Tag: Health Costs

8 Million And Counting

What is the scoreboard for you might question….this is just to let the world know what Donny and those slugs that are in his employ are doing to the health of this nation.

The unprecedented healthcare cuts that President Donald Trump and the Republican Party enacted last summer have impacted people in all 50 US states, stripping insurance coverage from around 8 million Americans total and wreaking havoc on hospitals and other providers nationwide.

The advocacy group Protect Our Care on Tuesday released state-by-state fact sheets detailing how many people have lost Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), and Affordable Care Act coverage due to Republican policy decisions, including the party’s roughly $900 billion in cuts to Medicaid and decision to let enhanced ACA subsidies expire, sending premiums skyrocketing.

“Eight million Americans have lost their health care because Donald Trump and Republicans decided they would rather hand out tax breaks to billionaires than protect working families,” said Brad Woodhouse, the president of Protect Our Care. “Every day that healthcare becomes more expensive, a family is forced to make an impossible choice between putting food on the table and staying covered, a senior is forced to ration their medication, and an expectant mother has to travel farther to access maternity care.”

(commondreams.org)

I still say let’s give Medicare For All (M4A)…..what have we to lose?

To be honest I want to give you an opposing view….this is from the website Reason….keep in mind their slogan is “Free Minds and Free Markets”….so with that in mind they are basically on the side of for profit healthcare…

“Free healthcare is cool,” comedian Shane Gillis recently said on The Joe Rogan Experience. “We should have that.”

“You should treat the entire country like it’s a community,” Rogan replied. “If you had a community, would you want the sickest person to fucking die who could be very valuable if you could take care of them, and do you have the resources to take care of them?”

While support for “free” healthcare in the United States is not new—Harry Truman campaigned on universal health insurance in 1948, and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I–Vt.) has popularized the “Medicare For All” slogan in recent years—the policy has received renewed interest of late. The Democratic Socialists of America have made universal healthcare “at no cost to individuals” a key component of their party’s expensive platform.

But it is not just political hopefuls who like the idea of universal healthcare; academics seem to as well. A recent study by the Yale School of Public Health claims that single-payer universal healthcare would save more than 100,000 lives a year, and would supposedly cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace. The study, which has not been peer-reviewed yet, appears to come to its conclusions by modeling a scenario that assumes cheaper pharmaceutical prices, less administrative overhead, reduced fraud, and fewer emergency visits.

…

The U.S. healthcare system has plenty of problems. While the promise of “free stuff” may sound tempting, the experience of countries with universal healthcare should make Americans deeply skeptical of the idea that putting the government in charge of the entire system is a panacea.

https://reason.com/2026/08/19/universal-healthcare-sounds-great-heres-whats-happening-in-countries-that-have-it/

The part about long waits for treatment….when I needed a gastro doctor it took me 14 weeks to get an appointment….we have those long waits, maybe not as stark as others but they are there.

If they are against M4A then how about giving Americans the same coverage as Congress people?  It is free and their waits are shorter and their drugs are mostly free….how about that for a solution?

In case there are those that still do not know what M4A is….let me help….here are the basics….

Medicare for All would transform the program into a single-payer health insurance program that would provide all Americans with healthcare coverage.

Single-payer healthcare systems, also called universal healthcare, are currently in place in various countries worldwide. These healthcare systems can have differing elements, such as:

  • how the health insurance is paid for
  • how the healthcare is delivered
  • how the health facilities are owned and operated

So yes I support M4A and will do so as long as I kind breathe on my own.

How about you?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Why Is Healthcare So Expensive?

There is the question that asked every damn day.

My declining years I have had more health problems than I had 50 years prior and even with Medicare the procedures and visits are damn expensive.

Here is a look at 12 reason for the high cost of health care…..

Nobody sits down and decides to spend $15,474 on healthcare in a single year. It happens in increments – the specialist co-pay, the bill that arrives six weeks after the procedure, the prescription that somehow costs $400 even with insurance. And yet, that figure is exactly what the United States spent per person on healthcare in 2024, according to CMS National Health Expenditure data. Switzerland, the second most expensive country on earth for healthcare, spent significantly more than $10,000 per person. The average among other wealthy nations was $7,371. The U.S. is not edging out the competition – it is in a different bracket entirely.

