Bernie's Blog on Huffington Post: "High Drug Prices are Killing Americans"

[jkbRN]

All across the country, Americans are finding that the prices of the prescription drugs they need are soaring. Tragically, doctors tell us that many of their patients can no longer afford their medicine. As a result, some get sicker. Others die.
A new Kaiser Health poll shows that most Americans think prescription drug costs in this country are unreasonable, and that drug companies put profits before people. Want to know something? They're right.
Americans pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world - by far. Drug costs increased 12.6 percent last year, more than double the rise in overall medical costs. (Inflation in this country was 0.8 percent that year.)
Even before that, we spent nearly 40 percent more per person on prescriptions in 2013 than they did in Canada, the next most expensive industrialized country. Prescription drugs cost nearly five times more per person in this country than they did in Denmark that year.

This is not a partisan issue. Most Americans -Republicans, Democrats, and independents - want Congress to do something about drug prices. 86 percent of those polled, including 82 percent of Republicans, think drug companies should be required to release information to the public on how they set their prices. Large majorities support other solutions to the drug cost problem as well.
The Kaiser poll also showed that Republican voters care more about drug prices than they do about repealing Obamacare. They should. Republicans in Congress have tried to repeal that law so many times that it's an embarrassment. It's also a distraction from the very real health care problems our country faces. Millions of Americans still can't see a doctor when they need one. Another poll showed that nearly one in five Americans didn't fill a prescription because of cost.
That should not be happening in the United States of America - but it is. And it's not likely to end anytime soon, unless we do something. Medicare is predicting that drug costs will continue to rise by nearly 10 percent per year for the next 10 years. Tens of thousands of Americans now spend more than $100,000 a year on prescription medication. One drug costs $1000 per pill.

Further Reading: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bernie-sanders/high-drug-prices-are-kill_b_8059526.html

[Doctor_J]

1. between heritage care and TPP,

[merrily]

2. The price is too damned high!

[PatrickforO]

3. Bernie's quite a campaigner. He's really getting the word out.

I think I'll send him some more money...

[SoapBox]

4. Bernie's list of issues in America keeps growing.

I swear, he's our last best chance to start to turn so much crap back.

We don't get him as President, better look for someplace else to live.

[nashville_brook]

5. my co-pay $10 or $100

generic or non-generic. goes without saying, i don't get any non-generic meds. and i'm sure that when i get really sick and need a special drug (like an infusion drug or something), it just simply won't be "on the formulary."

[Enthusiast]

6. Just say 'No!' to the TPP!