Citizens' Oversight Maryland---Maryland Progressives
CINDY WALSH FOR MAYOR OF BALTIMORE----SOCIAL DEMOCRAT
Citizens Oversight Maryland.com
  • Home
  • Cindy Walsh for Mayor of Baltimore
    • Mayoral Election violations
    • Questionnaires from Community >
      • Education Questionnaire
      • Baltimore Housing Questionnaire
      • Emerging Youth Questionnaire
      • Health Care policy for Baltimore
      • Environmental Questionnaires
      • Livable Baltimore questionnaire
      • Labor Questionnnaire
      • Ending Food Deserts Questionnaire
      • Maryland Out of School Time Network
      • LBGTQ Questionnaire
      • Citizen Artist Baltimore Mayoral Forum on Arts & Culture Questionnaire
      • Baltimore Transit Choices Questionnaire
      • Baltimore Activating Solidarity Economies (BASE)
      • Downtown Partnership Questionnaire
      • The Northeast Baltimore Communities Of BelAir Edison Community Association (BECCA )and Frankford Improvement Association, Inc. (FIA)
      • Streets and Transportation/Neighbood Questionnaire
      • African American Tourism and business questionnaire
      • Baltimore Sun Questionnaire
      • City Paper Mayoral Questionnaire
      • Baltimore Technology Com Questionnaire
      • Baltimore Biker's Questionnair
      • Homewood Friends Meeting Questionnaire
      • Baltimore Historical Collaboration---Anthem Project
      • Tubman City News Mayoral Questionnaire
      • Maryland Public Policy Institute Questionnaire
      • AFRO questionnaire
      • WBAL Candidate's Survey
  • Blog
  • Trans Pacific Pact (TPP)
  • Progressive vs. Third Way Corporate Democrats
    • Third Way Think Tanks
  • Financial Reform/Wall Street Fraud
    • Consumer Financial Protection Bureau >
      • CFPB Actions
    • Voted to Repeal Glass-Steagall
    • Federal Reserve >
      • Federal Reserve Actions
    • Securities and Exchange Commission >
      • SEC Actions
    • Commodity Futures Trading Commission >
      • CFTC Actions
    • Office of the Comptroller of the Currency >
      • OCC Actions
    • Office of Treasury/ Inspector General for the Treasury
    • FINRA >
      • FINRA ACTIONS
  • Federal Healthcare Reform
    • Health Care Fraud in the US
    • Health and Human Services Actions
  • Social Security and Entitlement Reform
    • Medicare/Medicaid/SCHIP Actions
  • Federal Education Reform
    • Education Advocates
  • Government Schedules
    • Baltimore City Council
    • Maryland State Assembly >
      • Budget and Taxation Committee
    • US Congress
  • State and Local Government
    • Baltimore City Government >
      • City Hall Actions
      • Baltimore City Council >
        • Baltimore City Council Actions
      • Baltimore Board of Estimates meeting >
        • Board of Estimates Actions
    • Governor's Office >
      • Telling the World about O'Malley
    • Lt. Governor Brown
    • Maryland General Assembly Committees >
      • Communications with Maryland Assembly
      • Budget and Taxation Committees >
        • Actions
        • Pension news
      • Finance Committees >
        • Schedule
      • Business Licensing and Regulation
      • Judicial, Rules, and Nominations Committee
      • Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee >
        • Committee Actions
    • Maryland State Attorney General >
      • Open Meetings Act
      • Maryland Courts >
        • Maryland Court System
    • States Attorney - Baltimore's Prosecutor
    • State Comptroller's Office >
      • Maryland Business Tax Reform >
        • Business Tax Reform Issues
  • Maryland Committee Actions
    • Board of Public Works >
      • Public Works Actions
    • Maryland Public Service Commission >
      • Public Meetings
    • Maryland Health Care Commission/Maryland Community Health Resources Commission >
      • MHCC/MCHRC Actions
    • Maryland Consumer Rights Coalition
  • Maryland and Baltimore Development Organizations
    • Baltimore/Maryland Development History
    • Committee Actions
    • Maryland Development Organizations
  • Maryland State Department of Education
    • Charter Schools
    • Public Schools
    • Algebra Project Award
  • Baltimore City School Board
    • Charter Schools >
      • Charter Schools---Performance
      • Charter School Issues
    • Public Schools >
      • Public School Issues
  • Progressive Issues
    • Fair and Balanced Elections
    • Labor Issues
    • Rule of Law Issues >
      • Rule of Law
    • Justice issues 2
    • Justice Issues
    • Progressive Tax Reform Issues >
      • Maryland Tax Reform Issues
      • Baltimore Tax Reform Issues
    • Strong Public Education >
      • Corporate education reform organizations
    • Healthcare for All Issues >
      • Universal Care Bill by state
  • Building Strong Media
    • Media with a Progressive Agenda (I'm still checking on that!) >
      • anotherangryvoice.blogspot.com
      • "Talk About It" Radio - WFBR 1590AM Baltimore
      • Promethius Radio Project
      • Clearing the Fog
      • Democracy Now
      • Black Agenda Radio
      • World Truth. TV Your Alternative News Network.
