The Cost of Healthcare

A free public service for a better community

Feb 09, 2024

A Good Day To Advocate for Better Healthcare

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Drug Cost Update

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) conducted what may have been the most rhetorically effective inquiry this week in the Senate hearings with drug makers. Responding to Bristol Myers Squibb CEO Chris Boerner’s emphasis on the importance of patient choice in the U.S. health-care system, he noted the dire choices faced by a constituent using Bristol Myers’s Eliquis blood thinner.

“Here’s her choice,” Murphy said. “Her choice is to pay the $350 and go without food or pay her rent late, or not take the drug and risk heart attack or stroke. Is that the choice you’re talking about?”

“That is a choice no patient should have to make,” Boerner replied, adding, “We have priced Eliquis … consistent with the value it brings.”

Which is as much as they think they can squeeze out of sick people.

High Cost of Medical Care

Delay care (family)-52%, Can’t Pay Medical bills 27%, In Medical Debt 36%

According to Capital and Main for most California residents, and the vast majority of the state’s lower income workers, the cost of health insurance has been running away from them for years. That’s hardly news to anyone who has actually used their health policy in the recent past. But the health care squeeze is largely incremental — an increase in the cost of a doctor visit here, a hike in an X-ray price there. Though those costs almost never go down, they rise in such a gradual, consistent way that many people aren’t aware of just how dramatically they’ve escalated.

A new report from the UC Berkeley Labor Center puts those costs in context, and the result is breathtaking. In short, Californians have been absolutely hammered by insurers and providers over the past 20 years. As a result, many of the state’s residents either don’t use their health coverage even though they need it, or they go into debt trying to pay for the insurance and the medical costs their plans don’t cover.

Specifically, consumer health care affordability has deteriorated over the past two decades in California due to rising premiums along with increasingly common and increasingly large deductibles for job-based coverage. Taken together, these trends in premium and deductible growth result in health care taking up a larger and larger share of household income.

This has consequences for Californians’ health and financial well-being: a significant portion of California adults—with any type of insurance including those without insurance—reported that in the last 12 months they or a family member had delayed or postponed care due to cost (52%), had problems paying or couldn’t pay any medical bills (27%), or had some type of medical debt (36%).

ACTION

Let’s let our representatives know that the high cost of healthcare is a detriment to everyday life. Use RESISTBOT by texting SIGN PTUCNA to 50409 to send the email below or you can call/email them using their contact info in the Resources section below.

“I am your constituent and I want you to know what I just learned. Americans are having a hard time with medical bills. UC Berkeley just found that more than of the adults they surveyed (with or without insurance) either delayed medical care or had a family member who did. 27% have medical bills they can’t pay and 36% are in medical debt. Meanwhile, in Senate hearings this week, Bristol Meyers Squibb CEO, Boerner, was happy to tell the Senate that they will charge whatever they want for drugs - effectively - “Pound Sand”

I have had enough. You can fix this, Universal Healthcare, Like HR 3421 will allow us to have fair drug prices, insure all of us, and cost hundreds of billions less per year according to the non partisan Congressional budget office. Cosponsor and enact Universal healthcare for your constituents. Thank you.”

Abortion Court Cheaters

A scientific paper that raised concerns about the safety of the abortion pill mifepristone was retracted by its publisher this week. The study was cited three times by a federal judge who ruled against mifepristone last spring. That case, which could limit access to mifepristone throughout the country, will soon be heard in the Supreme Court. Sage, the publisher of the journal, retracted the study on Monday along with two other papers, explaining in a statement that "expert reviewers found that the studies demonstrate a lack of scientific rigor that invalidates or renders unreliable the authors' conclusions."

Lawyers and those seeking to subjugate women created a case in Texas to make sure they got the only judge, who BTW, admits to being biased in the case. They latch on to these false studies because it meets preconceived conclusions. Since the evidence was false can the case be overturned? (Link to the full story)

Extra Credit Action

Here is the phone number for the clerk of the US Supreme Court, 202-479-3011, press 3 to leave a message - the case number is Petition Application. 249a-254a. . We can call and let them know that the studies that were so key to the ruling against mifepristone and were referenced 3 times by Judge Kacsmaryk, have been retracted by the publisher, Sage, after expert reviewers found that the studies demonstrated a lack of scientific rigor that invalidates or renders unreliable the authors' conclusions. How about reversing the ruling based on false data?

New Rules for Prior Authorization (In Place)

Earlier this week we mentioned that the Biden administration had issued a new rule regarding prior authorizations for many but not all policies. It is CMS Advancing Interoperability and Improving Prior Authorization Processes Final Rule (CMS-0057-F). It is in place - Comment period was long past (my error).

It will require insurance companies who work in federal programs to speed up the approval process and make decisions within 72 hours for urgent requests. It will cover companies who work with Medicare, Medicaid and individual insurance exchanges – that means the rules will impact about 105 million people. That still leaves out the largest pool of privately insured Americans – the 158 million who rely on insurance from their employer.

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

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.