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POPSNew Taxes on Universal Health Care "According to the JCT, this $180 billion in new taxes would include: A new tax on prescription drug makers that would account for $22.2 billion over 10 years; a new tax on medical device manufacturers that would bring in $38.6 billion; and a new annual tax on insurance companies would net the government $60.4 billion."
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POPSMoney for Health Care Bill Note the excise tax on private insurance plans. That should kill private health insurance. Also note the "cuts" to Medicare. This is where the largest amount of money will be gathered. Anyone on Medicare or Medicaid will be forced to accept the government health care program.
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POPSHow Big Pharma pushed a more-expensive, no-more-effective drug
More: Lexapro had $2.3 billion in sales in 2008 even though generic versions of Celexa and every other drug in the class sell for a fraction of Lexapro’s price. For example, a month’s supply of 5-milligram tablets of Lexapro costs $87.99 at drugstore.com, compared to $14.99 for a month’s supply of a generic version of Prozac. Forest has recently been raising the price of Lexapro to make up for a decline in its use… It is impossible to unpack all of the reasons for these prescriptions, but some industry critics say one reason could be the money doctors make from Forest. Psychiatrists make more money from drug makers than any other medical specialty, according to analyses of payment data. And Forest gives more money and food to doctors than many of its far larger rivals… Forest’s payments to doctors in 2008 were surpassed only by those of Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Novartis and Merck — companies with annual sales that are five to 10 times larger than Forest’s.
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POPSThe Chicago Way: Obama Reaches Not-So-Secret Deal to Not Push Down Pharmaceutical Prices Any Further;
With House Democrats moving to extract more than that just as the drug makers finalized their advertising plans, the industry lobbyists pressed the Obama administration for public reassurances that it had agreed to cap the industry’s additional costs at $80 billion. The White House, meanwhile, has struggled to mollify its most pivotal health industry ally without alienating Congressional Democrats who want to demand far more of the drug makers. White House officials could not immediately be reached for comment. Are you kidding me? Bonus: The Democrats' supporters are 100% real citizens expressing genuine grassroots fervor. For $11-16 per hour. Thanks to Nice Deb. Lefty Dwarf Robert Reich Slams Obama's Corrupt Deal with Big Pharma, Calling It a "Precarious Road" Away from Democracy: He's right. Last week, after being reported in the Los Angeles Times, the White House confirmed it has promised Big Pharma that any healthcare
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POPSReduced Payments To Medicare & Medicaid = "REFORM" Huh? The pharmaceutical industry is wary of Obama's plan to extract $75 billion over 10 years from Medicare prescription drug spending. The White House said "there are a variety of ways to achieve this goal." For instance, it said, drug reimbursements might be reduced for people who receive both Medicare and Medicaid. The drug manufacturers' chief trade group issued a cautious statement Saturday, saying pharmaceutical companies support health care changes, but that much work remains to be done. An industry group that which represents makers and users of medical imaging devices, such as MRI and CT equipment, was more hostile. Obama wants to reduce government payments for such services. He said the devices are used so frequently and efficiently that providers can spread their costs over many patients, requiring less government reimbursement.
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POPSUS spends 50% more per person on healthcare than any other country. And health care reform can save us money, for instance: "If more Americans are insured, we can cut payments that help hospitals treat patients without health insurance..."
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POPSVermont law makes drug company gifts to doctors matter of public record To reduce the perception of undue industry influence, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America or PhRMA, a trade association, instituted a voluntary code in January that prohibits noneducational gifts to doctors and restricts meals. About 50 manufacturers the code. With such a code, Vermont’s new reporting requirements seem redundant, said Marjorie E. Powell, a senior lawyer for PhRMA. “We think this is unnecessary, and it is not going to improve patient care,” Ms. Powell said. “It makes it onerous not only for the company but also for the physician in Vermont, because this is going to be on a Web site.” In other words, "Well, yes, we did grotesquely abuse the lack of regulation previously, but we put a voluntary self-reported rule in place (which we won't let you audit or monitor) and now we won't do it any more! Trust us!" Bah.
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POPSAre we about to eliminate AIDS? Yet the idea of eliminating HIV is so appealing, and the benefit to humanity so huge, that scientists and policy-makers are seriously considering the concept, albeit on regional scales. In the next few months the World Health Organization (WHO) will meet to discuss how the idea could be tried in developing countries, and something approaching elimination might be attempted in the UK within the next decade. "You could eliminate transmission overnight," says Marcus Conant, an HIV specialist in San Francisco. Read on the interesting article.
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POPSDrug Companies Pushing Doctors To Push Their Drugs On Unwitting Consumers? I'm not for making laws to prevent doctors from working with drug makers, but I definitely feel like there is a conflict of interest in a doctor pushing XYZ drugs while being paid by XYZ drug company and then failing to disclose their connections with the drug and the company while trying to encourage the public to take said drug. You then have to ask yourself: Are they pushing the drug because they believe that it will truly work or because they are getting some amazing perks for doing so?
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POPSBig Pharma in the News Money talks. And money corrupts. The story behind this story of one psychiatrist is that of the buying and selling of the nation's health. For profit healthcare is a no win situation for the consumer. Depending on an "open market" when the financial stakes are so high leads to corruption and scandal. And the consumer is sure to lose in the end.
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POPSThe Latest Conflicted Researcher Sen. Charles Grassley has been digging up a lot of these. Gardiner Harris at NYT really manages to pull out some of the larger trends at work, especially toward the end of this piece.
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POPSHistory Is Repeating, When Will the Masses Wake Up? "At the present time, behind the scenes there is a night-and-day movement of collateral. A visiting Englishman leaving the United States a few weeks ago said things would look better here after "they cleaned up the mess at Washington." Cleaning up the mess consists of fooling the people and making them pay a second time for the bad foreign investments of the Federal Reserve Board and the Federal Reserve Banks. It consists of moving that heavy load of dubious and worthless foreign paper — the bills of wig makers, brewers, distillers, narcotic drug vendors, munition makers, illegal finance drafts, and worthless foreign securities — out of the banks, and putting it on the back of American labor. That is what the Reconstruction Finance Corporation is doing now. They talk about loans to banks and railroads." ...
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