What I like about this Issue-Brief is the use of terminology we see, not knowing what it means, and seeing a description or definition. I have added links so as to do a deeper dive into the terminology. Carefully read, a person can garner an understanding of initial drug costs, intermediate costs, discounts, and what pricing results to the consumer. It is not pretty and reflects much pricing rent-taking over the last two or so years, blaming...
Read More »Ending the False Debate Over the Debt Ceiling
Joseph Stiglitz is calling for an honest and open debate on the debt ceiling and future expenditures and whether there is any relationship between the two. He states the expansion of the debt ceiling has no relationship between it and laws having future expenditures. The debt ceiling has no bearing on legal expenditures. It is about raising the debt ceiling to meet the expenditure congressional acts. Mostly a Stiglitz Opinion piece with some...
Read More »Get busy winning
Get busy winning, Digby’s Hullabaloo, Tom Sullivan Or get busy watching freedom die . . . Blue America‘s Howie Klein (Down With Tyranny) points to an old idea still current and still popular: FDR’s proposed Economic Bill of Rights (1944). Our political bill of rights, FDR saw, was inadequate for assuring “equality in the pursuit of happiness.” “I see one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished. The test of our progress is...
Read More »Pharmaceutical Companies Eluding Congressional Scrutiny
If you recall, I reported on a West VA. Federal Court Ruling in Favor of Drug Distributors last July. The City of Huntington and the County of Cabell sued three drug wholesalers responsible for distributing hydrocodone and oxycodone or opioids. The claim was AmerisourceBergen Drug Co., Cardinal Health Inc., and McKesson Corp. were responsible for the increase in Cabell county and the city of Huntington. Both have a total population of ~92,000....
Read More »Mark Cuban’s Pharmaceutical Cost Plus Company
This post is kind of a commercial. I am detailing another way you may be able to fulfill your pharmaceutical prescriptions. The catch right now is having common drugs. Mark Cuban has said he will add more of he less common drugs as they negotiate with the pharmaceutical companies. I have the United Healthcare – Walgreens plan. They issue a 90-day supply of my generic drugs. Up till this year, they would containerize them properly. These were...
Read More »What You Already Knew (?), The Waning of SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine – Induced Immunity
Checking my emails this morning and found this article as taken from MedPage Today listing the JAMA Network Open article. The article was accepted for publication on March 13 of this year. It finally came to be published May 3, 2023. The study has all the credentials of a particular matter. The data coming from PubMed and Web of Science as well as the reference lists of eligible articles. Preprints are included. I did not include the credentials...
Read More »Another Bad Day in Tombstone USA
The title is mine. We do not appear to have any good guys as portrayed in all the western movies we would see on the big screen. No Wyatt Earp or Matt Dillion to take care of the bad guys. Maybe Justice Clarence will get out there and pull a bit of guard duty to protect the majority against a minority of abusers. I think there is enough historical data to support such an action by him. McCarthy maybe? Big on talk and little do . . . May 6th,...
Read More »Selection of In-Box Articles I Found Interesting
Another collection of articles on various topics from my In-Box. Puling quite a bit from Healthcare. Some interesting articles in this batch. I hope you take a few moments and read some of them. Most are not terribly long winded. I wander in the comments section to see what is being said on various topics. I am not impressed with many of the responses. The ones on carrying bullet-spewing-weapons are just plain ignorant. Healthcare Doctor on...
Read More »Healthcare Utilization, Costs, and Pricing Drivers – 2017 and 2021
Health Care Cost and Utilization Report, healthcostinstitute.org, April 2023 Year-over-year and 5-year cumulative trends in health care spending for individuals with employer-sponsored insurance. A detailed report by the Health Care Cost Institute covering the period 2017 – 2021 which includes the Covid pandemic. Decreases i total costs were seen during the pandemic. Still in the end, you will see pricing being the biggest factor in healthcare...
Read More »Debt
To be clear, our national debt problem is due to revenues insufficient to cover expenditures. More than anything else, for the past 40 plus years, this accumulated deficit is due to Republican opposition to tax increases coupled with their eagerness to cut taxes on the wealthy given the opportunity to do so. Most, if indeed not all, currently serving Republican US Senators and Representatives, and State legislators have signed a pledge to never vote...
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