Tag: Health Costs

Yet Another Deal

This time it is a drug pricing deal.

The House recently came to an agreement on the drug pricing promise of the Biden admin….

House Democratic leaders are making a last-minute change to their deal to lower prescription drug prices to resolve a dispute that arose over the wording of the measure, according to a source familiar with the process. 

The compromise follows a meeting Thursday night between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and other lawmakers to resolve the issue as House leaders race to line up the votes for President Biden‘s social spending package.

The compromise will add an additional year of exclusivity before Medicare will be able to negotiate prices for certain complex drugs known as biologics, moving the total from 12 years to 13 years.

The last-minute dispute arose from how the text of the drug pricing agreement was drafted. The agreement announced earlier this week was to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices after a period of exclusivity: nine years for many drugs and 12 years for more complex biologics. 

This was actually written down in the text with the numbers seven years and 10 years, though, because drafters noted there is a two-year delay for the negotiation process to play out, meaning the numbers seven and 10 in actuality translated to nine and 12. 

Peters and a handful of other moderates wanted the exclusivity period to fully expire before negotiations could begin, the source said, effectively adding another two years, to bring the totals to 11 years and 14 years, depending on the type of drug

Delaying the start of Medicare negotiating drug prices by any amount of time was already a concession to their position. But many drug pricing advocates have still praised the agreement announced earlier this week as a step in the right direction, even if it does not go as far as they would like.

(thehill.com)

Yet another ‘kick the can down the road” compromise by Dems….which can die in the Senate ….and we all know how useless the Senate is these days.

The health industry has another win under their belt and it only cost $171 million…..

As Common Dreams has reported, pharmaceutical corporations and private health insurers spent $171 million on lobbying through the first nine months of the year, the most of any industry. Big Pharma’s 1,600 lobbyists outnumber members of Congress by a ratio of three to one.

According to the Post‘s analysis of OpenSecrets data, “The industry’s focus on drug pricing has increased dramatically in recent years as the issue became more top-of-mind for voters. In 2012, lobbyists registered to work on the issue of ‘drug prices’ 69 times for 20 different clients. In 2021 so far, they have filed to lobby on the issue 1,192 times for 242 different clients.”

…

Despite the fact that 83% of U.S. adults want the federal government to reduce the costs of medications, for which Americans pay two to four times more than people in other countries, the provision that would have authorized Medicare to do so was briefly removed due to the intransigence of a handful of right-wing Democrats bankrolled by Big Pharma—including Sen. Bob Menendez (N.J.), Sinema, Manchin, and Reps. Kathleen Rice (N.Y.), Scott Peters (Calif.), and Kurt Schrader (Ore.).

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/11/05/big-pharma-spent-horrifying-sums-money-weaken-drug-price-reform

Obscene profits is far more important than the health of the nation…..and thanx to the spinelessness of moderate Dems they are protected.

The Congress is a farce….and that is me being polite.

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

The Best Health Care In The World

How many times have you heard this bit of BS spread on your favorite boob tub show?

And yes it is BS!

Let’s look at the pricing of health care.

With hospitals across the U.S. refusing to comply with a new federal rule requiring them to disclose the prices they negotiate with health insurers, a sampling of previously secret data published late Sunday reveals how much basic medical procedures cost at dozens of major hospitals in a project that critics of the for-profit healthcare system said reveals the severity of its dysfunction. 
 
The database of hospital rates compiled by the New York Times and researchers at University of Maryland-Baltimore details how patients are charged drastically different prices for the same medical care depending on what insurance company they use—with some procedures costing less if a patient has no insurance at all.
 
As the Times reported, at University of Mississippi Medical Center a patient with a Cigna plan can expect to pay $1,463 for a colonoscopy, while someone with Aetna insurance would be charged more than $2,100. An uninsured patient would be billed for $782.
 
