The March jobs report came out this morning and, once again, it was terrific. The economy added 431,000 jobs in March, and the figures for January and February were revised upward by 95,000. The U.S has added 1.7 million jobs between January and March, and unemployment is near an all-time low of 3.6%. As employment has risen, employers have had to raise wages to get workers. So, wages are up 5.6% for the year that ended in February.
The same Republicans that say that limits on the copay for insulin would give the government too much say in healthcare, but have no problem dictating a pregnant woman’s allowable healthcare.
I’m sitting here trying to find my words. But there aren’t any to describe the despicable behavior of the Republicans that voted against this, and the pharmaceutical companies that are profiting. I have seen diabetic children in ketoacidotic comas, hanging on to life because they didn’t get their insulin. I hope we can get the word out to all of the diabetics in their districts that their representatives are doing whatever they can to keep the price of insulin so high that only the rich can afford it.
One of the fundamental misunderstandings of the Healthcare discussion is that Healthcare is NOT a product. It is not fungible.
You cannot go and buy a new son or wife like shopping for a new Ford or Chevy.
Thus, the entire concept of market-product-pricing is not applicable.
Americans paid 8% of GDP for Healthcare from WW2 until 1988 thanks to Reagan's move to create private insurance. That was the same as every other modern nation.
Surprise. Every other modern nation still spends about 10% of GDP while the US we pay 20%. That is, 10% of the entire US GDP, or $2.5 Trillion is wasted in our incredibly inefficient private insurance approach. We also get significantly lower health outcomes, 20th in life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality.
We pay Twice as much for Half the Healthcare outcomes.
A national Healthcare plan pays for itself. AFTER it is in place, and America reduces Healthcare to even 12% of GDP...after...$2.5 Trillion a year of cash is freed for the economy.
Universal Healthcare in principle should also be conservative ideal.
A. Family Friendly by freeing up working parents from that 2nd or 3rd job worked to provide benefits.
B. Reduces economic stress on families and that will lead to lower divorces and abortions driven by economic stress
C. Free up the Talent labor pool. Lets you be free to move to another part of the US seeking a better job without Healthcare worry
D. Lets Entrepreneurs and small businesses hire that great talent that would like the excitement and challenges of new things, but are trapped at BigCorp just to provide Healthcare. Many startup do not.
E. Pays for itself. A dramatically more efficient system
The problem is clearly stated: pay went up 5.6% and inflation went up 7.9%. I don't know about anyone else but the prices I see in the local supermarket are really amazing - particularly since my pay didn't go up 5.6%. I'm smart enough to understand how this happens, but let me assure everyone that when I was in the store yesterday, I was the only one there who did.
And for all those people who didn't understand civics when they didn't sleep through it, well... that's why November is "problematic."
Since I write on healthcare, I can add some information to Prof. Heather's post. On the topic of diabetes. "The increase in annual diabetes spending between 1996 and 2013 was $64.4 billion of which $44.4 billion of this increase was pharmaceutical spending. Said another way, two-thirds of the increase in treating diabetes was due simply to the increased pricing of pharmaceutical companies."
In 1996 Eli Lilly’s Humalog was $21 per vial. By 2017, the price increased to $275 (700%) for a vial which equates to a one-month supply.
Why has the cost of Humalog increased? “The truth is the improvements in new formularies of old versions which are marginally different, and the clinical benefits of them over the older drugs have been zero.” Just like slapping “new and improved” on the labels of food products with a change of ingredients (which qualifies under USDA and FDA labeling regs)., pharmaceuticals can play the same game and they do.
This is from 2019. Pricing without regard to costs is the biggest issue with Humalog. People argue prices and I argue costs which do not necessarily translate to pricing justification. This is what I did in manufacturing for 40+ years.
The VA pays far less for Humalog. Less costly than Medicare, And far less than commercial healthcare.
When I need infusions of Rituxan, traditional Medicare cost is $8000 as compared to list of $28,000.
Amazing how insulin is the new Oxycotin for the powerful. You don’t need Oxy, there was little demand for it, till lobbyist got their way with the FDA. Oxy has killed millions, anyone helplessly addicted, robbed them of everything, even their families, and the price plummeted as production soared to abundant over supply. Tens of millions need insulin to survive, they can die with out, it is not a question of just missing work, and the price soars beyond comprehension. And they, the ‘new hot mess’ call it Capitalism.
Unbridled profit, without concern for how well it serves humanity, and profit that harms humanity, will only keep doing so until humanity is gone. We can do so much better in this country.
