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Clinton Takes Aim At Soaring Drug Costs, Proposes $250 Monthly Cap
On Monday, the soaring cost of prescription drugs was thrust back into the limelight when hedge fund manager turned-serial pharma startup mogul Martin Shkreli made the rounds to explain why his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, decided to raise the cost of a 62-year-old treatment for life-threatening parasitic infections from $13.50 to $750 a pill virtually overnight.
Shkreli’s answer: “This is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical products in the world. It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this.”
Unfortunately for Shkreli - who also said the price increase is just Turing “trying to stay in business” - some people aren’t buying the idea that unbridled free market principles should pertain wholesale in life or death situations.
As it stands, the industry’s structure essentially allows drug companies to simply charge the highest price they believe the market will tolerate which, pretty much by definition, means that manufacturers are intentionally pushing patients to the financial breaking point. For her part, Hillary Clinton says she would solve the problem in the (increasingly unlikely) event that she becomes President. Here’s more from The Washington Post:
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing a $250 monthly cap on the amount patients with chronic and serious medical problems would have to pay out of pocket for prescription drugs as a way to reduce the effect of skyrocketing drug prices on consumers.
The cap is part of Clinton’s program to alter and expand the Affordable Care Act, the signature domestic policy achievement of President Obama, if she is elected to succeed him. Clinton will discuss the prescription drug plan Tuesday in Des Moines, Iowa. Some details were provided by her campaign in advance.
Clinton is calling her health-care ideas a way of refining the Affordable Care Act, the sprawling 2010 law that is reshaping parts of the U.S. health-care system. But her ideas would navigate the law into a realm of drug prices that its authors largely sidestepped.
Parts of Clinton’s proposal reprise ideas for controlling the cost of prescription drugs that Democrats have advocated for years and that have been the subject of heated debates on Capitol Hill.
Many congressional Democrats also have long contended that Medicare should be given power to negotiate directly the price of drugs that are sold to the older and disabled Americans insured through the program. This idea, too, was part of the political struggle over the law that created Medicare drug benefits. In the end, that law specifically banned the government from negotiating with pharmaceutical companies. When he first ran for the White House in 2008, President Obama said that he wanted to rescind that ban. But to avoid antagonizing the pharmaceutical industry, the idea of allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices was never seriously debated as part of Affordable Care Act.
Clinton’s campaign said her prescription drug plan would be modeled on state plans, such as those in California and Maine, that limit patient out-of-pocket costs. The campaign said Clinton would also seek to end a tax credit for direct-to-consumer drug advertising and allow Americans to import drugs from abroad.
Drug makers often argue that their prices reflect the need to recoup huge investments they pour into developing drugs, most of which fail. But at the same time, critics argue that the high prices of new drugs often bear little resemblance to their actual value. While some breakthroughs have offered huge benefits or even cures for a condition, others have produced only marginal benefits for patients, if any at all.
Pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts released a study earlier this year that found more than a half million Americans have yearly prescription drug costs of $50,000.
This was of course tipped on Monday via Twitter and the reaction in Janet Yellen's "subtantially stretched" biotech space was one of the more notable events from yesterday's session. Here's what we said when Clinton's tweet hit:
So who is the most powerful woman in the world now?
Hillary Clinton tweets....
Price gouging like this in the specialty drug market is outrageous. Tomorrow I'll lay out a plan to take it on. -H https://t.co/9Z0Aw7aI6h
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 21, 2015
And this happens?
So much for the flight to safety bid for Biotechs.
Yes, so much for that.
Here's a look at how the biotech ETF is trading pre-market:
We'll await the details of the former First Lady's plan which, as mentioned above, are due later today and in the meantime we would ask whether, when Clinton says that "nobody in America should have to choose between buying the medicine they need and paying rent," she intends to also do something about the following chart...
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Why are we listening to a damn thing Clinton is saying. Agreed the medical industry is completely out of whack. It's overpriced and, on the whole, pretty ineffective at improving health. That said, this is a ploy, a last ditch effort by Clinton to get back some in good graces with the voters AND IT SEEMS TO BE WORKING. Good lord can people be any more pathetic. This piece of shit is a criminal, not once, but many times over.
We truly are fucked. If people are that stupid to get fooled again then we deserve what we get. Either way, Sanders, Clinton, Trump or Bush get ready for that big red, white and blue dick ass-raping that George Carlin talked about to begin again.
Did the "big red, white and blue dick ass-raping" ever stop?
Not that I can see.
What's a better plan than promising more free stuff? Promising more free stuff that's really a poison which will kill off the useful idiots who elected you once you're done with them ;-)
We are Carlin's (Zappa's) brick wall at the back of the stage.
Our ally is called reality.
Take heart and party on ZHr's.
Be excellent.
Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure HD Trailerhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFy17auuK08&html5=1
Wrong solution. Stop over prescribing, stop over medicated America. A cap on drugs will either cost the tax payer or the companies will stop development.