Patients receiving an M.R.I. at Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood, Florida will be billed between $1,827 and $2,455 if they have a Cigna, Humana, or Blue Cross plan, and only $262 if they have Medicare.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/08/23/once-secret-prices-expose-irrational-and-cruel-nature-us-healthcare-system

Looking at the pricing and tell me that there is not some room for repair.

Medicare For All (M4A) is the only answer….all the big talk and BS from politicians especially those damn Centrist are doing nothing to curb the blatant theft by the health industry of hard earned dollars from their patients.

M4A looks like the best way forward.

Pricing is just one area of the massive fraud and theft by this industry….there is so much more that needs attention and all we get is politicians bowing to the donations from the health industry to do nothing to change their corruption and theft.

Turn The Page!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Medicare For All Update

By now we have heard all the lies and accusations about Medicare For All (M4A)…..especially those pieces of CRAP that call it socialism (I would argue this point and I will as soon as the critics learn what the Hell they are talking about)….one of the biggest lies would come from the radical Right think tank, Heritage Foundation, and it would be too damn expensive to cover absolutely everyone with health care.

I have been writing about M4A extensively…..

https://lobotero.com/2019/03/04/medicare-for-all/

https://lobotero.com/2019/10/28/can-we-afford-medicare-for-all/

https://lobotero.com/2020/03/04/medicare-for-all-again/

(I realize there are redundancies in those posts but some times the reader needs to be bombarded to get the point through)

Well the CBO under the Trump thumb has contradicted the lies spread about the costs of implementing M4A…..

The Congressional Budget Office on Thursday released a report examining the costs associated with universal healthcare proposals that are based on Medicare’s fee-for-service program and found that implementing a single-payer health insurance program in the United States would not only guarantee coverage for every person in the country but would also reduce overall healthcare spending nationwide.

In the words of researcher Matt Bruenig—founder and president of the progressive think tank People’s Policy Project who called the CBO’s working paper (pdf) on the topic “more exhaustive than any other recent study on the subject”—the new analysis shows that administrative costs under a single-payer healthcare system “will be lower than what even the most rabid Medicare for All supporters have traditionally claimed.”

According to Bruenig, “Modeling the cost of a single-payer program is relatively straightforward. You begin with the status quo healthcare system and then make educated guesses about the following questions:

  1. How many more units of healthcare services will be demanded and supplied when price barriers are removed?
  2. How much more efficient will health insurance administration be after the enrollment and payment systems are radically simplified?
  3. How much money will be saved by reducing the payment rates for healthcare providers and drug companies?”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/11/seems-good-policy-cbo-shows-medicare-all-could-cover-everyone-650-billion-less-year

This program would not be so bad if we diverted the cash from our endless wars to a program that would benefit everyone….not just the slugs in the M-IC….but I know that will not happen as long as YOU keep elected Centrists that owe their position to the wealthy toads on Wall Street and in the depths of the Pentagon.

M4A is the ONLY answer to covering the American people…regardless what people like Biden/Harris say.

And yet the American people had rather be scammed by the industry than look for a option that will protect them all the way….all from the use of an obsolete term.

Be Smart!

Learn Stuff!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”

Thoughts On Medicare

FYI

So many people are either retiring or already having to suffer through retirement.

As a retired dude I am always concerned about my medical costs……for instance….I am a diabetic and my insulin cost me $400 if I were in Canada it would cost me $32…….so yeah I am always worried about the cost of my medical care.

The AARP, that seniors program that helps us get discounts and stuff, has been pushing this Medicare Advantage plan which will pick up the parts that Medicare does not pay……but is it all that or is it worth the money?

While the Democratic presidential candidates are debating full Medicare for All, giant insurance companies like UnitedHealthcare are advertising to the elderly in an attempt to lure them from Traditional Medicare (TM) to the so-called Medicare Advantage (MA)—a corporate plan that UnitedHealthcare promotes to turn a profit at the expense of enrollees.

Almost one third of all elderly over 65 are enrolled in these numerous, complex MA policies the government pays so much for monthly. The health insurance industry wants more enrollees as they continue to press Congress for more advantages.