I remember during the 2016 election season reading an article in The Guardian (I believe) about the enormous price-gouging surrounding Insulin and how Joe Manchin's daughter, Heather Bresch, worked to make this life-saving medication unaffordable for consumers.
Articles about this unconscionable act can also be found at the Jacobin, which called out Bresch as "Manchin's Appalling Daughter."
We have every right to forensically critique the mind-numbing cruelty of the GOP, but we also need to call out bad democrats when needed.
Why are the Republicans working so hard to “save children’s lives” on the front end by outlawing abortions and controlling women’s health — only to kill those children with keto acidosis on the back end and no health care insurance?
Just pointing out their vile hypocrisy with a rhetorical question, to which we all know the answer....Thank you Dr. Richardson, for keeping the right issues on the burner at the right times. AND, if we can pass both voting laws and thereby keep a majority congress we can do something about these horrible issues. President Biden will have two more years.
The modern Republican Party is dominated by the same mindset that made slavery the "mudsill" of the economy. There are those who deserve all the benefits of society. And there are those whose lot in life is to provide those benefits for those who deserve the benefits. And there is no overlap between these groups. Elites and their slaves.
It doesn't matter whether we call it a "mudsill economy," or a "Laissez Faire economy," or a "supply side economy," It's the same damn thing. It's a slave economy.
If anything kills democracy it's going to be greed and lust for power. Hoarding money and making ever bigger profits is our problem. Trickle down & supply side has had it's chance and it doesn't help most of us in the long run...and once the "average American" invests in the stock of let's say fossil fuels or health care their future is wedded to the profits of those things. Bravo to the workers who voted in a Union at Amazon yesterday. If it wasn't obvious before we should understand that the purpose for the creation of the "Fox News" channel was to play to the fears of "average" Americans and keep power out of the hands of folks who support taxes and regulations for almost anything...and to foster the notion that white, straight, male, Christian American has been great and "perfect" at everything they've ever done. Trump was the acid fueled dream of many of those folks. Now just to keep the record straight, this is being written by someone who was born during Ike's term into a Republican/Christian family going back to Lincoln, who is male, white & straight. We need to figure out how to communicate the truth to enough of our family, friends & neighbors who don't get it....and to pressure politicians & big business. This forum is a wonderful source of information & community...but there needs to be focused positive action around that.
Never ever underestimate the mendacity, greed, and corruption of a rightwing politician in search of a buck. Same for Big Pharma, whose specious claims that Research and Development costs are what drive the price of new drugs. They don't, because universities and research institutes shoulder most of those bills these days. As someone who is in thrall to Big Pharma, because I am on a "specialty" drug that keeps me alive and the cancer at bay, I can very safely say they are exactly the kinds of companies that give capitalism a bad name. They all--not just the egregious Sackler family--made the price of opioids less than the price of milk because they knew that cheap opioids would addict millions of people and would enrich themselves, the doctors who got kickbacks for prescribing them, and the agents who shilled for them. In contrast, insulin--which has been around for ages and is more or less FREE everywhere else in the "developed" world because it costs nothing to make--has been used as a form of extortion because, even though insulin-dependent diabetics are a significant population, they are still a minority, and one that is poorly understood by the public--which doesn't understand the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 and therefore blames the victims of this condition with specious and bigoted claims that it is "their" fault they are insulin dependent. So, in the neo-Victorian drive to create categories of people "deserving" of help and "undeserving"--revived under Ronnie Ray-gun and now the fundamental position of all Despicables and Deplorables in the USA--diabetics are to be extorted and shamed and told they can just die if they don't want to pay for their "crime" of being insulin dependent.
The reasons why the meds I am on are listed as having a retail price (without insurance) of $24,000 A MONTH has nothing to do with R&D, or with the costs of manufacturing it (pennies). It has to do with the utter greed and cynicism of Big Pharma, which has been using cancer patients as their personal slush fund for decades. I don't pay this cost but the hoops I have had to go through and the groveling I have had to engage in to "prove" that I am "worthy" of receiving assistance to pay for this drug has been enlightening to me because it is a performance the drug company REQUIRES in order for me to receive this drug that is keeping me alive. And why? Because the class of meds I am on are very effective for a time, and then they are not. So Big Pharma knows that when they advertise that this one or that one can give a cancer patient "more time" they are talking about months or a few years--not a lifetime. And they also know that they have to get their money fast, because the length of time people are on this medication is an average of 3 years. So they gotta make their billions as quickly as possible.
