Take a second and think -- have you ever in your life met an American who has said to you

[Uncle Joe]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

[jalan48]

1. Big Pharma has lots of friends in the Congress.

[Uncle Joe]

2. Yes they do.

[MuseRider]

3. Thank goodness he is still out there

pounding this into the heads of the hold outs again and again. Some say he is boring, always the same. I say it is that quality that finally gets heard enough that it starts to make sense to those who it did not before.

If people want to say he is boring with all the repetition can you imagine how he feels? Over and over and he is now getting more backing or support for what he has tried to hammer home forever.

Go Bernie. You are a good and great man.

[ShazzieB]

7. People can call him boring if they want.

If being consistent is boring, then I guess Bernie is boring. But people are also quick to criticize politicians who flip flop and constantly move the goalposts. I'll take "consistent" over that any day!

[Uncle Joe]

21. Pharma's Bad Behaviors Exposed in Congressional Testimony

In the first of two days of Congressional testimony, top drug company CEOs responded to a pair of bombshell Congressional Oversight committee reports that revealed how pharma regularly uses anticompetitive tactics to raise drug prices, boost profit and fuel executive bonuses.

(snip)

Since its launch in 2005, the price of Revlimid has increased 22 times, ballooning from $215 per pill to $719 per pill, according to the House Oversight Committee’s report. Bristol Myers Squibb acquired the drug in November 2019 and hiked the price again – bringing the price tag for a monthly course of the drug to $16,023.

These price hikes cause real financial harm to people like Ramae Hamrin of Minnesota, who testified in a recorded video that, in order to afford Revlimid, she will “have to deplete her life savings, cash out her 401k and sell her house.”

(snip)

Teva exploited Medicare’s inability to negotiate, the fact that the U.S. has no limits to what companies can charge and does not link prices to clinical benefits like other countries. As a result, Medicare has spent hundreds of millions of dollars more on Copaxone than it would have had it had access to the same discounted price offered to other federal programs, such as the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, which do have the ability to negotiate.

Perhaps more telling, Teva’s CEO testified to Congress that the company is still able to turn a profit in countries that do have the ability to negotiate discounted prices.

https://www.arnoldventures.org/stories/pharmas-bad-behaviors-exposed-in-congressional-testimony/

It makes no difference what one's occupation or career is, if an industry or individual is dysfunctional. then it's dysfunctional.

[NNadir]

24. Oh my God!!!!!! You and Sanders are world experts on the Pharmaceutical industry! Maybe...

...everyone in my industry should kill ourselves because of bean counting by non-scientists!

The moral geniuses have found a case where absolute moral superiority has lapsed.

I guess I have to defer to your moral superiority. Without ever having opened a science book, you can tell me that my entire culture is dysfunctional.

Did you know that for several decades, Vermont was the only state in the Union that did not depend on dangerous fossil fuels for electricity?

Bernie Sanders did his damned best to put an end to that.

People will die as a result.

Of course, even though I'm in the business of saving lives, I have no right to stand in judgement of a God, even one whose ignorance I deplore

If I were not an ethical Lilliputian compared to someone who found some practice in my industry about which they could condescend, I could argue about what is and what is not dysfunctional.

Now. I don't like pharmaceutical advertisements on TV. I don't think they're appropriate. On the other hand, I have the joy of saying, "Hey, I worked on that compound!" "I know how that works."

While I cannot save the life of Ranae Hamrin of Minnesota, I am satisfied that I participated in saving millions of lives that would have otherwise have been lost, even though I'm not God like, like Senator Sanders.

I do hope Senator Sanders survives, by the way, since the Governor of Vermont is a Republican, and if he dies, well at least Bernie pretends to be a Democrat when the time comes to vote for Schumer or the Turtle.

I wonder if Bernie Sanders is looking as hard at the coal miners who dig anthracite to make steel, to be hauled into once virgin wilderness to turn them into industrial parks for the wind turbines serving the power industry as he is about Revlimid.