Medical Disadvantage would be a more accurate name for the programs, as insurance companies push to corporatize all of Medicare, yet keep the name for the purposes of marketing, deception, and confusion.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/11/22/wake-aarp-message-seniors-medicare-disadvantage-corporate-trap

there is a bamboo stand that needs some attention.Since the weather has changed again in South Mississippi….I need to work a bit in the yard…..there is a bamboo stand that needs some attention….

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Sunday Medical News (FYI)

Did everyone “Fall Back” this Sunday?  (Time change)

As a retired old fart I am constantly worrying about my health as well as my wife’s…..one really bad problem and we could be ruined just like most of the American retired.

So yeah it is pretty damn important!

I read an article about the disparity of the American health care system…….

A research study on a commercial computer program used to allocate health care resources on predicted future health care costs provided a window on the ongoing pervasive impact of structural racism in our nation’s health care system.

Moreover, the research published in Science magazine reinforced how structural racism persists throughout society, including disparities in income, housing and other social and economic factors, and the impact that has on disparities in health.  

The study focuses on an algorithm used by health systems, insurers, and practitioners to predict which patients with complex medical needs should receive extra medical care. The ostensible goal is to slash costs by suggesting those patients receive “high risk management” at less expensive primary care levels.

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/10/29/what-algorithms-tell-us-about-structural-racism-health-care

By now just about everybody has heard of the Dems proposal known as Medicare For All…..lots of pros and just as many cons……but those that have the most to lose, the health industry, the drug industry and those that have prostituted themselves to these industries, are the loudest opponents…..

But what does the economics say about the proposal?

Medicare for All would give most U.S. workers “the biggest take-home pay raise in a generation,” two economists from the University of California, Berkeley said Friday, countering one of the main insurance industry talking points against single-payer.

In an op-ed for The Guardian, Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman directly challenged the claim that Medicare for All would “involve massive tax increases for the middle class,” an attack line centrist Democratic presidential candidates like former Vice President Joe Biden and South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg have recently deployed against the popular proposal.

“Supporters of Medicare for All are right,” said Saez and Zucman, leading experts on income and wealth inequality. “Funding universal health insurance through taxes would lead to a large tax cut for the vast majority of workers.”

The two economists argued that health insurance premiums are effectively taxes taken out of workers’ paychecks and paid to for-profit insurance companies instead of the government.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/25/two-leading-economists-say-medicare-all-would-give-workers-biggest-take-home-pay

Last bit for this Sunday…..an update on the medical procedure known as a “fecal transplant”….I have informed my readers of this medical treatment in the past……https://lobotero.com/2019/06/16/all-those-transplants/

The rain has stopped and cooler temps and now the satsuma crop is in we need to start on the tangerine crop…..

Now there is more on this health issue….

What the New York Times calls “a frank and public act of self-examination” has emerged from a Boston medical center following the death of a fecal transplant patient after receiving contaminated stool. In an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine, doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital document the events leading up to the death of the 73-year-old blood cancer patient, which was first reported by the FDA in June. He and another patient, a 69-year-old with liver disease, had been given stool last spring that hosted drug-resistant E. coli bacteria, both samples from the same donor. The liver patient became seriously ill after his fecal microbiota transplant (aka FMT), which aims to restore a patient’s microbiome, or gut organisms. That man recovered, but the cancer patient was put on a breathing machine a week after his last FMT; he died two days later from a blood infection.

One big misstep: Although the hospital had tightened screening for stool donations starting in January based on new FDA guidelines (FMT isn’t FDA approved), older samples were kept, untested, in a freezer. “It wasn’t obvious to a lot of smart people here. We didn’t think to go back in time,” Dr. Elizabeth Hohmann, the article’s lead author, says, adding to STAT that “the prevalence of these organisms in healthy individuals is so low.” Hohmann adds that “20/20 hindsight” also made them realize that antibiotics given to the two patients before their fecal transplants may have helped the E. coli bacteria flourish. The Times notes that while the Boston hospital uses fecal transplant material produced in-house, most treatments in the US use material from the OpenBiome nonprofit stool bank, which has been screening for antibiotic-resistant E. coli since 2016, with no reported cases of “serious adverse events” from FMTs.