Sorry: I have been dealing with this crap all week and I am so totally, utterly fed up. Thanks for letting me blow off some steam.
Thank you for showing us that both Democrats and repubs supported legislation that is for All the people: FDR and Eisenhower. That was then. This is now, when repubs just can’t believe that sharing the wealth is a good thing. They dismantle and deny services for the people who need it most. It’s unbelievable that repubs vote against providing a lifesaving and absolutely necessary drug, Insulin, at an affordable cost or even free. And the cost of Insulin is not controlled and varies by states. Last year I heard an NPR story about a lower income family that had to uproot and move to a state that charged a significantly lower price for their child’s insulin. New home and jobs. Empathy and compassion are in short supply on one side of the aisle.
And I have to say something about the loss of Jen Psaki to broadcast news. Without a doubt, the best press secretary EVER. Intelligent, well-spoken, concise, factual AND not afraid to stand up to Fox and other losers. A real shame. I hope her clone replaces her.
"Or we can keep shifting the cost to the consumers."
This is the goal of the GOP agenda. Relieve their paymasters of the *burden* of paying their equitable share of taxes while shoveling government benefits into their private nosebags and corporate troughs. And leave the most vulnerable to strangle in their bootstraps and willing to stand on their neighbors' necks to keep their own heads above water.
This crashing down on teaching Critical Race Theory, and Gender Theory is not just about racism and religious extremism - it is about squashing any idea of forming alliances and making common cause. That people might be lead to work together for their civil rights and the general welfare of the nation. Rather than swearing their allegiance to a system of unearned privilege and undeserved disadvantage.
This isn't about little white children feeling bad or biological males in your daughters' bathroom. This is about keeping students from working together for responsible environmental policy, civil rights, a living wage, and gun control,
But the cost of perpetuating ignorance and resentment, is electing Trumps, Taylor Greenes, Hawleys, Boeberts, Gaetzes, Cawthorns et al - which however profitable for the Leonard Leo crowd, is proving a bit problematic.
Thanks Deborah, I read a Guardian U.S. Edition updated article by Andrew Perez (Daily Poster) & co-author, David Serota (Guardian columnist) titled, "Big Pharma has a powerful new shill. Krysten Sinema fighting drug price reform". 10/11/2021. What is the cost to Joe Manchin's constituency & the rest of the Country?
The same Republicans that say that limits on the copay for insulin would give the government too much say in healthcare, but have no problem dictating a pregnant woman’s allowable healthcare.
I’m sitting here trying to find my words. But there aren’t any to describe the despicable behavior of the Republicans that voted against this, and the pharmaceutical companies that are profiting. I have seen diabetic children in ketoacidotic comas, hanging on to life because they didn’t get their insulin. I hope we can get the word out to all of the diabetics in their districts that their representatives are doing whatever they can to keep the price of insulin so high that only the rich can afford it.
One of the fundamental misunderstandings of the Healthcare discussion is that Healthcare is NOT a product. It is not fungible.
You cannot go and buy a new son or wife like shopping for a new Ford or Chevy.
Thus, the entire concept of market-product-pricing is not applicable.
Americans paid 8% of GDP for Healthcare from WW2 until 1988 thanks to Reagan's move to create private insurance. That was the same as every other modern nation.
Surprise. Every other modern nation still spends about 10% of GDP while the US we pay 20%. That is, 10% of the entire US GDP, or $2.5 Trillion is wasted in our incredibly inefficient private insurance approach. We also get significantly lower health outcomes, 20th in life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality.
We pay Twice as much for Half the Healthcare outcomes.
A national Healthcare plan pays for itself. AFTER it is in place, and America reduces Healthcare to even 12% of GDP...after...$2.5 Trillion a year of cash is freed for the economy.
Universal Healthcare in principle should also be conservative ideal.
A. Family Friendly by freeing up working parents from that 2nd or 3rd job worked to provide benefits.
B. Reduces economic stress on families and that will lead to lower divorces and abortions driven by economic stress
C. Free up the Talent labor pool. Lets you be free to move to another part of the US seeking a better job without Healthcare worry
D. Lets Entrepreneurs and small businesses hire that great talent that would like the excitement and challenges of new things, but are trapped at BigCorp just to provide Healthcare. Many startup do not.
E. Pays for itself. A dramatically more efficient system
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=833091720433244&id=100011972701515&sfnsn=mo
I posted this about 3 years ago... fyi
The problem is clearly stated: pay went up 5.6% and inflation went up 7.9%. I don't know about anyone else but the prices I see in the local supermarket are really amazing - particularly since my pay didn't go up 5.6%. I'm smart enough to understand how this happens, but let me assure everyone that when I was in the store yesterday, I was the only one there who did.