Despite spending roughly twice as much per capita as comparable countries, the U.S. actually uses fewer healthcare services than many of its peers – meaning prices, not volume of care, are the primary driver of the gap. Americans are not visiting the doctor twice as often or taking twice as many medications. They are simply paying more for every single thing that happens when they do.

The reasons U.S. healthcare costs so much are structural, interdependent, and decades in the making. Here are twelve of them.

12 Reasons the U.S. Pays More for Healthcare Than Anyone Else

I know most of us have our opinion on this subject……

I say Medicare For All will go a long way in helping many of us cope with the health problems of old age.

Any thoughts you would like to share?

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Witch Doctor Prognosis

in case you may have missed it the results of Donny’s latest medical check up….

President Trump’s physician says the president is in “excellent health” and is “fully fit” to serve as commander in chief after a medical exam on Tuesday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. A report from Dr. Sean Barbabella, released late Friday, says Trump underwent a CT scan and other heart imaging, along with cancer screenings and other preventive assessments carried out by 22 specialists, per the AP. Trump, 79, said after the three-hour visit on Tuesday that everything checked out “perfectly.”

The president weighed in at 238 pounds, up 14 pounds from a medical exam in April of last year. His doctors gave him guidance on his diet, physical activity, and weight loss, but they concluded his “cognitive and physical performance are excellent.” With his 6-foot, 3-inch frame, Trump has a body mass index of 29.7; an index of 30 is considered by doctors to be obese. The report also documented bruising on Trump’s hands, explained as “minor soft tissue irritation related to frequent handshaking,” noting it was “a common and benign effect of aspirin therapy.” Among the recommendations for Trump was a switch to low-dose aspirin.

Last year the White House said Trump, who turns 80 next month, was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency, a fairly common condition for older adults that causes blood to pool in the legs. The report from Trump’s latest exam noted “slight lower leg swelling” but said there was “improvement from last year.” His doctor reported nothing abnormal, saying Trump demonstrated strong cardiac, pulmonary, neurological, and overall health. “His demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements, and regular physical activity, continues to support his overall well-being,” Barbabella wrote.

Then there is Donny’s pronouncement that he has “extreme intelligence’….the same thing he says every time….the problem is those tests are NOT an IQ test…..

President Donald Trump is again highlighting his performance on a cognitive screening exam as evidence of what he called “extreme intelligence,” following the release of a White House medical summary of his latest physical.

The condensed memo of the exam, issued by the White House physician after Trump’s annual examination at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, states that his cognitive function, assessed using the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), was “within normal limits” with a score of 30 out of 30.

The MoCA is a widely used cognitive screening tool designed to assess memory, attention, language, visuospatial skills and other areas of cognitive function. Medical experts say it is intended to identify potential signs of cognitive impairment and determine whether further evaluation may be needed. It is not designed to measure intelligence, IQ or academic ability.

https://www.salon.com/2026/05/31/trump-says-cognitive-test-proves-extreme-intelligence-doctors-disagree/

This part gave me my first good belly laugh this morning….with coffee it was a good start.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Is United Healthcare Evil?

Since the CEO of United Healthcare was popped on the streets of NYC there has been scrutiny over what drove the assassin to commit murder.

There have been several stories of people that were screwed over by the big insurance giant…..this is the one that stuck with me….

A month after the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson prompted many Americans to share personal horror stories of the company’s coverage denials and other practices, a doctor in Austin, Texas on Wednesday shared her own experience that she said exemplified how the for-profit health system “just keeps getting worse.”

In a video posted to TikTok, Dr. Elisabeth Potter said she recently received an unprecedented phone call from UnitedHealthcare about a patient—one who was already under anesthesia and having surgery.

Potter, a plastic surgeon who specializes in reconstructive surgery for breast cancer patients who have had mastectomies, said she was performing a bilateral deep inferior epigastric perforator [DIEP} surgery when UnitedHealthcare called her in the operating room.

The call was urgent, she was told, and needed to be returned right away.

“So I scrubbed out of my case and I called UnitedHealthcare, and the gentleman said he needed some information about her,” said Potter. “Wanted to know her diagnosis and whether her inpatient stay should be justified.”