In closing….Eeeeewwwwwwww!

The rain has stopped and cooler temps and now the satsuma crop is in we need to start on the tangerine crop…..

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I Read, I Wrote, You Know

“Lego Ergo Scribo”

Thanx for the visits this past week…I appreciate those people that participate….have a great Sunday…..

‘Caravan’ Heads North!

OMG! The brown people are coming….again!  (and that is how you do ‘sarcasm’)

WE all know about the now infamous ‘caravan’ that was making it’s way through Mexico….it was a driving issue for Trump and the GOP in 2018.  Just an exaggerated attempt to foment hate and fear…..

But sadly I cannot join in the total bullshit of those immigrants looking for a better life……but I might consider joining a ‘caravan’…..and head North.

A “caravan” of Americans living with Type 1 diabetes made its way across the U.S. border into Canada over the weekend in search of affordable medical care in a country where they can get the “exact same” life-saving drugs for a dramatically lower price. 

“We’re on a #CaravanToCanada because the USA charges astronomical prices for insulin that most people can’t afford,” tweeted caravan member Quinn Nystrom as she shared updates on the journey. 

Nystrom was among a group of Minnesotans who piled into cars on Friday to make the 600-mile journey from the Twin Cities to Fort Frances, Ontario, where she said insulin, the hormone patients with Type 1 Diabetes rely on to regulate their blood glucose levels, can be bought for a tenth of what it costs in the U.S. 

https://www.newsweek.com/caravan-americans-crossing-canadian-border-get-affordable-medical-care-1417582

And the Trump has an answer for high drug prices……

Those ever-present TV ads for prescription drugs will soon reveal prices, too, the nation’s top health official said Wednesday, responding to a public outcry for government action to restrain medication costs. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the Trump administration has finalized regulations that will require drug companies to disclose list prices of medications costing more than $35 for a month’s supply. “What I say to the companies is if you think the cost of your drug will scare people from buying your drugs, then lower your prices,” Azar said. “Transparency for American patients is here.” The AP has standout details and reaction:

  • Drug companies responded that adding prices to their commercials could unintentionally harm patients. “We are concerned that the administration’s rule requiring list prices in direct-to-consumer television advertising could be confusing for patients and may discourage them from seeking needed medical care,” said a statement from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the main trade group.
  • But one major firm—Johnson & Johnson—has already announced it will disclose the cost of its blood thinner Xarelto in TV advertising.
  • Drug pricing details are expected to appear in text toward the end of commercials, when potential side effects are disclosed. TV viewers should notice the change later this year, perhaps as early as the summer.
  • The disclosure requirement will not apply to print or radio ads for the foreseeable future. It covers all brand name drugs covered by Medicare and Medicaid, which is nearly all medications.
  • The government is hoping that patients armed with prices will start discussing affordability with their doctors, and gradually that will put pressure on drugmakers to keep costs in check.
  • According to the latest government figures, the 10 most commonly advertised drugs have prices ranging from $488 to $16,938 per month or for a usual course of therapy.
  • Although most patients do not pay the full list prices that will be included in ads, experts say those prices are still important. They’re the starting point for negotiations between drugmakers and insurers. Also, copays that patients face are often based on list prices. And many people who have high-deductible insurance plans pay list prices for medications because their insurance doesn’t start covering until patients have spent several thousand dollars of their own money.

This is a truly sad situation….that Americans have to resort to this….especially since we have the best health care in the world (another sarcasm)……

Why do I not feel confident that my insulin will be cheaper with this plan.

If you want to have good health care….then I suggest you check into Medicare For All…..Medicare X is a cop-out.