Revlimid is, by the way, an extremely dangerous molecule to handle because of its property of undergoing stereoinversion under physiological conditions. Before being brought back to market by Celgene - a very, very, very, very risky undertaking in which lots of people could have lost their shirts - it was known as thalidomide. It took a lot of courage, and a lot of risk to recognize that its teratogenic properties were connected with the suppression of angiogenesis.

Maybe you and Bernie can set up a free thalidomide plant in Burlington. Whenever the wind is blowing, you can turn on the electricity in the plant. Try not to hire anyone who is of child bearing age, but I don't need to tell you that, since you're so knowledgeable about the pharmaceutical industry.

Anyone who hates the pharmaceutical industry is more than welcome to join those people who refuse to participate in the use of its products.

I would suggest that some people on a quest to declare things "dysfunctional" might begin by using a mirror.

Great pictures in the GIF, by the way. For some reason it reminds me of a tent revival, but that's just me.

[Uncle Joe]

26. What would Eleanor do?

Health Care As a Human Right

There are rights to which we are entitled, simply by virtue of our humanity. Human rights exist independent of our culture, religion, race, nationality, or economic status. Only by the free exercise of those rights can we enjoy a life of dignity. Among all the rights to which we are entitled, health care may be the most intersectional and crucial. The very frailty of our human lives demands that we protect this right as a public good. Universal health care is crucial to the ability of the most marginalized segments of any population to live lives of dignity. Without our health we—literally—do not live, let alone live with dignity.

In the United States, we cannot enjoy the right to health care. Our country has a system designed to deny, not support, the right to health. The United States does not really have a health care system, only a health insurance system. Our government champions human rights around the world, insisting that other countries protect human rights, even imposing sanctions for a failure to do so. Our government is not as robust in protecting rights at home.

The right to health care has long been recognized internationally. Ironically, the origins of this right are here in the United States. Health care was listed in the Second Bill of Rights drafted by Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR). Sadly, FDR’s death kept this Second Bill of Rights from being implemented. Eleanor Roosevelt, however, took his work to the United Nations (UN), where it was expanded and clarified. She became the drafting chairperson for the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). That committee codified our human rights, including, at Article 25, the essential right to health. The United States, together with all other nations of the UN, adopted these international standards.

Since the adoption of the UDHR, every other industrialized country in the world—and many non-industrialized countries—have implemented universal health care systems. Such systems ensure that all persons within their borders enjoy their right to health care. In 1966, years after passage of the UDHR, the UN proposed another treaty including health care: the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural and Rights (CESCR). The CESCR further clarified, at Article 12, “the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.” “Health” in this context is understood as not just the right to be healthy and have health care, but as a right to control one’s own body, including reproduction.

(snip)

https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/the-state-of-healthcare-in-the-united-states/health-care-as-a-human-right/

If she were alive today, do you believe Eleanor would support Medicare negotiating drug prices with big pharma?

DECEMBER 10, 1959

ST. LOUIS.—I think everyone must have been a little shocked at the defense of the very high mark-up in drug prices.

Many of those needing these drugs are old people living on Social Security. They cannot afford these prices.

It is true that drug manufacturers are in an intensely competitive field, that much research is needed, and that frequently research does not produce immediately the result that the drug manufacturers desire.

But not all of the research is done in the drug company's laboratory. Much of it is done outside.

All of the explanations given before the Senate subcommittee, as well as details of the possible risks, are probably comparatively valid, but they do not make it satisfactory to continue practices which practically put most drugs far beyond the means of the people who need them most.

I think this Congressional investigation has been long overdue, and the time has come for us to do some careful thinking on how the risks can be curtailed, the prices lowered, and the public protected.

(snip)


https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/myday/displaydocedits.cfm?_y=1959&_f=md004611

[JoeOtterbein]

52. +1000!

Great point!

