Health Care Affects Real People, Real Lives

by: Foiled Goil

The pharmaceutical industry has raised prices on brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent this year. The run-up in prices comes at a time when prices for most consumer products are falling. Industry critics told The New York Times that drug makers are jacking up prices before Congress passes legislation designed to curb drug spending in coming years. “At a time when health care costs are soaring, I find it extremely distressing that the pharmaceutical industry is leading the pack and has raised prices for brand-name drugs by about 9 percent in the last year,” Senator Bernie Sanders said. “In Vermont and throughout this country, significant numbers of people, including many seniors, cannot afford to fill the prescriptions their doctors are writing. Any serious health care reform package must control the costs of prescription drugs."

The higher prices for prescription medicine tacked more than $10 billion onto the nation’s drug bill, according to industry analysts.

The increase in prices puts the yearly cost at around $2,000 for a brand-name prescription drug that is taken daily. That’s about $200 more expensive than last year, Stephen W. Schondelmeyer, a professor of pharmaceutical economics at the University of Minnesota, told the Times. The professor analyzes drug pricing for AARP, the advocacy group for seniors that supports the House health care legislation that the drug industry opposes.

Read the Times article here.

The health debate continues…

Nov. 16: Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., talks about the Republicans delay tactics to prevent health reform from being passed before the new year. [ 7:35 ]

Health reform’s human stories

Nov. 16: Countdown’s Keith Olbermann reads an account by producer Rich Stockwell of the free health clinic held in New Orleans over the weekend, in which over 1,000 people attended. [ 6:10 ]

'Countdown' senior producer Rich Stockwell shares his experience attending the free health clinic by the Association of Free Clinics in New Orleans on Saturday.

New Orleans, La. — - It happened as I watched a 50-something woman walk out, after spending several hours being attended to by volunteer doctors. "She's decided against treatment. A reasonable decision under the circumstances," the doctor tells us as she heads for the next patient. The president of the board of the National Association of Free Health Clinics tells me why: "It's stage four breast cancer, her body is filled with tumors." I don't know when that woman last saw a doctor. But I do know that if she had health insurance, the odds she would have seen a doctor long ago are much higher, and her chances for an earlier diagnosis and treatment would have been far greater.

After watching for hours as the patients moved through the clinic, it was hard to believe that I was in America.

Eighty-three percent of the patients they see are employed, they are not accepting other government help on a large scale, not "welfare queens" as some would like to have us believe. They are tax-paying, good, upstanding citizens who are trying to make it and give their kids a better life just like you and me.

Ninety percent of the patients who came through Saturday's clinic had two or more diagnoses. Eighty-two percent had a life-threatening condition such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or hypertension.

They are victims of a system built with corporate profits at its center, which long ago forgot the moral imperative that should drive us to show compassion to our fellow men and women.

Health reform is not about Democrats or Republicans or who can score political points for the next election, it's about people. It's about fairness and justice in a system that knows none. I'd defy even the most hardened capitalist-loving-conservative to do what I did on Saturday and continue to pretend that the system in place right now is working. [snip]

Politicians continue to tell us we are the most compassionate and caring people, and clearly we have done much good in the world. I left the event overwhelmed by the hard work and dedication of the volunteers, doctors, nurses, other medical professionals, as well as ordinary citizens who came to help. I am left with one overwhelming question: what does it say about us as a nation of people who can live in a country so rich and yet allow this to continue?

Embrace the selfless individuals at the National Association of Free Clinics and make a statement in support of health reform.

October 7, 2009

In a Special Comment Hour, Countdown’s Keith Olbermann explains how the American health care system is broken and why it’s so important that the government steps in to fix it.

Netcast: Watch the entire Special Comment online:

Health care reform: Saving American lives [ 42:40 ]

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., NOV. 17, 2009 – For the second consecutive year, the United States earned only a "D" on the March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card, demonstrating that more than half a million of our nation's newborns didn't get the healthy start they deserved.

In the 2009 Premature Birth Report card, seven states improved their performance by one letter grade and two fared worse. Criteria that affect preterm birth improved in many states:

    * 33 states and the District of Columbia reduced the percentage of women of childbearing age who smoke;
    * 21 states and the District of Columbia reduced the percent of uninsured women of childbearing age;
    * 27 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico lowered the late preterm birth rate.

As in 2008, no state earned an "A," and only Vermont received a "B." The grades were determined by comparing preterm birth rates to the national Healthy People 2010 preterm birth objective, which is 7.6 percent of all live births. The U.S. preliminary preterm birth rate was 12.7 percent in 2007. [snip]

In the United States, more than 540,000 babies are born too soon each year. Preterm birth is a serious health problem that costs the United States more than $26 billion annually, according to the Institute of Medicine. It is the leading cause of newborn death, and babies who survive an early birth often face the risk of lifetime health challenges, such as breathing problems, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and others.

If Bart Stupak was Pinocchio, his nose would just keep growing and growing.

Right after midnight on Friday November 6th, Bart Stupak began his testimony to the House Rules Committee. The (be)witching hour. Less than 24 hours later the vote began on his amendment. Not much time to understand his amendment.

It was a bait and switch. There had been an earlier amendment whose language had circulated. It prohibited the use of federal dollars, i.e. federal subsidies, in only the public option, not the newly created exchanges. The new amendment did much more. It extended the prohibition to the exchanges. By doing that, it will in short order, 2-3 years after the exhanges begin operating, eliminate almost ALL insurance coverage for abortion.

Rep. Bart Stupak lied in his testimony. When he lied in his testimony before the Rules Committee. Therefore he lied to those 64 Democratic members who voted for the Stupak-Pitts-Kaptur-Dahlkemper amendment. Some of them are having buyer's remorse. It should be further inflamed by this. They were sold a dishonest bill of goods by Rep Stupak. How did he do that? Let us count the ways. [snip]

So Bart Stupak fooled them into believing it was just Hyde... no biggie... why not get some brownie points with the anti choicers... it's so third way, it's so now.

It's a very big deal indeed.

Watch Bart mislead, misdirect aka lie. [ 6:32 ]

"That's the price of healthcare reform." That's what plenty of oh-so-well-meaning pundits have told those of us making a fuss over the Stupak amendment, the late-night attachment to the House healthcare reform bill that will leave virtually any woman accessing insurance through the health insurance exchange without abortion coverage. [snip]

But both pro-choice and progressive healthcare reform leaders and members of Congress have come out swinging against the amendment, some going as far as to make it clear they'll refuse to support reform if Congressional Democrats decide to pay for it with women's healthcare.

The chairman of a key Senate committee overseeing healthcare reform said Monday that the chamber will work every weekend in December to pass the bill by Christmas.

Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), the chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, predicted during an interview on the liberal "Bill Press Radio Show" that the Senate will have the 60 votes needed to call up the healthcare bill this week. But Harkin said senators will not begin amending the legislation until after the Thanksgiving break.

Harkin said Democrats expect Republicans will try to stall the debate by asking for the entire bill to be read on the Senate floor. If that happens, Harkin said, the majority party is likely to use a procedural maneuver to keep the Senate in session this weekend.

"If the Republicans want to stay here this Saturday and Sunday to read the bill, then let them stay here," Harkin said, adding that Democrats would hold a "live quorum," where the sergeant at arms requests the presence of all absent senators.

"I'll tell you, we're going to do something like that," Harkin said. "We are planning to do something that would require Republicans to be there 24 hours a day, and if they leave the floor, we'll ask unanimous consent to dispense with the reading, and that'll be the end of it."

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Healthcare reform