Learn Stuff!

Then go VOTE!

How About Those Lower Drug Prices?

**This draft was written several weeks before the elections….it got lost in all the news that swirled around the airways**

This is a question I ask as someone who has to take pain meds as well as other forms thanx to old age…..but I ask because time after time I have heard Our Dear Supreme Leader tell the country that our health care will be better and that drug prices will be lower…..and after two years I have seen NO lowering of prices, at least on my drugs……

But wait!  All the bomb stuff the media was focusing overshadowed the news the Trump has a plan to lower drug prices…..

Less than two weeks before the midterm elections, in which health care has been a major issue, President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a plan to lower prices for some prescription drugs, the AP reports, saying it would stop unfair practices that force Americans to pay higher prices than people in other countries do for the same medications. “We are taking aim at the global freeloading that forces American consumers to subsidize lower prices in foreign countries through higher prices in our country,” Trump said in a speech at the Department of Health and Human Services. But consumers take note: The plan would not apply to medicines people buy at the pharmacy, just ones administered in a doctor’s office, as are many cancer medications. Officials said the complex proposal could take more than a year to put into effect.

Under the plan, Medicare payments for drugs administered in doctors’ offices would gradually shift to a level based on international prices. Prices in other countries are lower because governments directly negotiate with manufacturers. Drugmakers immediately pushed back, arguing the plan amounts to government price-setting. “The administration is imposing foreign price controls from countries with socialized health care systems that deny their citizens access and discourage innovation,” lobbyist Stephen Ubl said in a statement, calling the plan a “detriment.” HHS says overall savings to Medicare would total $17.2 billion over five years. Beneficiaries would save an estimated $3.4 billion through lower cost-sharing for physician-administered drugs. The proposal is structured as an experiment and would apply to half the country. Officials said they’re seeking input on how to select the areas of the country that will take part in the new pricing system. HHS Secretary Alex Azar said politics would have nothing to do with it. (This $69 billion deal may reshape health care as we know it.)

So the drugs that doctors give out….the drugs that doctors get paid by drug companies to give out….how does this help anyone that does not get their drugs from a doctor’s office?

The answer is….. not one goddamn bit!

So much for a better health care with the Trump tea…..another pile of steaming bovine fecal matter…..there seems to be more and more fecal matter accumulating around this president.

That Big Drug Deal

Just what we have been waiting on for a year or more….that big drug deal……this will be our biggest deal yet for affordable medication, right?

Bullah*t!

Trump and Sec of the mundane announced their new “blueprint” for lower drug prices……

Drug policy experts and price advocates on Friday panned a long-overdue speech by Donald Trump on drug prices.

As part of the speech, the US health secretary, Alex Azar, suggested drug companies should be required to disclose pharmaceutical prices in advertisements as an incentive to set lower prices.

Along with the speech, the president released a “blueprint” to lower drug prices. However, many proposals had already been made public in the administration’s budget and most were technical rule changes which can be accomplished without Congress. Drug policy analysts said most the proposals would be unlikely to “materially harm industry”. Following Trump’s speech, health stocks rose.

The administration’s blueprint also proposed lifting the pharmacist “gag” rule, so pharmacists can tell consumers when a drug is cheaper without their health insurance. Such provisions are written into contracts between pharmacists and benefit managers, who act as middlemen between the consumer and the health plan.

(theguardian.com)

Did you read that stocks soared because of this announcement?  If this did not benefit the drug industry massively would their prices have soared?  I think not!

President Trump’s long-awaited plan to bring down drug prices will mostly spare the pharmaceutical industry he previously accused of “getting away with murder” and instead focus on increasing private competition and requiring more openness about costs, per the AP. In Rose Garden remarks at the White House, Trump called his plan the “most sweeping action in history to lower the price of prescription drugs for the American people.” (The plan is here.) But it does not include his campaign pledge to use the massive buying power of the government’s Medicare program to directly negotiate lower prices for seniors. The Washington Post notes that the idea was the one feared most within the industry. The Wall Street Journal reports that drugmakers and pharmacy-benefit managers “suggested privately they were relieved to avoid harder blows from the plan.”