[LymphocyteLover]

31. Surely you can realize that there's a balance to be struck in pricing and that

price-gouging does occur and that pharma profits aren't all going toward paying wonderful scientists like yourself.

[Dave says]

36. Surely you will not be convinced, but for others...

As indicated in an earlier post, Revlimid sold for $208 a pill when introduced. A patient on a 28/28 regimen would pay $5824 per month. That was deemed a sufficient price by the board rooms back then. Today, it costs $22000 per month, or $264000 per year. Once entered into the catastrophic category (Part D), that’s $1100 per month on the elder likely of limited means (most of us are of limited means). They die without it.

What improvements has Celgene made to justify this fourfold increase in pricing? If it worked economically when it was sold at $5824 per month, why the hiked pricing? Ah, that’s right, it’s a captured market for its maker who gets to charge monopoly rents. It’s price gouging. There is nothing wrong with policies that limit price gouging. One step would be to allow Medicare to negotiate prices.

Why do Australians get to pay $4800 and Canadians $8200? O, that’s right, those countries get to negotiate prices. Is Celgene taking a loss in those countries?

https://www.statista.com/statistics/1237801/us-revlimid-price-comparison-with-other-countries/

Yes, you do heroic work (and probably make a nice 6 figure income). The researchers who develop such drugs are heroic (and surely make healthy 6 figure incomes). Probably few of us here think otherwise. It’s the commercial side of the house we have difficulty with, the corporate vampires that surround you and your work that hike prices to such exorbitant levels that make pharma one of the most successful and profitable sectors of the economy (and pharma CEOs amongst the most highly paid).

Something has got to change.

[Tommymac]

41. Bravo! +1 in Canada/Australia ... [phone] in USA nt

[Crunchy Frog]

53. You just don't understand the highly scientific basis for drug pricing!!!!1!

How dare a non-scientific person like yourself comment on an issue that is one of pure SCIENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!?

Please allow only those well versed in the science of drug pricing to comment on these highly technical matters.

[sheshe2]

49. +1

[Nanjeanne]

54. Let's talk about Revlimid.

My husband lives with multiple myeloma. When he first went on Revlimid in 2015, WITH insurance, his copay was $600/month once he got into catastrophic which happened after the first month because his first month copay was over $2,000. We had to get a grant from LLS but at that time the $10,000 grant lasted for a year. By 2018 when Revlimid no longer worked, his copay was $800/month. He next went on the next generation of Revlimid which was Pomalyst. That copay was almost $900/month once in catastrophic and the now $11,000grant from LLS no longer lasted a year so he needed a second grant from another organization. Pomalyst is Revlimid with an amino group added to the parent compound. And although it is more than seven years since Pomalyst was approved as an orphan drug –– the intended period for orphan drug exclusivity –– there is no generic competing with it. Celgene has filed at least eleven patents on Pomalyst that could block competition until 2027.

But research you say? Well Dr. Peter Bach, an expert from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, and his colleagues also examined this issue in depth. Their findings counter the claim that the higher prices paid by U.S. patients and taxpayers are necessary to fund research and development. Right now, drug companies spend most their enormous profits on expenses outside of R&D — nine out of 10 big pharmaceutical companies spend more on marketing, sales, and overhead than they do on research. And a large amount of R&D is funded by taxpayers also.

Believe me my husband is grateful for innovation. His life depends on it. He is currently waiting for the recently approved CarT therapy to begin on Monday. But gaming the system is not the way companies should be making profits. “ Between 2005 and 2015, at least 74 percent of the new drug patents issued were for existing drugs already on the market. Of the roughly 100 best-selling drugs, nearly 80% obtained an additional patent to extend their monopoly period.”

You can read a bunch more statistics here [link:https://patientsforaffordabledrugs.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/David-Mitchell-Testimony-9-30-20.pdf| Which is testimony from another myeloma patient and Founder, Patients For Affordable Drugs, David E. Mitchell.

