This is tragic, dear Kossacks. This is America. This must stop.
I was in the drugstore across the street from my apartment yesterday. I always wander over to the pharmacy counter because being nyceve, I'm interested in hearing the ingenious ways ordinary citizens are handling our collective American health care disaster.
But isn't it sad--no, it's not sad, it's horrifying that in the richest country on the planet, American citizens must scheme to access basic health care.
I must say, if we can take down Joe Lieberman, then we can also demand the same health care they give themselves.
Understanding what Americans do, in this case a donut holed senior citizen to obtain life saving prescription drugs is like watching a train wreck. But recognize from the point of view of the Bush regime, seniors should be "grateful" they have anything, because before Medicare D, they had nothing.
Yesterday was particularly horrific. It involved a very old senior citizen.
The story bears attention because it is emblematic of what is happening across the country.
This old lady--your mother, my mother, your grandmother or mine, had hit the ugly Republican
donut hole. Does anyone know whether Rick Santorum's mom has her Canadian meds confiscated? Or maybe she is on some federal health program which doesn't contain any donut holes.
Returning though to this ordinary elderly American citizen. Seems when she hit the donut hole, she had attempted to get the medications she required from Canada with the assistance of one senior citizen organization or another. And yes, my friends, the medications were confiscated by our government.
She was pleading with a teary-eyed pharmacist who told her to go to her doctor and ask for samples. Yes, Samples. And yet we continue to pay for the destruction and occupation of Iraq but not for medicine for America's elderly.
This is not at all unusual. I am not surprised, you shouldn't be either. Medicare D was created to benefit the pharmaceutical industry.
PHILADELPHIA (MarketWatch) -- The new Medicare drug benefit appears to be fueling the solid quarterly earnings reports from drug companies this month.
But the benefit known as Part D could prove to be a mixed blessing to the industry if political and business dynamics put long-term pressure on the prices charged for prescription drugs.
. . .This has expanded the use of prescription drugs. Total U.S. prescription volume in the four weeks ended July 14 rose 4.9% from a year earlier, a growth rate which, if it continues, would exceed Goldman Sachs' forecast of 2% to 4% growth for the full year.
. . .And it has helped sales and profits at some of the large pharmaceutical companies. Last week, Pfizer Inc. (PFE) reported a 9% increase in sales of the world's best-selling drug, the cholesterol-cutting pill Lipitor, partly due to the Medicare drug benefit. And it helped Eli Lilly & Co. (LLY) report sales of its antipsychotic medication Zyprexa that exceeded some analysts' expectations, though U.S. Zyprexa sales were down slightly from a year earlier amid heavy competition.
Novartis AG (NVS) of Switzerland saw its second-quarter U.S. sales rise 20%, with Medicare Part D helping sales of its Diovan blood-pressure medication.
"We are very confident about a strong U.S. performance, good Medicare uptake," Thomas Ebeling, CEO of Novartis's pharmaceuticals unit, said on a conference call last week.
Prudential analyst Tim Anderson said second-quarter U.S. revenue at the majority of drug companies he follows have exceeded his estimates, citing Part D for some of the gains. Novartis and Wyeth (WYE) posted the biggest upsides to Anderson's U.S. revenue estimates, on a percentage basis.
http://www.marketwatch.com/...=
And yes, the government is agressively blocking the underground railway from Canada. This is from the Wall Street Journal. At least they are reporting the consequences of this unmitigated catastrophe.
Eileen Bloom, a retiree who lives in the lakeside town of Sebring, Fla., has long ordered her medications from Canada, saving up to 50% on her prescription-drug bills. But twice in the past nine months, her medicine hasn't arrived.
Ms. Bloom, who suffers from diabetes, is one of tens of thousands of Americans whose drugs have been seized by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The seizures are the result of a quiet policy change at Customs last November, which has come under fire from members of Congress who say it is intended to protect U.S. drug makers' sales at high domestic prices.
http://online.wsj.com/...
Prescription imports from canada are "illegal" but the criminally conceived Medicare D donut hole is entirely legal.
Drugs from Canada are cheaper because the national health system in Canada negotiates drug prices. But in America it is illegal for Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Am I am idiot or is something very wrong here?
Most prescription-drug importations are illegal under current U.S. law. But Customs and the Food and Drug Administration had tended to turn a blind eye to small mail orders coming across the border from Canada, where the national health-care system negotiates cheaper prescription-drug prices than in the U.S. On Nov. 17, that abruptly changed when Customs began systematically confiscating packages mailed to U.S. consumers by Canadian pharmacies.
Ask any senior citizen in America who was obtaining a small measure of relief from skyrocketing drug prices in the United States whether they can still access the Canadian underground railway?
The number of seized packages has now reached 37,154, angering members of Congress who have been deluged by complaints from constituents. "Some consumers have had their lives put in jeopardy. If you're on heart medication, you can't miss a day or two," says Dan McLaughlin, a spokesman for Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat who has been rallying opposition to the new policy.
. . .Customs says it began seizing packages late last year because of concerns that the prescription drugs coming across the border in the mail were unsafe -- an argument the drug industry has been pushing since the rise of Canadian Internet pharmacies six years ago.
What bullshit! Getting prescription drugs from Canada is not safe, but getting your heart bypass in India or Thailand is fine and dandy.
We're about to find out. This year alone, upwards of 500,000 Americans are expected to travel overseas to get their bodies fixed, at prices 30 to 80 percent less than at home.
Medical tourism, as the practice is known, is rapidly becoming the top choice for consumers who grapple with hefty medical bills. Adult Americans who are either uninsured or considered "underinsured" number more than 61 million - a figure that's likely to soar in coming years.
http://money.cnn.com/...
Total health care reform must be item number one on the Democratic Congressional agenda when we control Congress after the mid term elections.
What I am describing are atrocities, make no mistake. I'll go out on a limb and tell you these are crimes, they are being inflicted on American citizens by our government.
Corruption permeates every piece of legislation coming from the thugs and criminals in Washington. It has real and devastating consequences.