WASHINGTON — A group of House Democrats is organizing an effort to slow down an Obama administration plan to reduce drug prices, according to a letter obtained by The Huffington Post.
The Department of Health and Human Services is working toward finalizing a new rule that would experiment with ending the financial incentive doctors have for prescribing some extremely expensive medications. The rule has been well-received among some patient advocates, but congressional Democrats have been largely silent, while the pharmaceutical industry and medical community have waged an aggressive campaign to stop it…
Finish reading: House Democrats Push Back On Plan To Cut Drug Prices – World News Report – EIN News
HWH Comment: Democrats are acting like Republicans again! All incentives to doctors and clinics to prescribe any medication for any reason should be banned – outlawed.
Both Democrats and Republicans don’t want to get on board with lower-priced medicines.
The drug companies want to keep the financial incentives to physicians and clinics, so they’ll keep using and prescribing the most expensive drugs and as it turns out, so does Congress.
Congress in essence allows Big Pharma to bribe doctors and clinics into forcing expensive drugs onto patients when less expensive drugs would work as well or better, even when they know they can’t afford them.
So the rich get treated with the good drugs and stay rich – and maybe they get better. And the poor, well…they get sicker, go bankrupt or both. They’re given the drugs that don’t work first. Then, even if they can afford a couple trials of the expensive – cause it’s the best – drug, eventually their bank account dries up, leaving them with no viable treatment options and in financial ruin.
They hold a gun to the patient’s head. We have this really good, but really expensive drug that can cure you. What would you do? Hepatitis C can be cured with a shot for about twenty thousand dollars. The Veteran’s Administration won’t cover it, the veterans can’t afford it out of pocket, so they die. That’s a crime right there. A crime against humanity.
You use the drug that works. That’s the only ground you can stand on. If pharmaceuticals can’t tell physicians what works and what doesn’t – what is the best and worst – then that drug shouldn’t even be on the market. There shouldn’t even be a worst drug category. No doctor should ever prescribe a drug that they know won’t work. That’s a crime right there.
Doctors should not be allowed to accept gratuities from drug companies or from any company with a conflict of interest. Any entity involved in patient care has a conflict of interest. Let the patient decide, not the doctor or clinic being bought by the pharmaceuticals.
Doctors should not be making a commission on the drugs used in a clinical setting nor should they be receiving expensive vacations for the drugs they prescribe in an office setting (something that nobody’s addressing yet). What is wrong with our government, that they allow it?
They’re crooks – all of them. The Democrats are with the Republicans on this one. So now they think they’re working together. Yes, they are working together – against ‘we the people’ – working together against ‘the patient’, who is getting short-changed on quality healthcare, while everybody else lines up to line their pockets.
And healthcare professionals wonder why the lack of trust? How can you trust somebody who gets paid off for prescribing certain drugs? Doctors get pissed off when a patient doesn’t want a particular drug, or doesn’t want any drugs at all. They retaliate. When they see you walk through the door of their office, they see dollar signs. The more drugs they prescribe you, the more money in their pocket. If you don’t sign up as a contributor to their vacation, they remember that. Next time you want something, they’re not there for you.
It’s a racket that needs to end. They act like the Mafia. Patients are afraid to say no, and you can’t blame them. Ever wonder why so many bottles of prescription drugs end up in the toilet? They don’t want them. Doctors give signals, and the patients at their mercy get the message. Fill the prescriptions – whether you take them or not doesn’t matter. Just keep refilling them.
Congress isn’t qualified to be making healthcare decisions for patients. The only decision Congress should be making is outlawing financial kickbacks to healthcare professionals and institutions for prescribing certain high-end drugs, or any drug or medical device.
Doctors need to disqualify themselves based on their admitted corrupt practice of accepting bribes that affect a patient’s care.
Clinics are accepting the same bribes, so they’re disqualified.
Who else is there? Who is the advocate for the patient here and not just someone who is pandering to the pharmaceuticals and Congress, concerned only about how much profit everybody can make off of one prescription?
There is no one powerful enough to make a positive difference for the patient. Our healthcare system is broken. Putting band-aids on it isn’t going to fix it. The problem is corrupt politicians who get lobbied by special interests to your detriment. They always cave, and it’s always to your detriment.
Reducing the cost of a drug from twenty thousand to fifteen thousand isn’t going to make much difference to the patient, who couldn’t afford the copay either way.
Stop all incentives. Call the bluff of Big Pharma – when they hint that they’ll increase the prices on all of their drugs, not just the best ones. That’s extortion right there. Ban Bribery. Stop calling them incentives. Call their bluff. Don’t meet with lobbyists. Why do you meet with them? Because you want to get re-elected. Well, that’s on you. You don’t belong in office if you do whatever a lobbyist tells you to do, just to stay in office.
You serve the people.
We the people don’t need nor do we want Cowards in Congress. You work for us.
HAPPY WHITE HORSE™ 