/end of rant

[NH Ethylene]

23. I absolutely respect the scientists who work hard to develop and manufacture needed drugs.

And I like that you reminded us of that side of it. But at the same time, we need to be spared from the outrageous pricing practices.

These companies can do great things, but we still need to do something about their exploitation of people with health needs in order to make huge profits.

[druidity33]

30. "I really couldn't care"...

if you hate Bernie Sanders. Because what, you don't think we should negotiate prescription drug prices? You know, like every other civilized country in the world? I'm sure you hate it when people put words in your mouth. Just as i'm sure Bernie would never want scientists to "work for free". Your vitriol is showing...

[NNadir]

32. Yeah. I'm a democrat and a scientist. After 30 years or so of being told by Sanders, and his...

...worshipping disciples that I'm not "good enough" to meet their high ethical standards, even though some of these standards they want to set for me are entirely counterproductive to providing what I would regard as a safe and sustainable world, I rather have very little patience for Senator Sanders.

I don't like people who want to remind me that they're smarter than I am, even if they are smarter than I am, which is not to say that Senator Sanders is all that brilliant. He isn't. He's very simplistic. (One way can easily differentiate a simplistic thinker from a deeper one is to see how much they communicate by "tweet.) For the record, I've know thousands of people smarter than I am who treat me with respect; one of the pleasant things about such people is that they negotiate ideas rather than issue fiats that their ideas, "ideas" capable of being expressed by "tweet," are the last word.

My point is that Senator Sanders more than a little smug and simplistic, and he's certainly not above demonizing, is he? Has he no history of demonizing Democrats? When, if ever, has Senator Sanders ever asked a scientist to explain, say, climate change, in which he also declares himself an expert?

A mass spectrometer capable of determining the contents of a cancer cell can cost well over a million dollars. A scientist who knows how to operate one to get all of the information that comes out of one might require well over a decade of training, living for part of that time on a graduate stipend lower than the poverty level for a fairly large period of his or her youth.

Should we negotiate the costs of mass specs and, for that matter, the cost of getting an education? Who is qualified to conduct these "negotiations?" Senator Sanders? Someone he appoints? How is he qualified to appoint someone to "negotiate?"

I once went to a meeting with a high pharmaceutical executive whose moral integrity inspired my deepest admiration. I was forced to bring to that meeting, a shit for brains MBA my company hired. The executive was a tremendously brilliant scientist, organized, compassionate, knowledgeable and deeply concerned with human lives. He often mentioned that if certain events didn't happen because of inattention, people - I certain remember one case when he pointed out that the people in question were children - would die. Having sized up the MBA, he looked at me - this was a man who was gracious to the extreme, polite, kind and tolerant - and he turned to me and said, "You know what's wrong with my company? It used to be run by scientists. Now it's run by people with fucking history degrees."

Ultracrepidarians

That was, by the way, the only time in the ten or so years I knew that guy, that I ever heard him use an expletive.

Yeah, we have a cultural problem, but it goes far beyond the pharmaceutical industry. It's everywhere, including, obviously, the United States Senate.

Too many Ultracrepidarians

Look. I've worked in the pharmaceutical industry for decades. It provided a very decent life for me, although it also involved a lot of exhaustion, a lot of frustration, failure and happily, more rarely, success. Of course, the industry, rather like humanity, contains people of extremely low moral integrity and people of extremely high moral (and, I might add, intellectual) integrity.

It is true that there are people who value money over human lives, but are they unique to the pharmaceutical industry?

How about the car industry? The political consultant industry? The entertainment industry? Is Bernie Sanders competent to rule on the price of cars. Some people (not me however) think electric cars save lives. Should Bernie jump in to decide their costs?

