The Common Enemy
In a recent Bloomberg article it stated that “prices of the top 20 most-prescribed brand-name drugs in Medicare rose on average 12 percent every year for the last five years, or 10 times the rate of inflation”. I am sure everyone who reads this wishes their salary would increase that much. It just never seems to happen, does it? For this reason Big Pharma has made itself the enemy. They are part of my Medical Axis of Evil because of greed.
Here is the major nugget from the piece:
Deep in a budget deal Congress passed earlier this year — just 118 words in Section 53116, a little before passages on prison reporting data and payment yields for seed cotton — was a hit to pharmaceutical companies that will cost them billions, and could signal more losses to come.
Despite an intense lobbying push, lawmakers changed a Medicare rule, putting manufacturers on the hook for more of seniors’ prescription costs. The companies will have to offer a much more generous discount to beneficiaries who fall into the so-called donut hole coverage gap, marking down retail costs by 70 percent instead of the current 50 percent.
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The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the trade group representing more than 30 pharmaceutical companies including giants Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co., has beefed up its budget. PhRMA spent $26 million on lobbying in 2017, up from $20 million in 2016, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
Who is going to get that $26 million? Let’s keep this sellouts accountable! Democrat, Republican, it doesn’t matter. If they vote against Big Pharma then let’s see how much they were supported by them and out them. Until then, please consider writing for low-cost, generic meds as much as you can. Use Goodrx.com for cash patients. Every little bit helps.
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“Capitalism” is invoked as tie answer to corporate dominance over individuals. “Socialism” is everything else.
Meanwhile, the machines plow up all of it. It is all crooked.
Big Pharma is exactly the result of crony corporatism, a bipartisan crime. Uncle Sugar should never have been involved in the production, pricing, or dispensing of meds, nor giveaways in exchange for retiree votes. We are all so screwed.
People in Maryland can go to http://www.MedChi.org/MDRXcard for our version of a drug card!
Now pharma will have to increase their ‘retail’ price even higher so that the 25% they keep will still equal the 50% the used to keep. We can’t have all those pharma CEO’s giving up their private jets and such.