big pharma is winning the lobbying war

BIG PHARMA IS WINNING THE LOBBYING WAR
i searched my blog this morning and found the blog i wrote in 2018 on big pharma lobbying congress and how they would probably win

here is the blog linked here and i will reprint it below
sorry but things havent changed a bit

in the new build back better plan there was part of it that would allow some control of prices that the government paid for prescription drugs
i was excited
that finally 
something was going to get done

now dont point the finger at just the democrats or just the republicans
they folks are in this together

it appears that the prescription control part of the build back better plan is getting scrapped
thanks manly to the arizona senator and the west virginia senator
but you can betcha believe that they arent the only ones feeling the financial pressure from the big pharma lobbyists
yes
they influence all sides and i must say do it well since they always win

i watch those ads on tv put on big pharma 
they make me nauseated

i have medicare part d insurance that i pay $22 a month for it
i chose that one since it covers generics at not cost to me or at a reduced price
the problem is if i get a brand name or a not accepted generic drug 
then it can get costly
i take 4 prescriptions all generic
for 3 of these i pay for 90 days a total of 9 bucks
not bad
for one a generic eye drop i pay 75 bucks for about a 90 day supply
its been around for years and shouldnt be that much

i take aduhelm (aducanumab) infusions in a clinical trial at ucla
its available in the private world for about $4000 a month
so far insurance doesnt pay for it
medicare will decide soon whether it will cover it or not
luckily in the clinical trial it costs me nothing
but
after the clinical trial if its working i might want to continue it long term

if big pharma wins the battle it will be expensive

other countrires dont let this happen to them
we do

so watch this debate for the drugs to see how it all turns out

from past history 
again big pharma usually wins

when i was in practice i used to see drug representatives
then the last 10 years i was in practice i discontinued seeing them and quit receiving samples
what i noticed was that when i stopped seeing them i noticed that i was saving patients hundreds or if not thousands of dollars a year by using mainly generics without the influence of representatives  coming to the office influencing the staff etc
i realized afterwards how influenced i was and didnt realize it

many times when i got a new patient i would go over their meds and change things to generics
commonly saving them hundreds of dollars a month

i can only imagine the influence big pharma has on our politicians

there is a website i wont link here that will tell you how much money your doctor has received from big pharma
some of the money listed is for meals brought in for staff

it all gives me a bad taste in my mouth when i think about it

here is my old blog below
things havent changed at all have they
__________
WHATCHA GONNA PAY FOR YOUR MEDS

finally a non partisan issue
thats not necessarily democrat or republican
we all no matter our party beliefs are affected
equally most likely

there are two things to remember
two things that will determine the answer to the question
above
whatcha gonna pay for your meds

those things are
big pharma
and
a fox in the hen house

those two will set the prices of what you pay for
you meds for blood pressure and cholesterol and diabetes
etc
and
your special drugs like
chemotherapy
arthritis infusion drugs
new treatments like alzheimers when it comes around

big pharma spends $240 million a year on lobbying
our government to get their deals done
they win
we usually lose money in that deal

a fox in the hen house
it worries me that the person who is going to make many
of these decisions was an executive for a large drug company
eli lilly

if you put a fox in the hen house
they 100% of the time will eat all the hens
usually they are nice
they just eat one a day until they are all gone

the secretary of health and human services may be that fox

im hoping he is the opposite of those folks who had the dog
that wouldnt eat dog food
turns out he was a fox

im hoping this guy is a what we think is a fox but really
is a dog
im skeptical

for me
i pay $20 a month for my aetna medicare d the insurance that covers
my drugs
i am on 4 drugs a month
this last week i picked up a 90 day prescription for three of these for
$4.48
i cant complain about any of the way my drug plan operates

yesterday i finished #16 of my experimental alzheimers drug
called aducanumab
i have 4 more to go then there will be a long term extension of
the study so that all subjects will get the real drug
no one will get the placebo
this goes for another 2 years+

this drug if it helps at all will be on the market
it will be fast tracked since its an alzheimers drug
it is estimated it will cost around $4,000 a month for the infusion
if it works it may push the disease down the run
so that i will die from something else

what will my medicare d pay for this new drug
probably 50% maybe if im lucky
or
it may be one of those drugs that goes under medicare b
where you go to the doctors office to get it
then medicare b may pay more than medicare part d

this is one of the areas a fox in the hen house is messing with

for me its this drug that will be affected the most
probably not my other 4 drugs since they cant get much
cheaper
most of you though will be affected
all of us all 325 million of us

one solution i would like to offer
to keep these prices down
will not sound good to
big pharma
and
a fox in the hen house
but
it will probably help most of us

there are 1.281800 million folks in the active military
there are 9.4 million folks on the military tricare health insurance
there are 9 million folks using the va medical system
there are 44 million folks on medicare
there are 70 million folks on medicaid
medicare spends $130 billion each year on drugs

can you see where im going here

i know theres overlap here with folks being in more than one group
but
lets add these numbers up
that comes to over 133 million folks
thats not even counting federal employees pf 2.7 million folks
so lets make it 135 million folks are on some type of federally paid for
health plan that pays for drugs

thats about 40% of our population

thats a lot of bargaining power

why cant we do that
bargain as a federal group to keep prices down

seems awful simple to me

oh yea
its those
big pharma
and
a fox in the hen house
things

one of the reasons eg great britain pays less for drugs
well
you know those brits
they think different than we do
they
well
they bargain as a group
to get good prices
much much lower than what we pay

they have 58 million folks
they pay 4.5% income tax to cover them
they pay 8.4% of their gdp on health care
we pay 18 %

seems they have already figured this out
why cant we

oh yea
its those
big pharma
and
a fox and the hen house things
__________
maybe you need to call your senator or house of representative person

the organicgreen doctor