There was, and still may be, a time when surgeons handle carcinogenic anti-neoplastic agents in order to paint them on to regions of excised tumors. (Many cancer drugs do indeed cause cancer, but are utilized nonetheless, because they destroy cancer cells faster than they create them.) I have personally worked on the the determination of these agents in gloves. Oncology nurses show a clear risk of serious health issues because of the powerful and potent drugs they put into IVs. Of course, they save lives. Are you, and "Bernie" (I'd rather call him "Bernard" but of course, that may be competent to negotiate the salaries of every surgeon and oncology nurse. Is he qualified to assess the risk they face and put a dollar and cents value on it. I mean, are they especially subject to his purview because they are involved in the business of saving lives?

My industry is highly regulated. We have to record everything we do, in detail, and then assure the regulatory authorities that everything we record is free from manipulation. (21 CFR, Part 11.) I support that regulation; I value it. If a particle of glass is found in a vial of vaccine in Japan, or for that matter, in Botswana, I want to know how that happened by having and tracing the records of every step along the way, so we can prevent it from happening again. This is what we do. But I don't want people who don't know what we do to tell us how much it costs to do what we do.

You're sure "Bernie" would never want scientists to "work for free." On the other hand, I fully expect that he is unqualified to know how often we do work for free.

Now, if you want him to "negotiate" your salary, you can always look him up. I'm sure he'll totally understand the value of what you do, but I'm also pretty well convinced that he wouldn't understand the value of what I do. Tell him what you do and ask him to give you his oracular insight to how much you should be paid for all the effort you put in to get where you are.

I personally decline his advice.

Look, like every other Democrat, and even some people who are not Democrats, I very much want a fair and just society, in which people can live healthy and productive lives, reaching the highest potentials given them. To achieve that, I must insist however, that competence is important, and that one truly needs to understand what is involved. Blank demonization, a feature of our culture which some people, regrettably some on, or nearly on, our side of the aisle, are too ready to embrace.

The pharmaceutical industry consists of human beings, for all the good and all the bad that constitution involves.

The current President of the United States thrives on competence. I'm personally glad that the current President of the United States is not Bernie Sanders, who I regard as a sort of Trump of the left.

So yeah, I don't like Bernie Sanders. I don't like his tweets. I don't like many of his positions. You got me cold. I confess.

The cute gloves he wore to the inauguration however ameliorated, very, very, very mildly, my sense of contempt for his sense of contempt for me.

[BumRushDaShow]

35. "A mass spectrometer...can cost well over a million dollars"

and then imagine sticking one on a LC or GC as a detector (with ICP) -





I remember a bunch of years ago, chemists and engineers in one of our labs had jerry-rigged something like that and nowadays, they sell interface kits for it.

[druidity33]

39. Yeah so, that's a lot to unpack...

but at first blush my suggestion would be to take a step back from the assaults on Sen Sanders. Because tbh, given the amount of bullshit assignment of motives and intent you are projecting on a person you obviously have very strong feelings about that you just piled into that post... let's just say that given you are a "scientist", i don't find your opinion either objective or persuasive. This coming from someone (myself) who mostly thinks Sen Sanders is a one-trick pony. Also, you avoided the point i made and Sen Sanders made (which i thought was the only one at issue)... and the question i directly asked you. Do you or do you not believe the US govt should be able to negotiate prescription drug prices, like the rest of the civilized world?

[LiberalLovinLug]

45. "So yeah, I don't like Bernie Sanders. I don't like his tweets. I don't like many of his positions."

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/feb/25/pete-buttigieg/polls-show-most-democrats-many-americans-back-key-/

"Sen. Sanders sees capitalism as the root of all evil," Buttigieg said. "He’d go beyond reform and reorder the economy in ways most Democrats — let alone most Americans — don’t support."

Buttigieg is wrong to say most Democrats don’t support Sanders’ agenda. Polling shows that key elements of Sanders’ economic platform are strongly popular among Democrats. And several of them score majority support among all voters.