Potter found that the person calling wasn’t aware that the patient whose care he was questioning had breast cancer and was in the operating room—that information was known by “a different department” at UnitedHealthcare.

Potter’s account, said Nidhi Hegde, managing director at the American Economic Liberties Project, was “another horror story from a doctor dealing with United Healthcare’s terrible authorization process.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/united-healthcare-surgery-coverage

This is horrific but it is not an outlier…

Then there is news about their and others drug pricing…..

The Big 3 companies acting as intermediaries between drugmakers and insurance providers made billions by needlessly jacking up the prices of lifesaving drugs, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In its second interim staff report on pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), released Tuesday, the FTC said CVS Health’s Caremark Rx, Cigna’s Express Scripts, and UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx “marked up numerous specialty generic drugs dispensed at their affiliated pharmacies by thousands of percent, and many others by hundreds of percent,” generating $7.3 billion in revenue in excess of the acquisition costs of the drugs over five years beginning in 2017.

In theory, PBMs act as middlemen, negotiating fees with drugmakers on behalf of employers and reimbursing pharmacies for prescriptions, per Reuters. But the FTC’s earlier report on PBMs, released in July, found they are “vertically integrated” with healthcare conglomerates, which “exercise vast control over huge swaths of the healthcare sector.” That report analyzed two specialty generic drugs, flagging markups over 1,000%. This report expands the analysis to 51 specialty generic drugs. For these, the Big 3’s price-markup revenue climbed from $522 million in 2017 to $2.1 billion in 2021. “Cancer drugs alone made up nearly half of the $7.3 billion” in revenue over five years “with multiple sclerosis medications accounting for another 25%,” per NBC News.

The companies—found to have “reimbursed their affiliated pharmacies at a higher rate than they paid unaffiliated pharmacies on nearly every specialty generic drug examined”—also generated an additional $1.4 billion over five years through the practice of billing plan sponsors more than they reimbursed pharmacies for the drugs, the report notes. A rep for Express Scripts says the report is misleading, with the analyzed drugs accounting for less than 2% of what health plans spend on medications in a year, per Reuters. An OptumRx rep said the company lowers drug costs and saved patients $1.3 billion last year. But the report found patients’ out of pocket costs for the 51 drugs totaled $279 million in 2021, “an annual compound increase of 14%-21% since 2017,” per Reuters.

To my way of thinking this is evil and all the industry needs to be held to a higher standard than it is today….but sadly if that happens it will be after this next 4 years.

These companies are just sick as well as greedy and evil…..period.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

All Those Medical Bills

I am told that today’s session with the ‘Cyber Knife’, focused radiation therapy, will be my last then there will be re-evaluation of my condition and then decide what to move on to for my next treatment….maybe now I can get a bit of my energy back.

I know that health care is very expensive here but since I started my ordeal it seems that bills arrive daily…..makes one ask just what the Hell is going on with, according to some, the best health care in the world.

There are few….make that many….theories at why the costs are so prohibitive….here are a couple of observations….

One of the most talked-about policies in the national conversation around insurance is Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield’s decision in Connecticut, New York, and Missouri to deny claims for anesthesia for surgeries that went longer than a set time limit. It was greeted with huge uproar before the insurer backtracked, citing “misinformation” about the issue. For some, that’s exactly what this was, wrongly painting the insurer as the bad guy. For others, it’s a further sign that the private insurance system needs to go. Two opinions:

Eric Levitz, Vox:

  • “People imagined patients waking up from surgery to find they owed thousands of dollars because their procedure went 15 minutes long,” writes the journalist. But this was a “cost control” that would’ve reduced payments for anesthesiologists who tend to exaggerate and overbill, says Levitz, stressing the burden would’ve fallen on those providers, not patients. Ultimately, if health care costs are to fall in the US, hospitals, physicians, and drug companies—which “charge much higher rates than their peers in other wealthy nations”—need to “accept lower payments,” Levitz writes. “Ideally, we would do this through a comprehensive system of public cost controls and insurance provision. Failing that, we need private insurers to drive a harder bargain with the most expensive doctors and hospitals.”