Instead, the administration will pursue a raft of old and new measures intended to improve competition and transparency in the drug-pricing system. Those include a proposal requiring drugmakers to disclose the cost of their medicines in their TV advertisements. Health Secretary Alex Azar said the Food and Drug Administration would immediately examine requiring that information in TV ads. The proposals also include banning the pharmacist “gag rule,” which Trump said prevents druggists from telling customers about lower-cost options so they can save money, and speeding up the approval process for over-the-counter medications so patients can buy more drugs without prescriptions. It’s an approach that avoids a direct confrontation with the powerful pharmaceutical lobby, but it could also underwhelm Americans seeking relief from escalating prescription costs.

Just another con job for the ignorant and lazy…..one good question to ask……”How the heck is this going to lower drug prices in this country?”

Officially ditching his campaign promise to challenge the pharmaceutical industry head-on and allow Medicare to negotiate lower drug prices—a betrayal that may have something to do with the fact that the White House is currently occupied by former Big Pharma executives in key posts—President Donald Trump on Friday formally unveiled a plan ostensibly aimed at cutting medicine costs that analysts and progressive critics are already slamming as wholly inadequate and “pharma-friendly.”

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/05/11/trumps-pharma-friendly-drug-plan-denounced-doing-little-or-nothing-lower-prices

This is the same as it ever was…..A Huge Con Job By A Con Artist!

Closing Thought–11Jan18

Those damn pesky medical expenses…..

Anyone that has had to stay in the hospital for any length of time will know just how damn expensive American health care can be……if you have not experienced this then count yourself lucky and pray that you do not have some sort of debilitating disease or need some sort of “procedure”….for you will then learn just how high this situation can go.

The United States spends almost twice as much on health care, as a percentage of its economy, as other advanced industrialized countries — totaling $3.3 trillion, or 17.9 percent of gross domestic product in 2016.

But a few decades ago American health care spending was much closer to that of peer nations.

What happened?

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/02/upshot/us-health-care-expensive-country-comparison.html

Closing Thought–10May17

Are you an old fart?

I am and proud that I made it to my 70th year.

It would seem that after a life of work and paying into the system that old age should offer some rewards….not so with this new Trumpcare thing.

There has been much written and much debated about this new plan coming from the cowards of the government….the GOP.

(if you would like to check out the plan before you comment)

Source: Republican Health Care Spin – FactCheck.org

Looks like us old farts will be paying more for our health care under the rules of Trumpcare…..I’m so glad you morons voted for this toad……

The words “somebody’s going to pay” are rarely comforting ones, and when they’re coming from the Health and Human Services Secretary, and he’s talking about whether health care is going to be affordable for older people under the plan he’s endorsing, they’re even more ominous. But that’s how Tom Price bats away concerns that this bill is really bad for older people.

In an interview with “Fox & Friends,” HHS Secretary Tom Price was asked about part of Republicans’ bill that widens the possible ratio of premium prices between young and old people from 3:1 to 5:1, allowing insurers to charge older people more.

“That’s going in the wrong direction,” Steve Doocy said.

“Well, it’s pricing for what individuals’ health status is, and that’s important to appreciate,” Price said. “Somebody’s going to pay for health coverage for the American people, and the question is how do you do that. And right now, what we’re seeing is that the current plan doesn’t work, because you’ve got 20 million individuals out there who’ve said, ‘Nonsense, I’m not even going to participate in this process.'”

Source: Tom Price admits older people would pay a lot more under Trumpcare, says ‘somebody’s going to pay’

This is great news (sarcasm) for nothing is more needed by a senior than a higher medical bill….

Now that I have depressed myself….I think I will take a nap….back tomorrow with more stuff…..chuq