And for all those people who didn't understand civics when they didn't sleep through it, well... that's why November is "problematic."
Since I write on healthcare, I can add some information to Prof. Heather's post. On the topic of diabetes. "The increase in annual diabetes spending between 1996 and 2013 was $64.4 billion of which $44.4 billion of this increase was pharmaceutical spending. Said another way, two-thirds of the increase in treating diabetes was due simply to the increased pricing of pharmaceutical companies."
In 1996 Eli Lilly’s Humalog was $21 per vial. By 2017, the price increased to $275 (700%) for a vial which equates to a one-month supply.
Why has the cost of Humalog increased? “The truth is the improvements in new formularies of old versions which are marginally different, and the clinical benefits of them over the older drugs have been zero.” Just like slapping “new and improved” on the labels of food products with a change of ingredients (which qualifies under USDA and FDA labeling regs)., pharmaceuticals can play the same game and they do.
This is from 2019. Pricing without regard to costs is the biggest issue with Humalog. People argue prices and I argue costs which do not necessarily translate to pricing justification. This is what I did in manufacturing for 40+ years.
The VA pays far less for Humalog. Less costly than Medicare, And far less than commercial healthcare.
When I need infusions of Rituxan, traditional Medicare cost is $8000 as compared to list of $28,000.
Amazing how insulin is the new Oxycotin for the powerful. You don’t need Oxy, there was little demand for it, till lobbyist got their way with the FDA. Oxy has killed millions, anyone helplessly addicted, robbed them of everything, even their families, and the price plummeted as production soared to abundant over supply. Tens of millions need insulin to survive, they can die with out, it is not a question of just missing work, and the price soars beyond comprehension. And they, the ‘new hot mess’ call it Capitalism.
Unbridled profit, without concern for how well it serves humanity, and profit that harms humanity, will only keep doing so until humanity is gone. We can do so much better in this country.
“Every reform is not Communism.”-Robert Kennedy
I remember during the 2016 election season reading an article in The Guardian (I believe) about the enormous price-gouging surrounding Insulin and how Joe Manchin's daughter, Heather Bresch, worked to make this life-saving medication unaffordable for consumers.
Articles about this unconscionable act can also be found at the Jacobin, which called out Bresch as "Manchin's Appalling Daughter."
We have every right to forensically critique the mind-numbing cruelty of the GOP, but we also need to call out bad democrats when needed.
Why are the Republicans working so hard to “save children’s lives” on the front end by outlawing abortions and controlling women’s health — only to kill those children with keto acidosis on the back end and no health care insurance?
Just pointing out their vile hypocrisy with a rhetorical question, to which we all know the answer....Thank you Dr. Richardson, for keeping the right issues on the burner at the right times. AND, if we can pass both voting laws and thereby keep a majority congress we can do something about these horrible issues. President Biden will have two more years.
The modern Republican Party is dominated by the same mindset that made slavery the "mudsill" of the economy. There are those who deserve all the benefits of society. And there are those whose lot in life is to provide those benefits for those who deserve the benefits. And there is no overlap between these groups. Elites and their slaves.
It doesn't matter whether we call it a "mudsill economy," or a "Laissez Faire economy," or a "supply side economy," It's the same damn thing. It's a slave economy.
If anything kills democracy it's going to be greed and lust for power. Hoarding money and making ever bigger profits is our problem. Trickle down & supply side has had it's chance and it doesn't help most of us in the long run...and once the "average American" invests in the stock of let's say fossil fuels or health care their future is wedded to the profits of those things. Bravo to the workers who voted in a Union at Amazon yesterday. If it wasn't obvious before we should understand that the purpose for the creation of the "Fox News" channel was to play to the fears of "average" Americans and keep power out of the hands of folks who support taxes and regulations for almost anything...and to foster the notion that white, straight, male, Christian American has been great and "perfect" at everything they've ever done. Trump was the acid fueled dream of many of those folks. Now just to keep the record straight, this is being written by someone who was born during Ike's term into a Republican/Christian family going back to Lincoln, who is male, white & straight. We need to figure out how to communicate the truth to enough of our family, friends & neighbors who don't get it....and to pressure politicians & big business. This forum is a wonderful source of information & community...but there needs to be focused positive action around that.
Those Repubs definitely live in a different universe, I find it hard to believe anything else!