Dr. Adam Gaffney, MSNBC:

  • Gaffney of the Harvard Medical School redirects the blame onto insurers. “Obviously, most health care spending goes to health care provision,” he writes. “The relevant question is how to realize savings while upgrading care for everyone, and the best answer is by eliminating the gargantuan waste that is our private insurance system.” “The traditional, public Medicare program spends about 2% of its total revenue on administration. Private insurers, by contrast, take 10% (or more) of your premium for administration and profit,” he writes. “This fivefold difference accounts for the more than $400 billion in savings that the Congressional Budget Office projects could be saved annually from eliminating private insurance and moving to ‘Medicare for All.’ Instead, we’re basically setting that money on fire.”

As prices keep rising more and more Americans are searching for answers….

Public sentiment regarding the nation’s for-profit healthcare system—an outlier among wealthy nations—has dominated the national news in recent days following last week’s killing of an insurance executive in New York.

On Monday, just hours before a suspect in the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was arrested by police, a new Gallup poll found a 62% majority in the U.S. believe the government should ensure all Americans have healthcare coverage—the highest percentage in more than a decade.

Just 42% of people in 2013 believed it was the government’s responsibility to make sure everyone in the country had health coverage—a low since the beginning of this century.

The poll found that a majority of Republicans still believe ensuring health coverage is not the government’s job, but the majority has shrunk since 2020.

That year, only 22% of Republican voters believed the government should ensure everyone in the country has healthcare, but that number has now grown to 32%.

The percentage of Independents who think the issue is in the government’s purview has also gone up by six points since 2020, and Democratic support remains high, currently at 90%.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/universal-healthcare-poll

Those findings alone should sway the government into action…..HAHAHA!

With the incoming people profit is far more important than the health of your mom or dad….enter those scary death panels that the GOP was warning us about back in 2012….but who knew they would be warning us against their policies?

I will be out of pocket most of the day so this will be my only offering for your consideration.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Cancellation Of Medical debt

I know people that are trying to pay off their debt for the medical expenses…..it is not easy for them. Why doesn’t someone do something?

Enter Sen. Bernie Sanders…..

Studies have shown that millions of Americans owe a combined $220 billion in medical debt, with 1 in 5 adults saying they don’t expect to ever be able to pay off the bills. A group of congressional Democrats on Wednesday proposed knocking the amount down to zero. “People in our country should not be going bankrupt because they got cancer and could not afford to pay their medical bills,” Sen. Bernie Sanders said Wednesday in a statement. The legislation would remove the debt from credit reports and severely limit future debt from accruing, the Hill reports.

The legislation would cancel existing debt through a new federal grant program, per the Guardian. It would alter the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act to keep creditors from collecting old medical bills and change the Consumer Credit Reporting Act to prohibit credit agencies from reporting information about unpaid health care bills. Rep. Ro Khanna, one of the co-sponsors, talked about the stress the debt causes. “I’ve met people who say they’re just resigned to having this debt ruin their credit, and they don’t pay it, but they have this kind of harassment and anxiety while they’re dealing with a chronic condition like cancer or diabetes,” he said.

The burden of medical debt is not evenly distributed. An analysis by KFF Health News found that people with disabilities were more than twice as likely to be in medical debt than those without a disability. In addition, 13% of Black Americans have the debt, compared to 7% of white adults and 8% of Hispanic adults. Ensuring that people are not plunged into debt because they saw a doctor or went to an emergency room is “kind of human decency,” Khanna said.

I applaud Bernie’s bill and its supporters….at least these people are looking out for the American people and not who gets the biggest piece of taxpayer pie.

A great idea in my book….but it will go nowhere in Congress….for you see the insurance industry has buckets of money to throw that those in Congress to do their bidding.

So sad just how screwed up this system is when a debilitating illness can leave you in a refrigerator box under a bridge somewhere.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Closing Thought–05Jan24

Do you take pills….if so then your meds are probably expensive especially if you fighting off some disease like Diabetes.

I know Biden has brought of insulin down and to that I say ‘bless his heart’…..but what about other drugs?

Well the FDA has just made a ruling on drugs…..

