Expose. Confront. Change.
PERMALINK: http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/patients/subcamp/affordablemedicines/?
Consumer Watchdog research has found that most prescription drugs are developed in large part with taxpayer funds. Uninsured and insured patients, business owners and government programs all benefit from prescription drug bulk purchasing in the form of better discounts and rebates.
Read about Consumer Watchdog's efforts to build support for a U.S. bulk-purchasing program.
When Anthem Blue Cross announced its controversial premium increases in California recently, the insurer claimed, "a carrier must be able to receive actuarially sound rates." So it is remarkable that "progressive" San Francisco State Senator Mark Leno, a single payer health care advocate, recently introduced eleventh hour legislation codifying Anthem Blue Cross's "actuarially sound" defense of premium increases in law.
At the shoe store, 40% off qualifies as at least pretty good. So why does regulators' approval of new, lower rates by Blue Cross of California not feel like victory? There are lots of reasons, but first is that the revised Blue Cross rate hikes are still in double digits, averaging 14% and as high as 20%, while average wages are still falling. And Blue Cross could announce another rate hike whenever it pleases, just as many insurers continue to do.
Wouldn't it be great if we could all deduct our federal income and investment taxes from next year's income? And if we could also deduct that stress-reducing trip to a spa in Bora Bora? And if the government would just take our word for it? Fantasy for us, but the health insurance industry think that's what federal health reform ought to allow, on a corporate scale.
The worst definitely didn't happen in Seattle. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners deferred the worst insurance industry demands for weakening the implementation of health care reform. For a body so closely linked to...
It took my wife an hour and half to make the two mile commute home Monday, after the secret service closed some of LA's busiest streets at rush hour to shuttle the president from his Beverly Hills hotel to a fundraiser for Congress...
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Drugs Savings In The Cards
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