Good way to off-shore this industry as well.
i think maybe i should enter the presidential race. my platform will be no federal taxes whatsoever. and everything is free. think of all the corruption that would stop. and it could hardly be more screwed up than what we have now.
Can I do some volunteer work without the entity I volunteer for having to worry about law-suits...can we get rid of most of the attorney's & money changers in your :platform". People get staisfaction from real relationships from which one gives of themselves and by work.
Make a promise that you know you cannot keep. How about you just kill ObamaCare and remove ALL the middlemen, such as the Insurance administrators.
Dont believe anything she or Obaoma say,
remains to be seen if taxpayers will pick up the difference in costs with her "plan," allowing the drug companines to continue to rape, only the taxpayers instead of the patient. Somebody's gotta pay the difference and it won't be the stock shareholders.
remains to be seen if taxpayers will pick up the difference in costs with her "plan," allowing the drug companines to continue to rape, only the taxpayers instead of the patient. Somebody's gotta pay the difference and it won't be the stock shareholders.
I told you many times she will win election. Never underestimate worst people in history.
god can stop her if it is his plan
I propose nobody should get paid more than 250 dollars for a speech... take that bitch...
+10000000000000000000000000000000
She also said yesterday the supreme court had it wrong on abortion. She wants it legal through 9+ months - NOT viability. NO restrictions. There's something very, very wrong with her which is why only like 30 percent of women will vote for her.
Retroactive abortions for the win.
Standard Disclaimer: a future where the United States Congress has decided that abortion is legal until the soul enters the body, which is specified as the moment a person has the ability to do simple algebra... since politicians can't do simple math... well you get where I am going with this....
Apple cider vinegar $5, coconut oil $7, Fasting to heal and detox $0, Who the fuck needs a $700+ pharma shit to get sicker, ignorance is the worst epimedia nowadays.
The Clintons have been buying votes since the late 70's. No news here; just a bigger price taq.
the off shoring of generic drug manufacture, the excessive regulations on in country manufacturers push cost so high they must off shore good paying jobs - many here will see the connection of rising drug costs, those that own business will understand - most will not. like many tech co's and old industry co's, they (the .gov) are moving another high pay industry off shore..while this sick example of a women plays to the masses.
the elite nwo plan is in effect and what we are seeing here is a side effect of it's success.
Im sure there is some Al Sharpton style hussle here for the Clinton foundation or such that been said this is a liberal admission Obongocare is a failure
Hilly's great plan then is to make drugs more affordable.
Sounds like a great thing, except 1 in 5 people are already on psychotropic drugs. We're not talking about Ice, Coke or weed, this is Pharmacy Drugs. And she wants to make them more affordable.
So one in 5 Americans are crazy? Actually yes! Anybody dumb enough to swallow one of these lethal poisons is truly insane.
Hello, anyone? Anyone?
It takes all of 2 seconds to query FEC.GOV so see that Martin Shkreli is a Hillary Clinton donor.
So obvious, people.
His 40x drug price increase is intended to change the subject from the emailgate scandal.
That was pretty obvious by the machinations.
But, even this would make Machiavelli blush.
They try to be as obvious as they possibly can, while still getting away with it when they are duping you. It's a moral code sorta thingy ;-)
all I am seeing is "Friends of Joe Lieberman" on that site
is this like Obama promising bi-paritsanship and reining in Wall Street? She is a liar.. PERIOD. Won't beleive one word she said. How many millions has she scored from the medical community for backing National Healthcare/Obamacare?
Do we get longer lunch breaks and shorter school days too. I always wanted to be class president too
Because we need more drugs. Gotta get more drugs. Jeeez.
http://radaronline.com/photos/hillary-clinton-health-issues-tell-all-cla...
"Nobody in America should have to choose between buying the medicine they need and paying rent," Clinton says.
Obvious solution: Limit maximum rents to $0.
So the giant harpy flaps her lips, and a whole sector of the market tanks. Gotta tell ya, first thought that comes to my mind is "who paid her to flap her lips?" Then again, being as the single biggest logo on her team jacket is Goldman... well, ya know how that goes.
For some strange reason, I get a feeling of a situation where investors put a bunch of money into something that ended up going sideways, so instead they're trying to find ways to get some return on their investment while they still can? Dunno why, I just get a strong feeling that way.
Maybe, just maybe, if she'd stop cribbing her best ideas from Bernie's campaign, she could do the homework to come up something resembling a, gee, I dunno, vision of some kind?
Prolly a good time to grab some calls on the pharma index once their puts pay off and it snaps back.
There are a couple of other common, old drugs that have jumped 30x or more in price over the past few years, so they're just doing the same thing. But those drugs jumped from like ten cents to three dollars per pill, none of this $750.
i think we should send her to syria, drop her off on a corner. imagine then she could get a lot of campagne footage of her ducking rpg's a mg and mortar fire. she could even get hit and have a scar.
Oh fuck you Hillary!
How about letting us all buy our drugs anywhere in the world? Why can't I buy from an online pharmacy in India, where the prices are much lower? Or anywhere else I can find a good deal?
