The War On
Drugs (Prescription
Drugs for Seniors, That Is ! ) This is business Lunacy.
By James Boyne
OpEdNews.com
Take a
calculator and do the math. If a senior has approximately $5000 in
prescription drug expenses in a year; with the yearly premium paid ($420),
the $250 deductible, the 25% co-pay, and the gap between $2250 and $5200
with no payment; the end result is a senior would pay 75% of their drug
costs and many drugs would not be allowed or approved increasing the 75%
to even higher.
By the time you have taken $5200 in
prescription drugs you will then get additional coverage, the theory
being, that once you have taken $5200 in prescription drugs you will have
so many of the side affects and adverse reactions from taking so many
drugs, that the Congress, the Senate, and especially the pharmaceutical
companies know you will need additional drugs, and therefore additional
coverage to combat the drug induced trauma that your body and your brain
are going through.
The HMO doctors will be “standing at the
ready” for their treatment options on what drugs to prescribe to you so
you can safely withdraw from all the “free sample packets” of drugs
and the ensuing, pricey prescriptions that they themselves prescribed for
you in the first place.
However, since the plan will not begin until
2006 that means that another requirement is to stay alive for over two
years so you can be lucky enough to become a member of the plan. Fear not.
If this is not in the cards for you, the funeral industry is “standing
at the ready” with their $7000 budget special or their $15,000 formal
attire funeral with appropriate bereavement extras.
The most popular prescription drugs for seniors
will inflate by 25% a year before 2006. Others will probably double. And
no one can stop it. The Republican/Bush backed proposal prohibits the
Federal Government from negotiating the best price through volume
purchasing. This is an example of “business lunacy” at its best.
Extortionist price gouging will be order of the day.
R&D is an unregulated, unsupervised sham
with no oversight; just a rubber stamp. The NY Times recently did a half
page expose of Procrit™, a billion dollar, blockbuster best selling
chemotherapy cancer related drug. The results: a comprehensive West
European study determined that 62% of the patients died using Procrit™
while only 52% of those taking a placebo died. It’s still advertised on
TV every night dozens of times. Whose protecting Americans?---the West
European governments. If you know anyone taking Procrit™ you may want to
read Whoops!
Billion Dollar Best Selling Cancer Drug Found to Cause Cancer and Hasten
Death.
And, oh yes, the nail in the coffin (for all
Americans, not just seniors) is the provision to allow, by decree, the
Bush Administration to declare all American drugs purchased from Canada
for half price by Americans to be "unsafe" and therefore
prohibited as illegal.
The pharmaceutical, health insurance, HMO's, and the
funeral industry are all biding their time, raising their prices and
looking forward to 2006. One consolation is I will save $12 a year because
I just dropped my AARP membership.
It’s truly amazing that once our President in seen
landing on an aircraft carrier in a fighter jet, and he is on the campaign
stump giving those “let’s go get the terrorists” speeches, with the
gigantic American flag waving in the background, the Congress and Senate
will march lockstep arm-in-arm and throw $200 billion at Iraq in 4 months
time, with hundreds of billions more to follow; but $400 billion for
prescription drugs for seniors gets bogged down in a 10 year debate
because all the drug and health insurance companies want a piece of the
action.
Like all
sinister and cynical leaders, when things aren't going well at home, a
nice, colorful, exciting, war with "shock and awe", shadowy,
nameless terrorists that hide in caves and fight with "cloak and
dagger" efficiency, use suicide car bombers and are harbored in 60
countries, is a great distraction to keep our minds off the millions of
baffled, befuddled, and bewildered seniors found dead everyday clutching
an empty medication bottle.
Even conservative Republicans are dismayed at the
reckless, irresponsible spending spree that President Bush is on. Whatever
taxpayer money left over, he throws back at the wealthy. President Bush is
like a little kid playing war with an animated PC video game and is
handling our economy like he is sitting on the back porch playing monopoly
with the neighborhood kids. And he is the “banker”.
The economic recovery has become a “jobless
recovery”. The prescription drug plan legislation has become a $400
billion windfall for the pharmaceutical industry. The war on terrorists
that attacked us on 9/11 has become a $600 billion exercise in rebuilding
just one of the many brutal and desperately poor countries that populate a
good portion of the world. If Uruguay and Paraguay are found to harbor
terrorists should we attack them? Cuba. Bolivia. Chechnya. China.
Pakistan. Maybe we should go back into Vietnam and finish them off for
good? They are still Communist. Danger lurks behind every tree.
Congressmen and Senators debate who did and who did
not vote for Iraq, as if we were voting Iraq into statehood with the
United States.
See, it is even happening to me. I started off
concerned about prescription drugs for seniors and I end up talking about
terrorists, bombs, aircraft carriers and war. And I’m all out of my
pills, and now I’m in deep trouble. 2006 seems like a long ways away.
James Boyne dboyne@aol.com
is a satirical, political freelance writer and has five other articles
published on www.opednews.com. He
has previously been a diehard, staunch, conservative Republican who has
voted for Goldwater, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, Bush I and Bush II, and now has
made a 180 degree turnabout and supports the candidacy of Congressman Dennis
Kucinich (D-Ohio), who appears to have the most integrity, honesty,
common sense, straightforwardness, enthusiasm, optimism, and “fire in
the belly” to be possibly the best President in recent memory. He is a
progressive, populist, liberal, Democrat and is a man of principal,
intelligence and experience. Mr. Kucinich comes from a humble
background and clearly spells out his positions on issues on his web site www.kucinich.us
so there is no question where he stands on issues. He is an eloquent,
articulate, inspiring, motivating, positive, optimistic and enthusiastic
speaker. He writes his own speeches, which is truly refreshing. (If you
would care to read a review of his recent “book of speeches” entitled
“A Prayer For America” you may with to read some of the 35 personal
comments and reviews from common people throughout the political spectrum.
My review, from the viewpoint of a former conservative,
Goldwater/Nixon/Reagan/Bush Republican is also listed. The reviews in
themselves are inspiring. (“A Prayer for America” by Dennis Kucinich) Book
Reviews
**It is the responsibility of all Americans to vote.
You should know where all the candidates stand on different issues; why
they believe what they do; how they plan on carrying out their plans
(rather than just empty promises); and get a sense for their character,
honesty, commitment, integrity and their vision for America and for the
world. You should know what their background is. How did they get to where
they are now? Know their life, and you will know them.
Other Articles By James Boyne:
President
Booosh: We Are In A Pickle
36
Reasons To Vote For Bush
Whoops!
Billion Dollar Cancer Drug Found to Cause Cancer To Spread and Hasten
Death
Bush:
The Greatest Liberal of the Century
"So
Rush Just Wanted A Rush"---the Media Gives Rush Limbaugh a Break
Was
I Globalized or Circumcised? (What It's Really Like To Get Laid Off)
Bye
Bye Canadian Drugs and AARP
Iron
Hammer: Bush Attacks Targets Dept Store By Mistake
Living
Sickly, Dying Quickly |