a rabbit hole for the last few years then you certainly know that the reason we are in Iraq is to use the military to spread the Cheney administration's global economic agenda of free trade in areas that did not have free trade. Cheney (and his sidekick George Bush) has fooled us into believing that free trade = free society = the deliverance of democracy around the world. The only thing we have delivered is massive profits for companies like Halliburton, Exxon, and others.
So what does this have to do with healthcare and money? Everything.
While the country's attention has been on the rising prices at the gas pumps we have failed to see the raping of patients with disease by pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies (usually called Pharmas in the business community) have increased their prices in recent years to such an extent that the equivalent in pump prices would be $8.00-$12.00/gallon.
This does not let Exxon and their board of directors off the hook, they are just a bit less evil.
The first quarter of 2005 saw NET INCOME from one of the major pharmas of $4.11 billion dollars. That is after the expenses of private jets and mahogany offices and after all the lobbying efforts with Congress. That is a lot of money for selling drugs needed by one group of people (patients) and ordered by another (doctors). I don't think the Columbian Drug Cartel does this well.
Here are a few ideas for that money:
Dr. K.
Related Topics: Can States Pay for Bird Flu Preps?, Small Business Health Insurance Flops
Technorati Tags: pharmaceutical companies, big pharma, health
Unless you have been in a rabbit hole for the last few years then you certainly know that the reason we are in Iraq is to use the military to spread the Cheney administration's global economic agenda of free trade in areas that did not have free trade. Cheney (and his sidekick George Bush) has fooled us into believing that free trade = free society = the deliverance of democracy around the world. The only thing we have delivered is massive profits for companies like Halliburton, Exxon, and others.
So what does this have to do with healthcare and money? Everything.
While the country's attention has been on the rising prices at the gas pumps we have failed to see the raping of patients with disease by pharmaceutical companies. Pharmaceutical companies (usually called Pharmas in the business community) have increased their prices in recent years to such an extent that the equivalent in pump prices would be $8.00-$12.00/gallon.
This does not let Exxon and their board of directors off the hook, they are just a bit less evil.
The first quarter of 2005 saw NET INCOME from one of the major pharmas of $4.11 billion dollars. That is after the expenses of private jets and mahogany offices and after all the lobbying efforts with Congress. That is a lot of money for selling drugs needed by one group of people (patients) and ordered by another (doctors). I don't think the Columbian Drug Cartel does this well.
Here are a few ideas for that money:
- Pharmas should be taxed 20% of gross revenues that go into a national uninsured health fund to pay for qualified plans for the uninsured.
- No drug should be protected by patents. All drugs should be allowed to be produced generically on day one of introduction. That is the free market. Drugs are chemicals. Chemicals naturally exist. Companies should not own nature.
Dr. K.
Related Topics: Can States Pay for Bird Flu Preps?, Small Business Health Insurance Flops
Technorati Tags: pharmaceutical companies, big pharma, health
6 Comments:
Bravo!
I was without insurance at one time and ended up 13K in debt just to buy my medication. I have a seizure disorder and taking the meds just ain't optional. I fell in the middle and didn't qualify for medical assistance, but didn't have insurance. So guess what? I learned that if I quit my job and went on full assitance (food stamps, etc), I could get my meds and medical covered. How much sense does that make?
Most recently, I have struggled with severe depression. I was hospitalized twice last fall for several weeks, nothing I'm proud of. Just before the second hospitalization I called my insurance carrier to tell them I was going back inpatient and was told by my "case wroker" that I had been suicidal for 6 months and hadn't attempted suicide yet, so I really wasn't in crisis and they weren't going to cover any more hospitalizations. I'm lucky now to have a husband who fights for me when I can't and to work for a major company that will stand behind their employees and has the threat of pulling their business.
It's ridiculous that people have to be able to "threaten" insurance companies with liability before they cover what is on their plan. Should this ability to threaten be removed, insurance companies will not be liable to anyone and individuals will have no recourse or appeal process. Sounds like some heavy duty lobbying and buy-offs to me.
Also Bravo!!! I have to admit that my husband has a job that has pretty good insurance. And with that insurance comes a good prescription drug plan, thank god, because I am on 9 drugs a day. We have a deductible and when I meet that deductible then my drugs are free. Up until that time I pay 20% of generic drugs and 40% of name brand drugs. I happen to take some pretty expensive drugs. I take Topamax (anti-seizure) for my migraines. I also take Amerge which is a migraine medicine for the migraines I get. It costs $211.00 for 9 pills or something close to that. My mother also gets migraines, but unlike me she cannot afford these pills and these are the only pills that work for her as they are for me. I know I'm not supposed to but I share them with her. She did have a prescription for them at one time so I know she can take them and not get hurt by them or I wouldn't take the chance but I know how much she suffers from them and I refuse to watch her suffer without doing anything for her. The pharmaceutical companies do not need to make that much of a profit from those pills so much so that people cannot afford to buy them and they have to suffer. My mother would rather suffer than buy them because she cannot afford them. Since, I met my deductible in February, (I had major surgery) I get them free anyway, so why not share them. I only share those pills with her and only her. And those aren't the only expensive pills I've seen. Imagine I'm only one person taking those pills. How many other people are taking those pills and paying that kind of money for them. No wonder they made 4.11 billon last year. It doesn't take much imagination to see how they did it. Sounds like it's time to take em' down. Linda.
Linda, I've "shared" presciptions, too. But only when the person already has the prescription and is being followed by a doc. She's a single mom who has no insurance and is on disability. One of her drugs costs $1,400/mo. I take lamictal, which runs $600/mo. Then there are the other 8 I take.
I seems to me that drug companies are more than willing to use people to test their precious drugs on; it's the people here to take all the risk. But, when it comes to giving back to those same people who put their lives and health on the line, they're not willing to give back when they're done using folks.
And the money they put into marketing garbage and "freebies" for docs to get their name out there. Quit making coffee mugs and expensive laptop bags and put that money into community service for people who can't afford medication.
What a nonsense article!
Stick to topics you understand.
"What a nonsense article!
Stick to topics you understand."
What a nonsense response. Do you have anything to say about what you thought people missed or are you just going to leave criticism?
I think that this prices (like 1K$ mo) is too much. Because it's just dirty way to make money on people, who don't have even health.
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