So it seems you are in the minority.
Other western democracies have long ago negotiated with the industry because they can, because they have a large pool to negotiate for, so why not? And you understand the word "negotiate" right? If the pharma industry could not stay afloat with accepting some negotiating position of some world government, they wouldn't take it. Do you think they sign these deals knowing they will take a loss? lol

[sheshe2]

51. "Sander's" economic platform?

Polling shows that key elements of Sanders’ economic platform are strongly popular among Democrats. And several of them score majority support among all voters.

Hmm. Here I thought Joe Biden was President.

Biben:
III. STAND UP TO ABUSE OF POWER BY PRESCRIPTION DRUG CORPORATIONS

Too many Americans cannot afford their prescription drugs, and prescription drug corporations are profiteering off of the pocketbooks of sick individuals. Biden will put a stop to runaway drug prices and the profiteering of the drug industry by:

Repealing the outrageous exception allowing drug corporations to avoid negotiating with Medicare over drug prices.
Because Medicare covers so many Americans, it has significant leverage to negotiate lower prices for its beneficiaries. And it does so for hospitals and other providers participating in the program, but not drug manufacturers. Drug manufacturers not facing any competition, therefore, can charge whatever price they choose to set. There’s no justification for this except the power of prescription drug lobbying. Biden will repeal the existing law explicitly barring Medicare from negotiating lower prices with drug corporations.


Limiting launch prices for drugs that face no competition and are being abusively priced by manufacturers.
Through his work on the Cancer Moonshot, Biden understands that the future of pharmacological interventions is not traditional chemical drugs but specialized biotech drugs that will have little to no competition to keep prices in check. Without competition, we need a new approach for keeping the prices of these drugs down. For these cases where new specialty drugs without competition are being launched, under the Biden Plan the Secretary of Health and Human Services will establish an independent review board to assess their value. The board will recommend a reasonable price, based on the average price in other countries (a process called external reference pricing) or, if the drug is entering the U.S. market first, based on an evaluation by the independent board members. This reasonable price will be the rate Medicare and the public option will pay. In addition, Biden will allow private plans participating in the individual marketplace to access a similar rate.


Limiting price increases for all brand, biotech, and abusively priced generic drugs to inflation.

As a condition of participation in the Medicare program and public option, all brand, biotech, and abusively priced generic drugs will be prohibited from increasing their prices more than the general inflation rate. Biden Plan also impose a tax penalty on drug manufacturers that increase the costs of their brand, biotech, or abusively priced generic over the general inflation rate.

More:https://joebiden.com/healthcare/

[paleotn]

13. And lots of cash to throw around....

Wait a minute! I thought all those extra profits were meant to fund research, not buy Congress Critters?

[Bristlecone]

17. And family members.

[leftyladyfrommo]

4. A friend of mine got a prescription from her doctor

For a common female problem. She went to pick it up and it was $800+ with insurance. Without was $1600. That was for 30 days.

So she left.

[Demobrat]

9. A friend of mine was told she needs an inhaler.

$400 for 30 days. For the rest of her life. She can’t afford it.

[leftyladyfrommo]

28. That's more than my car payment was. nt

[RicROC]

37. that same thing happened to me when I was first diagnosed with asthma.

I told the pharmacist to just give me the generic. "there is no such generic inhaler" he said.

Well, that means, there is no generic in the US, but in the rest of the world there is. For 20 years I've been ordering mine out of Canada. They won't arrive overnight, more like taking 3 weeks and they might arrive from New Zealand, Israel or Singapore. But that one inhaler which would cost me $250 with insurance in the US, costs me $26 each. And I can order a 3 month supply instead of refilling monthly.

The most difficult thing about ordering from Canada is training my new PCP to write the prescription! Either, he can't understand there is the generic form or he's cautious about sending the Rx out of the country for filling. It is a recurring 3 month annoyance.

Oh! and once I asked the Canadian woman at the other end of the telephone line if the generic is safe and effective as the real stuff. She became quite incensed and instantly told me these are the same medications that their own Canadian patients use. I'll bet she gets that question from many Americans, which shows how effective the propaganda has been on US.

