Welcome!

By registering with us, you'll be able to discuss, share and private message with other members of our community.

SignUp Now!

Politics

I don't think an unmarried guy can win anyways. But then again I would have said three months ago that a candidate who had a public video of him talking about pussy grabbing couldn't win either.
 
Corey's statement (spoiler: He did it to keep us safe!)

I support the importation of prescription drugs as a key part of a strategy to help control the skyrocketing cost of medications. Any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards. I opposed an amendment put forward last night that didn’t meet this test. The rising cost of medications is a life-and-death issue for millions of Americans, which is why I also voted for amendments last night that bring drug prices down and protect Medicare’s prescription drug benefit. I‎’m committed to finding solutions that allow for prescription drug importation with adequate safety standards.
Click to expand...
 
Here is something for today that is worse than Grayson Allen:



Who buys anything from L.L. Bean? Is this popular in the rural South or something?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
SeanMayTriedToEatMe said:
Here is something for today that is worse than Grayson Allen:



Who buys anything from L.L. Bean? Is this popular in the rural South or something?
Click to expand...


My former in-laws from Maine buy shit from LL Bean.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
trumps_pence01112017getty.jpg

C161j2fXAAAZLwO.jpg



Yesterday, at the press conference, Trump and his lawyer said these folders were full of documents that he signed divesting himself from any control over the companies in the Trump Organization. They would not allow anyone to inspect them. What could be fishy about these documents? I wonder?
 
deepdarkblue said:
Corey's statement (spoiler: He did it to keep us safe!)

I support the importation of prescription drugs as a key part of a strategy to help control the skyrocketing cost of medications. Any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards. I opposed an amendment put forward last night that didn’t meet this test. The rising cost of medications is a life-and-death issue for millions of Americans, which is why I also voted for amendments last night that bring drug prices down and protect Medicare’s prescription drug benefit. I‎’m committed to finding solutions that allow for prescription drug importation with adequate safety standards.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

This is a weird problem that I don't really know what the clean answer to is. We tend to think of drugs just as pills you take, but a lot of the more expensive drugs aren't pills, but those that need to be infused via an IV or taken via needle. These are large molecules that can't be synthesized chemically but have to be grown in a cell culture through living organisms. The complexity is akin to comparing a bicycle to an airplane. The FDA has rigorous manufacturing protocols in place that pharma companies have to meet to be able to sell and market these drugs. That being said, I think his answer doesn't really make sense unless there is a generic manufacturer of the drug in the foreign country that he is worried about.

More often than not though, it is the same company selling the drug at a cheaper price in a foreign country, mostly because these countries have a single payer system that heavily negotiates the price of the drug downward. Logistically I don't really understand what would happen if you put this in place. A company could just not sell the drug in other countries at a lower price to avoid having it be imported here and then that foreign population gets screwed. Also who would be importing the drug? It's the wholesalers who purchase them, who then sell to physicians/hospitals/clinics etc who then prescribe to patients. Patients/insurers/Medicare/Medicaid only get involved after the drug has already been prescribed in the reimbursement process. It's just not super clean and there are a lot of unintended consequences.

I get the outrage at pharma, price increases are out of hand and an easy thing to point to, but drugs are only 10-15% of the overall healthcare spend and many times can be more cost effective than alternative treatment (ie surgery). Also those price increases are given back almost fully in the form of discount at least to Medicaid and 340B hospitals (the poorer populations) and most doctors who are prescribing the drugs don't even know what they cost (and sometimes are financially incentivized to prescribe the more expensive ones based on how they get reimbursed).
 
We do need to worry about those sketchy drugs coming down from sketchy Canada, being produced by even sketchier companies like Merck and Bristol Meyers.

If insurance companies were required to cover all drugs that are FDA approved and that are legally prescribed by a doctor as part of necessary medical treatment, no one would even be talking about drug costs (other than the insurance lobbyists behind closed doors). But insurance companies like to say "no" to lots of drugs, and that's where the average, middle-class family gets slammed when they discover they're going to need to come up with thousands of dollars a week out-of-pocket to keep little Jimmy alive. Which brings us back to the need for universal health care coverage, that we're about to do away with.
 
The unfolding disaster may roll in universal care sooner than we may have had it leaving ACA as is. Watch as more community hospitals have to choose their doors.
 
