Quote of the day -- on America's health care system

America's heath care system

We Americans aren't very bright, allowing our health care and health care system to be tied to profit.

No other country in the world does this.

The result?  The runaway most expensive health care system in the world, bar none.

Missouri's National Pharmaceutical Distinction

The New York Times points it out today:

"Welcome to Missouri - America's Drugstore. We aren't just allowing abuse, we've created a business model for dealers."

DR. DOUGLAS CHAR, an emergency room physician in St. Louis, on Missouri's status as the only state in the nation that refuses to establish a prescription drug database.

It's based on their article today:

Missouri Alone in Resisting Prescription Drug Database

By ALAN SCHWARZ

In declining to keep a prescription drug database, the state has hampered its ability to combat abuse and also drawn buyers from neighboring states.

So once again and as usual, we'd like to thank the Republican majority legislators in the Jefferson City, Missouri statehouse for yet one more glorious distinction for our state.

But hey, we have "less government" and "smaller government", right?

Because, of course, this doesn't have to do with women's reproductive rights and women's bodies. We want to own those.

God help us.

The tough reporting we need from our media

CBS TV program "60 Minutes" did this segment on their program years ago, 2007, shamefully, and it's an important piece:



And the thing is, now, neither CBS nor this program, "60 Minutes" no longer does this kind of honest, hard-hitting reporting on how our government is working and working against the people, against the common man and woman, the working class of our nation. They only do fluff pieces, "infortainment" on puppy dogs and skiers and sportspeople. This, ladies and gentlemen, is why we have the most expensive health care system in the world, and a lot of other systemic, endemic problems in our nation and society. The wealthy and corporations are having their way with us.

And we're letting them.  Lazily letting them--the media and so, our government and the corporations and wealthy--all get away with it and in a lot of ways, most all financial.

Notice, to my knowledge, CBS and this program has never once done a tough piece like this on the big banks like Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and the like, even though they famously brought us all, nationally and internationally, to the edge of a fiscal, financial cliff back in 2008,

I wonder why.

Link:  Under The Influence - CBS News

How badly our health care needs attention

The 8 years we already forgot

 

Oh, and it was Dubya's administration that made it illegal--ILLEGAL, mind you--for our own government to be able to negotiate lower costs for our--for you and me out here in America--prescription drugs from the pharmaceuticals.

And people think the current President is out to do bad things to the public NOW, by making the most expensive health care system in the world more affordable for us?

Sheesh.

Quote of the day--pitting the rich against the rest of us

"As we begin debating competing budget plans, regressives want Americans to believe the fundamental issue is the size of government, but it's not. It's whom the government is for. Wall Street got bailed out, and the biggest banks are still reaping a huge financial advantage by their implicit guarantee they'll be bailed out if they get into trouble. But underwater homeowners are still in jeopardy. Big agribusiness, Big Pharma, and Big Oil all get special subsidies and unique tax breaks. Military contractors are already planning their post-sequester moves. The wealthy are the largest beneficiaries of the tax preference given capital gains. Hedge fund and private-equity managers still get their own "carried interest" loophole. The rich can deduct unlimited mortgage interest on mansions as well as second and third mansions, while a majority of Americans now rent their homes and have no mortgage interest deduction at all. The Medicare drug benefit is a giant give-away to the pharmaceutical industry. Social Security tax revenues continue to grow as a proportion of federal revenues while corporate tax revenues continue to shrink.

Were we to rid ourselves of these special bailouts, subsidies, and tax giveaways, we could reduce the budget deficit and have enough left to invest in the future of our people (world-class education, infrastructure, and basic R&D). We would not have to do it on the backs of the middle class and the poor, or to the disadvantage of our children our seniors, but by placing responsibility on those best able to bear it."

--Robert Reich,  political economist, professor, author, and political commentator. He served in the administrations of Presidents Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter and was Secretary of Labor under President Bill Clinton from 1993 to 1997.

Links:

Robert Reich

Robert Reich

Robert Reich | Facebook

 

Our broken--badly broken--health care system

 

A friend of mine was sick last week, over his holiday vacation.

That stunk for him, of course, poor guy.

He called in to his doctor, to get something for it.

His doctor concurred and prescribed Tamiflu for him.

He got ten pills of this little "wonder drug."

