




Ok, that’s my $0.0199 cents. And you?



Watering Hole: Monday, September 12, 2011 – It’s Not For Getting High

For 18 years, I worked in the pharmaceutical industry.  One major thing that I learned during that time is that the pharmaceutical industry is not focused on curing an illness. It is focused on making a drug that must be taken every day to mask the symptoms of an illness.  It is all about profits and not about cures.  When I left the industry, it was beginning to appear that drug discovery was getting close to reaching its apex.  The pharmaceutical industry is always looking for new drugs to patent.  During testing, many of these new drugs present serious safety issues and as a result, never make it to market.

The United States has the highest prices for drugs.  That is because the pharmaceutical industry claims to take a hit in profits when selling drugs cheaper in other countries, particularly in countries that have socialized medicine.  The industry needs to make up for this loss in profits by charging Americans more.

Here is a story about a compound that grows like a weed and has medicinal properties.   Like all medicinal compounds that can be grown in a back yard garden, this plant is difficult to patent.  What that means is the pharmaceutical industry can’t make exclusive profit from this plant.  So the US government has stepped in and made this plant illegal.

And by the way, is it possible that the oil from this plant can cure cancer?

This is our Open Thread.  Speak Up!

Love That Socialism

This will be brief.

Last week, my mother-in-law broke her hip.  She had to spend some time in the hospital and after three days, she would be moved to a skilled nursing facility for rehabilitation.  When presenting the list of facilities, the case manager asked this question, “Does she have regular government Medicare?”  The answer was, “Yes”.  We were then informed that all the facilities accepted Medicare and that only a few accepted Medicare Advantage (private insurance) and even then, there needed to be a pre-approval by the insurer before the patient can enter the treatment facility.

Medicare Advantage was created for the benefit of the insurance companies.  Sarah Palin was confused when she said that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act would create death panels.  These death panels have been in place since 1997 with the creation of Medicare Advantage.

If my mother-in-law wasn’t enrolled in the socialist program known as Medicare, she would not be getting the care that she needs to “get back on her feet” again.

Score 1 for socialism and 0 for privatization.