Never ever underestimate the mendacity, greed, and corruption of a rightwing politician in search of a buck. Same for Big Pharma, whose specious claims that Research and Development costs are what drive the price of new drugs. They don't, because universities and research institutes shoulder most of those bills these days. As someone who is in thrall to Big Pharma, because I am on a "specialty" drug that keeps me alive and the cancer at bay, I can very safely say they are exactly the kinds of companies that give capitalism a bad name. They all--not just the egregious Sackler family--made the price of opioids less than the price of milk because they knew that cheap opioids would addict millions of people and would enrich themselves, the doctors who got kickbacks for prescribing them, and the agents who shilled for them. In contrast, insulin--which has been around for ages and is more or less FREE everywhere else in the "developed" world because it costs nothing to make--has been used as a form of extortion because, even though insulin-dependent diabetics are a significant population, they are still a minority, and one that is poorly understood by the public--which doesn't understand the difference between Type 1 and Type 2 and therefore blames the victims of this condition with specious and bigoted claims that it is "their" fault they are insulin dependent. So, in the neo-Victorian drive to create categories of people "deserving" of help and "undeserving"--revived under Ronnie Ray-gun and now the fundamental position of all Despicables and Deplorables in the USA--diabetics are to be extorted and shamed and told they can just die if they don't want to pay for their "crime" of being insulin dependent.
The reasons why the meds I am on are listed as having a retail price (without insurance) of $24,000 A MONTH has nothing to do with R&D, or with the costs of manufacturing it (pennies). It has to do with the utter greed and cynicism of Big Pharma, which has been using cancer patients as their personal slush fund for decades. I don't pay this cost but the hoops I have had to go through and the groveling I have had to engage in to "prove" that I am "worthy" of receiving assistance to pay for this drug has been enlightening to me because it is a performance the drug company REQUIRES in order for me to receive this drug that is keeping me alive. And why? Because the class of meds I am on are very effective for a time, and then they are not. So Big Pharma knows that when they advertise that this one or that one can give a cancer patient "more time" they are talking about months or a few years--not a lifetime. And they also know that they have to get their money fast, because the length of time people are on this medication is an average of 3 years. So they gotta make their billions as quickly as possible.
Sorry: I have been dealing with this crap all week and I am so totally, utterly fed up. Thanks for letting me blow off some steam.
Thank you for showing us that both Democrats and repubs supported legislation that is for All the people: FDR and Eisenhower. That was then. This is now, when repubs just can’t believe that sharing the wealth is a good thing. They dismantle and deny services for the people who need it most. It’s unbelievable that repubs vote against providing a lifesaving and absolutely necessary drug, Insulin, at an affordable cost or even free. And the cost of Insulin is not controlled and varies by states. Last year I heard an NPR story about a lower income family that had to uproot and move to a state that charged a significantly lower price for their child’s insulin. New home and jobs. Empathy and compassion are in short supply on one side of the aisle.
And I have to say something about the loss of Jen Psaki to broadcast news. Without a doubt, the best press secretary EVER. Intelligent, well-spoken, concise, factual AND not afraid to stand up to Fox and other losers. A real shame. I hope her clone replaces her.
"Or we can keep shifting the cost to the consumers."
This is the goal of the GOP agenda. Relieve their paymasters of the *burden* of paying their equitable share of taxes while shoveling government benefits into their private nosebags and corporate troughs. And leave the most vulnerable to strangle in their bootstraps and willing to stand on their neighbors' necks to keep their own heads above water.
This crashing down on teaching Critical Race Theory, and Gender Theory is not just about racism and religious extremism - it is about squashing any idea of forming alliances and making common cause. That people might be lead to work together for their civil rights and the general welfare of the nation. Rather than swearing their allegiance to a system of unearned privilege and undeserved disadvantage.
This isn't about little white children feeling bad or biological males in your daughters' bathroom. This is about keeping students from working together for responsible environmental policy, civil rights, a living wage, and gun control,
But the cost of perpetuating ignorance and resentment, is electing Trumps, Taylor Greenes, Hawleys, Boeberts, Gaetzes, Cawthorns et al - which however profitable for the Leonard Leo crowd, is proving a bit problematic.
Thanks Deborah, I read a Guardian U.S. Edition updated article by Andrew Perez (Daily Poster) & co-author, David Serota (Guardian columnist) titled, "Big Pharma has a powerful new shill. Krysten Sinema fighting drug price reform". 10/11/2021. What is the cost to Joe Manchin's constituency & the rest of the Country?