The campaigns are everywhere. On ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX, Animal Planet, the Game Show Network and Syfy. In People, Popular Mechanics and Better Homes and Gardens magazines. On the radio and along subway lines. If you were born between 1945 and 1965, you could have hep C, screams Gilead Sciences, which makes the hep C drug Harvoni. Continue reading
Rather than a health care system, our country’s leaders have kept us shackled to a “corporate care” system. Continue reading
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke deplorably called the federal response to crisis conditions in Puerto Rico a “good news story,” adding she’s “very satisfied.” Continue reading
There are now more than 700 million obese people worldwide, 108 million of them children, reported the New York Times recently. In Brazil, food giant Nestle sends vendors door to door hawking its high-calorie junk food and giving customers a full month to pay for their purchases. Such a deal. Nestlé calls the junk food hawkers, who are themselves obese, “micro-entrepreneurs.” Right. Continue reading
It is no secret that the pill profit party is over for drug companies. Best-selling pills like Lipitor, Seroquel, Zyprexa, Singular, Concerta, Cymbalta and Abilify have gone off patent and Wall Street is moving on to industries that offer better returns. Continue reading
As the catastrophic flooding brought about by Hurricane Harvey continues to devastate Texas, reports of “unbearable” smells are beginning to emerge from the state, sparking growing concerns of the long-term health effects that could result from toxic waste and fumes being spewed from temporarily closed oil refineries. Continue reading
Many are baffled why the suicide rate in the United States is rising despite antidepressant use being at an all time high. Suicide has risen to 38,000 a year, says USA Today, after falling in the 1990s despite almost a quarter of the population in some age groups taking antidepressants and use of some psychiatric drugs growing by 700% in the military. Shouldn’t suicides be going down? Continue reading
In 2009, CBS news reported that drugmakers had spent hundreds of millions of dollars to raise awareness of fibromyalgia which it called, “a murky illness, helping boost sales of pills recently approved as treatments and drowning out unresolved questions—including whether it’s a real disease at all.” Eli Lilly and Pfizer had donated more than $6 million to “nonprofit groups for medical conferences and educational campaigns,” reported CBS. While fibromyalgia, like most diseases given such “awareness” certainly exists, the timing and estimation of how many people “suffer” was totally orchestrated by Pharma and its many patient front groups. Continue reading
Next month, hundreds across the country will participate in “Out of the Darkness” walks to raise awareness about suicide and to support the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). Continue reading
A new study challenges the conservative idea that abortion restrictions are put in place by legislators who simply want to protect women’s health and safety. Continue reading
Hundreds of people slept overnight in cars, or camped for days in a field. They told stories of yanking out their own teeth with pliers, of reusing insulin syringes until they broke in their arm, of chronic pain so debilitating they could hardly care for their own children. At daybreak, they lined up for several more hours outside a white tent, waiting for their chance to visit a doctor. For many, this was the first health care provider they’ve seen in years. Continue reading
The demise of the Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act is hardly the end of the story. Donald Trump will not let this loss stand. Continue reading
Okay, kiddies. I refer to those of you out there who still believe in A) Santa Claus and B) This Two Party System of Government. Why? Well, for those of us who study what is called A) Truth and B) Facts that prove it, no one has ever seen either Santa Claus or this two party system of government being really adversarial on the key issues that go against this Military-Industrial Empire. Continue reading
By now, most people know that antibiotics are used by the ton in the production of U.S. meat—not because animals are sick but because less food is required when animals are given the drugs so meat producers make a greater profit. Continue reading
Obama’s war on Yemen, escalated by Trump, bears full responsibility for what Oxfam calls the worst outbreak of cholera “ever recorded in any country in a single year.” Continue reading
Watching CNN’S New Day health care exchange Tuesday morning I was ready to explode after Alisyn Camerota and Chris Cuomo traded words. Cuomo pointed out that many Republicans now favor simply doing nothing on health care until Obamacare falls apart, with, perhaps, a push from the president. He then remarked that a great many people would suffer. Continue reading
The Republicans have big plans for health care in this country: to eliminate coverage for millions of Americans while delivering a big tax cut to the rich. Continue reading
In industries in which there is inelastic demand, in industries in which people have to buy a product or service regardless of prices charged, free competition does not work in the best interest of customers. Prices charged are not inexorably driven down by competition to an optimum level for all stakeholders, to the lowest prices that fairly compensate all factors of production in the industry, including a rational return for the owners of capital. Continue reading
Both Trump plans are schemes to transfer enormous amounts of wealth from ordinary Americans to business and high-net-worth households. Continue reading
Funny how so few of us understand the tremendous gap between ‘Dwindling Medicaid and Crapola Private Health coverage.’ This is NOT the exception, rather the rule, folks! Continue reading
A couple of rotten eggs finally got their due. Well, sort of. Continue reading
We live in traumatic times. The shock waves from wars, terror attacks, and spree shootings reverberate through our society and impact us all. For the direct victims and their family and friends this can be life shattering. Many of them suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a debilitating condition that can last for decades unless properly treated. Continue reading
As Republicans in Congress move to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Democrats are moving toward Medicare for All—a single-payer plan that builds on Medicare and would cover everyone at far lower cost. Continue reading
Who, exactly, are the people that the Republicans in the US Congress represent? Or, should we ask, do they have the best interests of their local constituents in mind? Continue reading
Nothing better illustrates the political bankruptcy of the Democratic Party—for all progressive intents and purposes—than California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon’s announcement on Friday afternoon that he was going to put a “hold” on the single-payer health care bill (SB 562) for the state, effectively killing its passage for at least the year. Continue reading
Mitch McConnell is delaying a vote on the Senate Republican version of Trumpcare because he doesn’t yet have a majority. Continue reading
The Senate’s bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act is not a healthcare bill. It’s a tax cut for the wealthiest Americans, paid for by a dramatic reduction in healthcare funding for approximately 23 million poor, disabled, and working middle class Americans. Continue reading
Bad enough that the Republican Senate bill would repeal much of the Affordable Care Act. Continue reading
Taxpayers are stuck paying for the opioid crisis created by Big Pharma to make more money. Late last year, the Senate approved $1 billion of our money for “opioid prevention and treatment programs” as part of the 21st Century Cures Act. Continue reading
Details of both programs are now known. House and Senate versions are thinly veiled schemes to shift the burden of increasingly expensive healthcare onto the backs of millions of Americans unable to afford a fundamental human right. Continue reading
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters in an off-camera briefing on Friday that President Donald Trump remains “committed” to protecting recipients of Medicaid, a program he repeatedly vowed not to cut during his presidential campaign. Continue reading
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How offensive ads sell drugs for pharma
Posted on October 11, 2017 by Martha Rosenberg
How did pharma become the third most lucrative U.S. industry? In addition to millions doled out to federal lawmakers and medical groups, it uses the world’s best ad agencies and public relations firms to “move product.” Continue reading →