Lead Poisoning Drug Price Skyrockets
By Thom Hartmann A...
It's the same story with a different drug.
Just a few weeks after Mylan NV faced public outrcy about the skyrocketing price of EpiPens, another pharmaceutical company - Valeant - is under fire for the price of something known as Calcium EDTA.
Used to treat serious and potentially fatal cases of lead poisoning, Calcium EDTA is a vital part of any poison control inventory.
Recently, however, it's become very - very expensive.
After Valeant purchased the rights to Calcium EDTA in 2013 - it lifted the price of a standard 7 pack from $950 to more than $7,000.
It then hiked the price even higher from that $7,000 mark to more than $26,000.
As result, many hospitals and poison control centers are having trouble affording a drug that they used to have no problem acquiring.
This, of course, is just the latest pricing controversy facing Valeant Pharmaceuticals.
Back in April, its executives were grilled by Elizabeth Warren and other Senators on Capitol for doing pretty much the same thing with different drugs.
Of course - what we're seeing here with Calcium EDTA is just one example of systemwide problem with the American health system - a system that forces us to pay more for lifesaving drugs than anyone else in the developed world.
Talk about exceptionalism!
Comments
#2
This is what happens when unbridled greed is allowed to run amuck. Unrestrained greed hurts everybody, and the Teabaggers just don't understand why regulations are needed, to rein in greed and protect WE THE PEOPLE.
#3
I am totally amazed that the CEOs of many corporations and this pharmaceutical one continually believe that we are all stupid consumers not seeing the games of deception and greed. I thought that they were the smart ones.
#4
Uncle Ralph, stecopp01, twelter001 - government has been bought by lobbyists, corporate money, institutional self interest and other levers (blasted bankers especially) including twisting of the judicial system
The media also has massive influence on the minds of people that have no time to consider much of anything except doing this and doing that, working the butt off working 2-3 jobs to pay the bills and keep body and soul together
Third world stuff
Where has the American Dream gone?
#5
It's a "Trump move." Ask for ten times what you really want, and then back it down to what you really had in mind. The drug company gets what it wants and our leaders can brag about how they fought for us. Just another genius business move, allowed by our government to run it's course.
#6
Medicare and other health insurance has reached points of negative benefit. If you pay $121 per month for medicare and you still pay 20% of a procedure that costs 5 times what it costs in other countries, then you are paying 100%. A single individual will pay over $1000 per month for medical insurance for $5000 deductable and still pay fees and for drugs. If you set up your own fund you can afford to fly to Cuba once a year, see a doctor for a check up, visit the beach and fly home. Get your drugs from Canada, Mexico and Cuba. For anything major (such as heart surgury) you can fly to India where they have excellent doctors. They have travel agents that will arrange this for you. I have been told that if I ever need dental work (beyond cleaning) to fly to Panama where they have excellent dental care.
#7
EDTA is a common product that has been in the market place for decades it should cost about as much as an equal amount of bicarb of soda.
We have been sold a bucket of swill that capitalism is the only way to go. Capitalism has an inherant cruelty in it that is exhibited again here and in our insurance industry, our for profit hospitals, medical and pharma manufacturing and of course Wall Street where billions are skimmed from our healthcare system.
The whole world is laughing at us and our exceptionalism.
#8
My Republican Congressman spoke at a local event this past Thursday regarding SS and other subjects. He stated that SS was going to be broke by 2020, or that the trust fund would be broke by then, that the trust fund money was loaned out to other government agencies, which he did not name. He Indicated that when SS needed to draw from the trust fund that these other "agencies" would have to come up with the money and what a problem that would be. He proposed that our COLA be determined based on income so for instance if a person's income was $20K they'd get a 3.5% incr and then went through diff levels of income until he got to a $1.5% COLA inc or thereabouts. I didn't write this down, so I'm relying on memory. He went on to propose these "private" solutions for retirement ie; IRA's and 401K's with they mythical $500K when we retire from each. Gee where have I heard that one before? So, he lied about everything. After he spoke I took the rare opportunity to confront him and educate him about when and why the trust fund was created and that SS was a pay as you go system and corrected his 2020 to 2034 but he rejected that. I later learned that SS will stop receiving a surplus by 2020 which is where he got the year from, but that it wouldn't run out till 2034, so I was correct and he was wrong. There is a 5 page report on the Center forBudget and Policy Priorities that lays it all out. Shows that SS invests in Treasuries, which you state all the time, and the trustees project that the trust funds will earn $89 b in 2016. It earns an average of 3.4% per year. When the trust fund bonds are redeemed, it will be able to pay out benefits until 2034. So, I am assuming that the Republican Congress does not want to make good on US Treasury Bonds by allowing SS to cash any of them in, something they'd not deny to China, Saudi Arabia or anyone else. I would be interested to know if any listeners in other parts of the country are being fed the same lie?
#9
If it's money from the average Joe they wil steal it!
Simple!
The average Joe is a huge market for the crooked, the unethical and the amoral!
#10
Why do people have such a problem with being successful?
Donald Trump is a very poor candidate.
Fart jokes?
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