Americans are known to head across the border into Canada to buy their prescription drugs at cheaper costs. Now, for the first time, a state government has received approval to do the same thing on a much larger scale. In a decision described as historic, the Food and Drug Administration has granted Florida’s request to import drugs in bulk from Canada, reports the New York Times. The pharmaceutical industry is expected to file a legal challenge before that happens, but if the move goes through, expect other states to follow suit. Details:

  • The impact: The development has the potential to “change the way Americans obtain prescription medicines and could reduce their cost,” per the Wall Street Journal. Several other states already have applications pending to the FDA, including Colorado, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, North Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
  • However: Canada is only so big. “There are real constraints on Canada’s ability to even do this—they would basically be giving up drugs that are meant for their population to subsidize drugs for people in Florida,” Stacie Dusetzina, a health-policy professor at Vanderbilt, tells the Journal. More tellingly, a spokeswoman for Health Canada agrees: “Canada’s drug supply is too small to meet the demands of both American and Canadian consumers,” Maryse Durette tells the Times. “Bulk importation will not provide an effective solution to the problem of high drug prices in the US.”
  • Context: The Washington Post notes that the decision comes as Big Pharma appears to realize something has to give on drug prices. Eli Lilly, for example, said this week it would make its diabetes and weight-loss drugs available via telehealth, and CVS is in the midst of a major revamp of its pricing that takes effect in 2025. Both moves could result in lower prices. Politically, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis could gain bragging rights over this, as could former President Trump, whose administration pushed the importation law ahead, and President Biden, whose FDA signed off on it.
  • First drugs: Florida plans to import drugs initially for the treatment of HIV, AIDS, diabetes, hepatitis C, and mental illness, per CNN. They would be used for Medicaid patients, inmates, and other patients served by state entities, and the FDA would have to approve any such purchases after vetting them for safety and to verify savings. However, it could be awhile before all the legal hurdles get sorted out.

Something needs to be done to slow down the slugs at Big Pharma…..soon you would have to be Bezos to afford your meds.

Please do not fall the con of a Medicare Advantage Plan….it is a rip-off.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Who Profits From Medical Debt?

You hear about the people that are screwed by medical debt….how they have lost everything to pay those massive bills that come in the mail and phone calls.

But that is all too common….every thought about who profits by throwing people into debtors prison (not really but has the same results)…..IST would be remiss if I did not tell the rest of the story…..

Patients at North Carolina-based Atrium Health get what looks like an enticing pitch when they go to the nonprofit hospital system’s website: a payment plan from lender AccessOne. The plans offer “easy ways to make monthly payments” on medical bills, the website says. You don’t need good credit to get a loan. Everyone is approved. Nothing is reported to credit agencies.

In Minnesota, Allina Health encourages its patients to sign up for an account with MedCredit Financial Services to “consolidate your health expenses.” In Southern California, Chino Valley Medical Center, part of the Prime Healthcare chain, touts “promotional financing options with the CareCredit credit card to help you get the care you need, when you need it.”

As Americans are overwhelmed with medical bills, patient financing is now a multibillion-dollar business, with private equity and big banks lined up to cash in when patients and their families can’t pay for care. By one estimate from research firm IBISWorld, profit margins top 29% in the patient financing industry, seven times what is considered a solid hospital margin.

Hospitals and other providers, which historically put their patients in interest-free payment plans, have welcomed the financing, signing contracts with lenders and enrolling patients in financing plans with rosy promises about convenient bills and easy payments.

For patients, the payment plans often mean something more ominous: yet more debt.

Millions of people are paying interest on these plans, on top of what they owe for medical or dental care, an investigation by KHN and NPR shows. Even with lower rates than a traditional credit card, the interest can add hundreds, even thousands of dollars to medical bills and ratchet up financial strains when patients are most vulnerable.

How Banks and Private Equity Cash In When Patients Can’t Pay Their Medical Bills

You now see that your health issues money in the bank for Pharma and the health industry.

While you were rotting your brain on Twatter, Tik Tak and other mindless sites your life is being dismantled….and seemingly with your permission.

Pay Attention!

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

2023 Medicare Cuts Pending

As a retired senior I am constantly watching for news on Medicare so that I can bring the news to my senior readers…..a public service from IST….

In 2023 we will have a new Congress and there is already cuts on the books to Medicare without the silliness from the GOP.