Trump attacking John Lewis on Twitter 2 days before MLK Day. He is a master of distraction.
 
aiw said:
Trump attacking John Lewis on Twitter 2 days before MLK Day. He is a master of distraction.
Click to expand...

Uhhh, don't you mean Great Americans Day?

I can't believe I seriously thought President Trump would somehow be different than candidate Trump. I am such an idiot.
 



Yeah, I mean, what the fuck has Lewis ever accomplished?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
bdotling said:
deepdarkblue said:
Corey's statement (spoiler: He did it to keep us safe!)

I support the importation of prescription drugs as a key part of a strategy to help control the skyrocketing cost of medications. Any plan to allow the importation of prescription medications should also include consumer protections that ensure foreign drugs meet American safety standards. I opposed an amendment put forward last night that didn’t meet this test. The rising cost of medications is a life-and-death issue for millions of Americans, which is why I also voted for amendments last night that bring drug prices down and protect Medicare’s prescription drug benefit. I‎’m committed to finding solutions that allow for prescription drug importation with adequate safety standards.
Click to expand...
Click to expand...

This is a weird problem that I don't really know what the clean answer to is. We tend to think of drugs just as pills you take, but a lot of the more expensive drugs aren't pills, but those that need to be infused via an IV or taken via needle. These are large molecules that can't be synthesized chemically but have to be grown in a cell culture through living organisms. The complexity is akin to comparing a bicycle to an airplane. The FDA has rigorous manufacturing protocols in place that pharma companies have to meet to be able to sell and market these drugs. That being said, I think his answer doesn't really make sense unless there is a generic manufacturer of the drug in the foreign country that he is worried about.

More often than not though, it is the same company selling the drug at a cheaper price in a foreign country, mostly because these countries have a single payer system that heavily negotiates the price of the drug downward. Logistically I don't really understand what would happen if you put this in place. A company could just not sell the drug in other countries at a lower price to avoid having it be imported here and then that foreign population gets screwed. Also who would be importing the drug? It's the wholesalers who purchase them, who then sell to physicians/hospitals/clinics etc who then prescribe to patients. Patients/insurers/Medicare/Medicaid only get involved after the drug has already been prescribed in the reimbursement process. It's just not super clean and there are a lot of unintended consequences.

I get the outrage at pharma, price increases are out of hand and an easy thing to point to, but drugs are only 10-15% of the overall healthcare spend and many times can be more cost effective than alternative treatment (ie surgery). Also those price increases are given back almost fully in the form of discount at least to Medicaid and 340B hospitals (the poorer populations) and most doctors who are prescribing the drugs don't even know what they cost (and sometimes are financially incentivized to prescribe the more expensive ones based on how they get reimbursed).
Click to expand...
One problem is that with the ACA most employers were forced to move to high deductible health plans with drug costs subject to the deductible vs. subject to a drug co-pay as most health plans had before. So before someone would only pay maybe a $100 co-pay for a drug that costs $1000 a month pre-ACA, whereas now they are on the hook for the full $1000 until they satisfy their deductible. For families with high prescription drug costs, this was a huge increase in out of pocket expense.

Or they could get a prescription filled from a Canadian pharmacy and pay one-third the cost for the exact same drug.
 
deepdarkblue said:
We do need to worry about those sketchy drugs coming down from sketchy Canada, being produced by even sketchier companies like Merck and Bristol Meyers.

If insurance companies were required to cover all drugs that are FDA approved and that are legally prescribed by a doctor as part of necessary medical treatment, no one would even be talking about drug costs (other than the insurance lobbyists behind closed doors). But insurance companies like to say "no" to lots of drugs, and that's where the average, middle-class family gets slammed when they discover they're going to need to come up with thousands of dollars a week out-of-pocket to keep little Jimmy alive. Which brings us back to the need for universal health care coverage, that we're about to do away with.
Click to expand...
And insurance companies often change their formularies in the middle of a coverage period, so you can't easily go searching for "better" coverage for a certain drug until the next open enrollment.
 
The whole idea that certain employers are required to contribute to employees insurance is stupid.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Chat users

  • No one is chatting at the moment.

Chat rooms

  • General chit-chat 0

Forum statistics

Threads
1,068
Messages
425,154
Members
624
Latest member
Bluegrass Blue Devil
Back
Top Bottom