[H2O Man]

5. Recommended.

[twodogsbarking]

6. Cheers for Bernie. As always.

[SergeStorms]

8. Jeepers. Which two people.....

could he possibly be possibly be referring to?

But without those two people....blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah, we know.

[Griefbird]

10. Reduced Medicare drug prices may not affect much else.

My seizure meds retail for $1,100.00 a month, but my insurance co. pays $315.00, which was also my donut hole price. I forgot my meds on vacation earlier this year and paid retail, or $20.00 per pill, two per day. Chances are that even if Medicare can negotiate lower prices, everyone will still get gouged. We need legislation to lower prices for everyone.

[hurple]

11. Why, yes, I have had brainwashed, idiot zombie repubs say exactly that to me

They say the higher prices mean we get better medicine.

Then they ignore all that and go buy horse dewormer at a tractor supply store.

[MyOwnPeace]

18. Brilliant comment......

and a magnificent description - 'brainwashed, idiot zombie repubs!'

[Mr. Evil]

12. Negotiate? Fuck that!

The US has the power to set prices. They don't agree, they don't sell here. It takes pennies to make most of those drugs. And most of them have been around for decades. Stop the fleecing and corruption.

[Lonestarblue]

14. Add in the exorbitant cost of medical care.

I think it was sometime last year when The Guardian compared the cost of having a baby in the US versus the UK. In the US, it’s around $30,000 for an uncomplicated birth compared to around $1,500 in the UK. Our politicians have sold us down the river when it comes to drugs and healthcare. Our system is the most expensive in the world but nowhere near the top in quality unless you’re wealthy or have the best insurance around. And even with great insurance, people often have to fight insurance executives to get the care they need.

[hunter]

27. I say it here often: Health care for wealthy people and people with platinum insurance...

... here in the U.S.A. isn't anything special.

There are plenty of mediocre-to-bad doctors attracted to big money who are peddling inappropriate, expensive, and sometimes dangerous medicine.

[Biophilic]

15. You go Bernie. Yes, we DO deserve a resonable quality of life.

This is richest country in the world, the average man and woman have made it so with their work. They, and we, deserve to get a reasonable return for our lives and work.

[Evolve Dammit]

16. Why can't more Senators say this? Thanks Bernie

[dchill]

22. Can't think of a time when I disagreed with anything...

...Bernie Sanders said.

[2Gingersnaps]

25. Few things more revolting than seeing a fossil fuel millionaire standing on the back of his yacht

shouting down to the little people he does not want to see an entitlement society. Irony completely escaped him. Please, please, can we tar and feather him now? (kidding, mostly)

[SuperCoder]

29. Gotta say...

Bernie hit the nail right on the head on this one.

[NurseJackie]

33. If only there was a list that showed which senator received the most money from Big Pharma.

[rgbecker]

38. OMG! There actually is one.

[link:https://khn.org/news/campaign/|

[NurseJackie]

47. Here's an interesting one ...

https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=H04&recipdetail=M&sortorder=U&mem=Y&cycle=2020

[George II]

55. I did a screen shot:

[NurseJackie]

60. Interesting to see Bernie in that list...

... that's not something I would have expected. Why disparage others who also receive money from pharma / health products industry and their employees?

[dalton99a]

34. Even the moron agrees

"When it comes time to negotiate the cost of drugs, we are going to negotiate like crazy. The drug companies probably have the second or third most powerful lobby in this country. They get the politicians, and every single one of them is getting money from them."
- Donald Trump, Feb. 4, 2016

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

40. If someone is 'entitled' to something, they have a right to it.

The negative connotations of a modern common usage of the word "entitled" have obscured the meaning. We've used 'entitled' to rightfully disparage people who act as if they have a right to something they don't.

Republicans have really exploited this to turn 'entitlement' into a dirty word to bash Social Security and other programs that help people who aren't super-wealthy. (The only ones Rs think deserve assistance.)