If you are a senior that depends on Medicare for your medical needs you need to read this and be aware of the changes we are looking at for the coming year.

New changes are set to come to Medicare next year. They will likely make expenses tighter for doctors, and put vital healthcare out of reach for some older patients. 

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, a federal agency within the Department of Health and Human Services, announced several policy changes in early November that will come into effect at the beginning of next year.

Among them are Medicare cuts to doctors through the Physician Fee Schedule, which is used to determine which services doctors are reimbursed for, and how much they get. Medicare reimbursement will decrease by about 4.5%, and ​​surgical care will face a nearly 8.5% cut.

“It’s affecting how doctors can run their businesses,” Christian Shalgain, Director of Advocacy and Health Policy at the American College of Surgeons, told Insider. “I’ve talked to doctors who are saying, ‘I have to decide whether to hire a new person or buy a new piece of equipment.’ That’s a significant problem from a patient’s perspective.”

If healthcare providers get less money through Medicare, they won’t be able to hire as many nurses, doctors, and other staff, as well as fund necessary equipment for services. It affects the quality of care patients are able to get, and can even impact how many Medicare patients a healthcare provider can take on, Shalgain said.

In years past, Congress has been able to postpone these preplanned cuts until the next year, varyingly achieving full scraps of the plan, or reduced cuts. Doctors’ groups lobby annually for Congress to intervene, because they say that it stretches their budgets thin, which is especially a problem given that hospitals are already strained from COVID and healthcare costs are skyrocketing. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/medicare-cuts-affect-seniors-healthcare-medicaid-social-security-funding-2022-11

The good news is that your insulin may be more affordable….the bad news is the rest of your health needs will be more expensive.

Before you get excited maybe you should read this……

Peace and economic justice advocates responded to the imminent unveiling Friday of the United States Air Force’s new $750 million-per-plane nuclear bomber by reiterating accusations of misplaced priorities in a nation where tens of millions of people live in poverty and lack adequate healthcare coverage.

Military-industrial complex giant Northrop Grumman is set to introduce its B-21 Raider on Friday. The B-21, whose development was 30 years in the making and whose total project cost is expected to exceed $200 billion, is tapped to replace the aging B-2 Spirit.

“One thing the world definitely does not need is another stealth bomber,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group CodePink,

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/12/02/millions-americans-lack-adequate-health-coverage-pentagon-has-new-nuclear-bomber

That’s right we will get stale bread crumbs and the M-IC gets champagne…..

And you vote for these people….shame on you!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Inflation Reduction Act

Recently the Congress and the White House passed and signed a great bill that is suppose to help struggling Americans keep the prices of drugs down….

The Inflation Reduction Act is set to lower drug prices for millions of people in the U.S. — but experts fear pharmaceutical companies could exploit loopholes in the bill, ultimately keeping prescription costs high for many.

The law takes aim at insulin costs, caps out-of-pocket spending for Medicare beneficiaries, and allows the federal government to negotiate prices on the costliest prescription drugs. It also will require drugmakers to pay a rebate to Medicare if they raise prices too sharply.

These provisions won’t be implemented all at once.  Instead, they’ll go into effect gradually over the next several years, beginning with insulin price caps and rebates in 2023, out-of-pocket caps in 2025, and finally drug negotiations in 2026.

Because of the four-year gap before the law is fully implemented, policy and legal experts fear that pharmaceutical companies may have ample time to go on the offense and — if they don’t try to get the law thrown out in court — figure out ways to sidestep provisions that affect their ability to maintain their high profits.

The tactics may ultimately threaten the law’s ability to lower drug costs for consumers. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found about 8 in 10 adults say the cost of prescription drugs is unreasonable.

“Trying to reform the system is like playing three-dimensional chess,” said Robin Feldman, a pharmaceutical and intellectual property law expert at the University of California, Hastings. “Whatever move the government makes, companies will move on three different levels to try to get around it.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/inflation-reduction-act-aims-lower-drug-costs-s-big-pharma-get-rcna48341

This is typical….the Congress installs loopholes that can be exploited by the donors that pay their representatives to make it easier for them exploit the people of this country.

So bend over my fellow Americans and enjoy the ride….you will get use to it (sarcasm)….

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”