Drug Negotiations - SO MUCH ROOM TO IMPROVE
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A Good Day To Advocate for Better Healthcare
If there are subjects you’d like to see or improvements made, please let me know using the comment button below. Videos of these newsletters appear on Youtube on this channel. Let me know what you think. One of the subjects in work is the over medicating/over testing/ unnecessary procedures that are performed for little or no value. It can increase costs as well as doing damage to patients.
Negotiating Drug Prices - Update
The US government has long allowed drug manufacturers to pretty much charge whatever they wanted. They benefit from US government research investment. In fact, every drug that was FDA approved from 2010 - 2020 was funded by the US taxpayers. The claim that it is capitalism at work to charge all the traffic will bear, but it is not. There is no meeting of the minds between buyer and seller when the US government pays the bill for Medicare and Medicaid and there is no negotiating the prices.
It is an ugly business and a US senator made sure that there was no US government negotiation (other then the VA). He then left the senate and took a job at PhRMA, the drug company lobbying agency.
OK now the US government can negotiate 10 drug prices for Medicare in 2026 and they pushed down the price of insulin. But look what really happened. Drug manufacturers have raised the prices of 600 drugs this month. and now it is reported that Novo Nordisk will stop selling Levemir insulin in the U.S. Specifically, the injectable FlexPen version of Levemir stops in April and they will halt sales of Levemir vials by the end of December. The company has not announced plans to discontinue the drug in other countries.
If you want to negotiate fair prices then give your self leverage. Pass Universal Healthcare where a single insurance company (not 902 that we have now) can negotiate for all 330,000,000 of us.
ACTION
Let’s let our Members of Congress and Senators know that fair drug prices come with fair negotiations. IF you want to negotiate then you need leverage. 330 million of us is leverage.
Text SIGN POACTL to 50409 on your cellphone to send the email below. Or call/email them separately. Contact info is in the Resources section below.
“We all deserve a healthcare system that works for all of us. Part of that includes fair drug prices for the drugs we actually need. If we had universal healthcare, public insurance paying private providers, then we could negotiate fair prices for all the drugs. You may not be aware, but manufacturers just raised the prices on 600 drugs this January, so much for lower costs on 10 drugs. It took two years to be able to negotiate 10 drug prices while 600 are going the other way. Today we learned that Novo Nordisk announced today that it will stop selling Levemir insulin in the US.
The great majority of Americans want this fixed and it is in your hands to do it. Enact HR 3421, the vastly improved Universal Healthcare plan and take care of your constituents.
Writing and Learning (Good News)
Typing may be faster than writing by hand, but it’s less stimulating for the brain, according to research published Friday in the journal Frontiers in Psychology. After recording the brain activity of 36 university students, researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology determined that handwriting might improve learning and memory. ... In particular, the study found that writing by hand required communication between the brain’s visual, sensory and motor cortices. (reference).
This worked well for me and took me through a PhD in math.
Correction
Last week I wrote about the huge volume of rapes in the US and the number pregnancies that resulted. I should have reported that those numbers were over an 18 month period not a year. Here is a link to the source at JAMA.
“In the 14 states that implemented total abortion bans following the Dobbs decision, we estimated that 519 981 completed rapes were associated with 64 565 pregnancies during the 4 to 18 months that bans were in effect. Of these, an estimated 5586 rape-related pregnancies (9%) occurred in states with rape exceptions, and 58 979 (91%) in states with no exception, with 26 313 (45%) in Texas”.”
IT IS STILL APPALLING.
EXTRA ACTION
Use RESISTBOT and Text SIGN PYHVGY to 50409 to send the email below. You can call/email if you prefer. Their contact info is Resources section below.
“I am your constituent and I just learned that there are about 520,000 rapes in the US that resulted in 64,565 pregnancies across 14 states since the Supreme Court discarded Roe v Wade. Of those, 91% happened in states that have no exceptions that allowed for terminations of pregnancies that occurred as a result of rape. That’s more than 58,000 women. 45% in Texas. Are you OK with this kind of treatment? I hope not.
I want you to come out in public and let everyone know that this kind of treatment of women in the US is not acceptable. HOW MANY WOMEN HAVE TO SUFFER?
I want you to get the Women’s Health Protection Act (H.R. 12/S. 701) passed and fast. I want you to make sure Mifepristone, the abortion medication, is available via tele-health and by mail fast. (H.R. 767/S. 4467).
I want you to behave like your job depends on this because it does.”
RESOURCES
Healthcare Advocacy (Us)
Website
Our Newsletter resources including reproductive healthcare
Healthcare Advocacy Reading List
Find My Elected Officials
Contact the White House https://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
Contact State and Federal Representatives
By phone: (202) 224-3121
By email: democracy.io
Important Healthcare Resources
League of Women Voters Healthcare Reform Toolkit
Organizations to Contact
National Nurses United Medicare4All
Physicians for a National Health Program
One Payer States
Healthcare Now
Reproductive Health
NARAL - Pro Choice America
Charley. chatbot abortion resource - make sure to use a secure incognito browser if you live in a state that has banned abortion
Planned Parenthood
Miscarriage and Abortion Hotline has references about where to procure abortion medications. They also assist women in the process of self managed abortion or miscarriage by phone or text and will respond in an hour. Details and hours of operation at their website.
United State of Women Reproductive health page (bottom of the page) has important resources such as medical support, access to Telehealth, prescriptions by mail, and legal support references.
Practice careful communications - The Digital Defense Fund has a number of tips to keep texts, calls, and internet use private. Here is their site.
If you need financial help with an abortion try abortionfunds.org
Claims Denials and Appeals & What to Do
Appeal a Healthcare Decision
Appeal/Negotiate a Hospital Bill
Disinformation Management
Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency
Save Democracy
Chop Wood, Carry Water by Jessica Cravens
RESISTBOT
Link to the RESISTBOT site to learn more
Link to Chop Wood, Carry Water RESISTBOT write up
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As an advocate for better healthcare, I think it would be wise to QUESTION our heavy dependence on drugs rather than just negotiate lower prices.
Our healthcare system seems overly dominated by insurance companies rather than doctors. And why are Naturopaths, Homeopaths, and Oriental medicine practitioners not included in coverage?
You write: "...a single insurance company...can negotiate for all 330,000,000 of us."
Wait, there's more. The larger the risk pool (in our case, 330 million covered individuals), the more stable and predictable the overall medical costs — making the system increasingly manageable and efficient. Only universal coverage maximizes this advantage.