[Pinback]

43. IIRC, flipping "entitlement" to a pejorative term was a Frank Luntz joint.

It polled well in his right-wing focus groups. Very successful bit of Orwellian revisionist linguistics, unfortunately.

I love that Sen. Sanders said this. He’s got it exactly right. Damn right we’re entitled, entitled to what America is supposed to represent.

[CTyankee]

42. The problem is that most people think of "socialized medicine" as rationed care because they have

been brainwashed by repukes over YEARS that government stands in the way for improvements in medicine because socialism is bad. They think that people in Europe die because of socialized medicine and all kinds of nutty things that big Pharma has pushed on them constantly. It's crazy.

[Hortensis]

56. :) Sure. Fwiw, tho, I actually LOVE big pharm.

I want to say it because nothing but complaining, and always about prices, seldom about other problems, is really tedious. I am profoundly grateful for the many miracles that give life and extra decades of healthy living to billions.

I can't ever forget the downsides either of course, more of that $$$ just flowed up yesterday, but my dominant feelings are still, always, gratitude and excited expectations for the future of humanity. My own medications, all developed in the last 40 years, are the only reason I'm not severely crippled and suffering now, or very possibly dead.

With just a little more responsible action from those that OP supposedly speaks for, just a few more people self-dosing with the good sense to vote Democratic -- because that's always been the way to get it done, we'd have pharm and device manufacturers all on regulatory leashes, and doing just fine.

But, we wait. Itm, maybe a little balancing act by imagining what would be happening now with Covid, and Delta, and what inevitably came next as the world went up in flames without big pharm saving it from collapse.

At the moment, though, I especially LOVE GlaxoSmithKline for the world's first anti-malarial vaccine after 30 years in development. It's been administered to over 800,000 children so far and on its own only saved about 39% of them, so more development to come. But now they have their new miracle tools, and more of those to come too.

THANK YOU, GlaxoSmithKline, from the bottom of my heart! Of course, we will be coming for you too in America as soon as enough make up their minds to do it.

[CTyankee]

57. I don't argue the point because so much good can be done. Your example is fine and I agree with you.

[Hortensis]

58. Whoops for accidentally posting here. I'd agreed with yours too!

National socialized medicine, with other options allowed for those who want them, is a no-brainer. Nothing new, long proven (while being funded by the big engine of capitalism anyway).

Even proven here with our VA.

[oldsoftie]

44. Then do a stand alone bill to allow it. And get members votes on record.

NO add ons, no perks, no fluff. Nothing anyone could consider "controversial".
Write a damn bill that JUST pertains to THIS
Then lets hear from the naysayers trying to explain why its a BAD bill

[JoeOtterbein]

46. K n R ! Thanks for posting! nt

[Budi]

50. Whoa! Have we been bamboozled??! Top 20 Recipients/Open Secrets

https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/summary.php?ind=H04&recipdetail=M&sortorder=U&mem=Y&cycle=2020

Wow.

[gulliver]

59. If your product is good, but people don't buy it, maybe it's the sales team

To me, universal healthcare is a no brainer. Freedom to change jobs at will. No need to fill out a zillion forms every time I go to the doctor. No need to worry that my doctor will give my tests to a lab that will be "out of network" and charge me an arm and a leg. No need to worry about the concept of "out of network" at all. No "deductibles." No "copays." None of this absurd, fine print, jargon-laced, gotcha "insurance-speak" designed to nickel, dime, and dollar you to death. You go to the doctor, and the doctor says, "what can I help you with?" Done.

But we lose out, imo, when we tie universal healthcare to some kind of ill-defined social struggle that no one really understands and everyone feels like everyone else is "someone besides me." Decouple universal healthcare from "phrases that don't pay-ses" like "entitlement society." It's just about cheaper, better, easier, hassle-free, no-gotcha healthcare. Keep it simple, imo.