Now, he has health insurance but even with that, do you know what that one little--very little--prescription cost him?

$111.00

One hundred and eleven dollars for ten pills, even with insurance.

America's health care system.

We're number one.

In cost.

Here's Libertarianism for you

If you've been following the news lately, you may have, likely have heard the story about the people who've been exposed to and some even killed by, having received medication from what we now hear is a "compound pharmacy":

‘High risk’ drug making is at center of meningitis inquiry

Federal officials are investigating practices at New England Compounding Center in Framingham, a compounding pharmacy that has been linked to an outbreak of fungal meningitis. The outbreak has been blamed in 24 deaths.

Inside its sprawling red brick offices, New England Compounding Center engaged in the most hazardous type of pharmacy drug making. The company bought unsterilized powders and turned them into liquid steroids and other medicine supposedly pristine enough to inject into a patient.

It’s called “high-risk compounding,” and doing this safely, industry specialists say, requires elaborate and expensive manufacturing processes, sensitive tests for sterility and potency, and exacting attention to detail.

At the center of the federal and state investigation into New England Compounding, whose steroids were contaminated with a fungus that led to an outbreak of meningitis that has killed 24 people nationally, is whether the company violated these procedures.

My point?

My point is, this is yet one more example, like the BP oil blowout and spill in the Gulf of Mexico and the 2008 financial collapse that nearly took down the nation's and world's economies, that we need at least some government oversight and--gasp--regulations.

Without government and without that oversight and without regulations the Libertarians and so many Republicans and Right Wingers and "Conservatives" abhor, we--the people--are left exposed to the greed of we-don't-know-who.

No, thanks.

Leave me out, please.

I'll take some regulation, thank you.

Links: http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/healthcare/PA-lacks-patient-protection-against-sterile-compounding-errors.html

http://bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2012/10/25/framingham-pharmacy-engaged-high-risk-compounding-higher-chance-contamination/BxwAtkfmCg9rW7EsJqv7HM/story.html

http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/healthcare/PA-lacks-patient-protection-against-sterile-compounding-errors.html

http://www.npr.org/2012/10/25/163641002/after-meningitis-deaths-a-look-at-drug-safety

American health care--from a doctor and patient

Here's a real hoot

Okay, so it's projected that, even if, God forbid, we didn't win the White House this Fall, we Democrats are, it seems, absolutely supposed to be taking over the House and Senate.

Glory Hallelujah!

Sure, we're happy but we really have to keep our representative's "feet to the fire", as the saying goes and we all know.

There's a story out right now, showing that the big money from Big Pharmaceuticals is already flowing more to Democrats than Republicans. (Link to full story here:
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/10/drug-industry-dough-shifting-t.html).

What's really sick is that this information shows that, while it's flowing to Dems now--about 51% to Dems vs. 49% to Repub's--when the Repub's were in charge, it was 2 to 1 for them. It just goes to show you who they think they'll really get the most for their lobbying/bribing dollar from. With Republicans in charge, Corporate America knows it gets much more of what they want with them. Sure, there's still representatives they can buy with Democrats but they aren't as blatant about it. There's some things even a Democrat can't be bought for--so far.

We've just really got to push for reform.

And keep pushing.

One of the first things that should happen, for instance, is that the government should repeal what this President and Congress got and that is, making it illegal for our own government to negotiate lower drug and pharmaceutical costs for us, the American People.

Did you know about that? Unbelievable, really. They passed it some time ago, fairly quietly. Seems the media didn't make a big deal out of it and neither did the American public.

How stupid.

This should never have been allowed.

"Let's just let 'em take us right to the poor house! We don't need affordable medicine in this country! Their huge profits are far more important!"

What's amazing is that, usually, a small donation of from between $5,000.00 to $50,000.00 in contributions to different representatives can gain them multi-million dollar tax benefits.

It's gotta stop.

We have to keep saying "enough", again and again, until we change this government so it works for us again, instead of for Corporate America--and internationals.

Whatever you want to say about Ralph Nader, if you've read him over the years, he's right. Corporate America is now and has been for years, in charge of this country.

We need to take the money--the big money--out of government, away from lobbyists and our representatives and out of our elections. We need to shorten our election time so it's more like the English system. It'll take time but it's what we need to do.

It's time.