RUSSELL MOKHIBER—“I keep on trying to stop writing about pharmaceuticals,” Eban told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week. “In many ways, it’s like covering organized crime. There is so much money, so much greed, such a profit motive, that the stories keep coming. I will do my best to not write about this industry anymore. But I somehow feel that this industry may have other plans for me.” Eban is out with her latest, Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Industry (HarperCollins, 2019). In it, we learn some basics: Generics comprise nearly 90 percent of the drug supply in the United States and over 40 percent of those generics are made in India.
HEALTH & MEDICINE
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“Affordable” Health Insurance vs Health Care
9 minutes readTOM CROFTON—Health Care is the delivery of services to those in need. Progressive services include wellness education and prevention. They can bring the total group expenses down, but nothing can reduce the costs as well as removing wasteful administration and profit. Large non-profit health groups keep administration at less than 3% of costs compared to 35% overhead and profit of many pre ACA plans, and the 20% cap with the ACA. There is nothing new about universal non-profit Health Care, except in the US. Every other major country has it and in many places for-profit health insurance is illegal.
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A Response to Trump’s Demonization of Single Payer Health Care
22 minutes readGREG WILPERT: So finally, the White House paper that I cited earlier argues that wait times in the U.S. are shorter mainly because in single payer systems there are no market signals about what type of care is needed, and that the lack of deductibles and all that would cause an overuse of certain treatments. And so as a result, single-payer systems have much longer wait times. And they specifically cite the example of Canada actually having one of the longest wait times, whereas the U.S. in an international comparison supposedly has the shortest. What’s your response to that argument?
WENDELL POTTER: Well, once again, when you’re looking at the U.S. compared to other countries, keep in mind that many millions of us wait forever for the care that we need because we don’t have the money, and we don’t have insurance. And 30 million of us don’t have insurance. The wait is indefinite. And so that’s something that needs to be factored in, as well, too.
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JO SIMMONS—Indeed, just like in the US, minorities are more likely to be left out in the cold than others. Unable to afford the high costs of certain medical treatments – costs any just system should cover for them but doesn’t – they are left to fend for themselves. This is already a deeply disturbing scenario in general terms. However, when rare genetic conditions like Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) or spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) are added into the mix, the outlook of patients turns from bad to catastrophic.
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A Sign National Improved Medicare For All Is Winning
14 minutes readMARGARET FLOWERS—This is not what National Improved Medicare for All (NIMA) advocates support. NIMA would take the national infrastructure created by Medicare and use it for a new system that is comprehensive in coverage, including long term care, and doesn’t require co-pays or deductibles.