HOW COME I CAN'T OUTSOURCE MY BUYING LIKE BIG COMPANIES OUTSOURCE THEIR LABOR?
And why can't Medicare negotiate for the best prices?
There's no need to 'punish' drug makers...just stop fucking PROTECTING them and make them compete in a free market! Without your fucking protection those prices will come back down to Earth real quick. They wouldn't sell many 2,000 dollar pills here in the US if those patients could just get them overseas for a buck and a half.
Hypocritical bitch! What good does it do to limit my out-of-pocket expenses if you're just gonna raise my taxes to make up the difference?
We aren't all stupid.
Doesn't seem to matter what issue, here comes Hillary, riding in from behind to propose somebody else's solution to yesterday's news. She's always on the back foot, always reacting, always a me-too parrot... never a leader. She has no vision, no plan, always reciting her focus-group talking points in a tired and unconvincing manner. At least Obama can sound sincere while he lies. Has Hillary even given one reason, beyond the compulsion of blind ambition, why she wants to be president? What a tired, uninteresting, dim bulb.
Someone please put this evil hag out to pasture! Preferably in jump-suit orange.
Maybe I'm just too cynical, but has it occurred to anyone that this Shiveki guy, whoever, is a paid Clinton shill?
I mean, here he comes, out of nowhere, and hands Clinton an issue sure to get voters attention...And of course she jumps on it.
I think it was his attitude and demeanor that got me thinking along those lines...He seems to be playing some kind of super-villain, I was waiting for him to start cackling and threatening to take over the world. When anyone who really did something like that would be much more low-key and apologetic.
Too convenient.
The criminal speaks.
Shame on the sheriffs.
More rations for the the free-shit army
we need to start a universal heckle for shrillery. like a sneezing sound but say bullshit. everywhere she sticks her face in a camera or mic, you can hear it in the back ground aaaaaa-bullshit. can you imagine a debate with 10k people sneezing. ahhhh-ahhhh-ahhhhh-aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh-Bullshit.
Get a Twitter account. #Hillary4prison
quod erat demonstrandum, ladies
http://deflationland.blogspot.com/2015/09/martin-shkreli-is-clinton-camp...
Hillary would be great as president compared to Jeb Bush. We'd get to see a daily example of how tired and old her generation has become, and she'd also have a harder time selling the Neo Con murder agenda. Given the choice between Hillary and Jeb, people are probably going to vote for her.
Shkreli’s answer: “This is still one of the smallest pharmaceutical products in the world. It really doesn’t make sense to get any criticism for this.”
Criticism makes perfect sense. The extreme price hike has no economic justification.
That bitch always has something up her sleeve.
This just in, more rumors - http://radaronline.com/photos/hillary-clinton-health-issues-tell-all-cla...
Tyler(s) please stop stoking the populist furor, and do something more useful. Send out a tweet to Hill that Id like my 5 points back on PBE. I can provide a bill if necessary for tax purposes. Disgruntled top 45% percenter.
I support a cap of 250.....
people with serious or chronic medical issues.
Once we croak these turd blossoms offs we can roll around in our money and get our balls rubbed.
Let me get this straight. So it's OK to spend $50Bn a month for years on end, totalling trillions and trillions of dollars, to keep failing banks and Wall Street on life support, but not OK to spend anything keeping sick human beings alive? Do I have this right?
In much the same way as when you see people wearing earplugs at concerts, something, somewhere, has gone terribly wrong.
Oh, bull shit. These assholes won't touch the bankers, and they want you to believe they will go after the medical-pharma crowd?
At best they will just use government dough to subsudise the high prices - sameo, sameo.
"some people aren’t buying the idea that unbridled free market principles..."
Huh? Do you understand what a free market is Tylers? I didn't even get further in the story before I found this glaring error.
"Unbridled" would mean other companies could make it and charge whatever they want in competion. Is that what is going on here? Come on people...words have meanings.
Done reading it now...so what's the take away? Clinton doesn't really say she is going to reduce the amount the drug makers charge, she is simply going to limit the "out of pocket" costs meaning the real profits would likely stay with the massive upcharges (more to come if they can get away with it afer all...you get more of what is incentivized as we know). So the cost won't go down, the new profits for big pharma would just be laundered through the mandatory monopoly insurance program so it's hidden better...you know...socialize the cost but privatize the profits. It's the way of the American corporatist (fascist) system.
The rest of what she says she would do...increase competiton...well how is that going to get her more donations from big pharma and 6 figure speaking gigs for her and Bill? We know that's going to have to be "negotiated" away..."reaching across the isle to get things done" of course.
GRRRRRRRR
She wants a national police force too.
Then they'll comandeeer the children from their inept parents and local schools and send them to real education camps.
This, as the elderly are bussed off to elder-camps, where they learn to appreciate mush and peas, silent time and "the natural environment".
God Bless America!
Or, you can just buy a bottle of bee propolis and, in large doses, have that parasite gone in days for about $10.