      • Daily Censured
      • Bill Moyers Journal
      • Center for Public Integrity
      • Public Radio International
      • Baltimore Brew
      • Free Press
    • Far Left/Socialist Media
    • Media with a Third Way Agenda >
      • MSNBC
      • Center for Media and Democracy
      • Public Radio and TV >
        • NPR and MPT News
      • TruthOut
  • Progressive Organizations
    • Political Organizations >
      • Progressives United
      • Democracy for America
    • Labor Organizations >
      • United Workers
      • Unite Here Local 7
      • ROC-NY works to build power and win justice
    • Justice Organizations >
      • APC Baltimore
      • Occupy Baltimore
    • Rule of Law Organizations >
      • Bill of Rights Defense Committee
      • National Lawyers Guild
      • National ACLU
    • Tax Reform Organizations
    • Healthcare for All Organizations >
      • Healthcare is a Human Right - Maryland
      • PNHP Physicians for a National Health Program
      • Healthcare NOW- Maryland
    • Public Education Organizations >
      • Parents Across America
      • Philadelphia Public School Notebook thenotebook.org
      • Chicago Teachers Union/Blog
      • Ed Wize Blog
      • Educators for a Democratic Union
      • Big Education Ape
    • Elections Organizations >
      • League of Women Voters
  • Progressive Actions
    • Labor Actions
    • Justice Actions
    • Tax Reform Actions >
      • Baltimore Tax Actions
      • Maryland Tax Reform Actions
    • Healthcare Actions
    • Public Education Actions
    • Rule of Law Actions >
      • Suing Federal and State government
    • Free and Fair Elections Actions
  • Maryland/Baltimore Voting Districts - your politicians and their votes
    • 2014 ELECTION OF STATE OFFICES
    • Maryland Assembly/Baltimore
  • Petitions, Complaints, and Freedom of Information Requests
    • Complaints - Government and Consumer >
      • Sample Complaints
    • Petitions >
      • Sample Petitions
    • Freedom of Information >
      • Sample Letters
  • State of the Democratic Party
  • Misc
    • WBFF TV
    • WBAL TV
    • WJZ TV
    • WMAR TV
    • WOLB Radio---Radio One
    • The Gazette
    • Baltimore Sun Media Group
  • Misc 2
    • Maryland Public Television
    • WYPR
    • WEAA
    • Maryland Reporter
  • Misc 3
    • University of Maryland
    • Morgan State University
  • Misc 4
    • Baltimore Education Coalition
    • BUILD Baltimore
    • Church of the Great Commission
    • Maryland Democratic Party
    • Pennsylvania Avenue AME Zion Church
    • Maryland Municipal League
    • Maryland League of Women Voters
  • Untitled
  • Untitled
  • Standard of Review
  • Untitled
  • WALSH FOR GOVERNOR - CANDIDATE INFORMATION AND PLATFORM
    • Campaign Finance/Campaign donations
    • Speaking Events
    • Why Heather Mizeur is NOT a progressive
    • Campaign responses to Community Organization Questionnaires
    • Cindy Walsh vs Maryland Board of Elections >
      • Leniency from court for self-representing plaintiffs
      • Amended Complaint
      • Plaintiff request for expedited trial date
      • Response to Motion to Dismiss--Brown, Gansler, Mackie, and Lamone
      • Injunction and Mandamus
      • DECISION/APPEAL TO SPECIAL COURT OF APPEALS---Baltimore City Circuit Court response to Cindy Walsh complaint >
        • Brief for Maryland Court of Special Appeals >
          • Cover Page ---yellow
          • Table of Contents
          • Table of Authorities
          • Leniency for Pro Se Representation
          • Statement of Case
          • Questions Presented
          • Statement of Facts
          • Argument
          • Conclusion/Font and Type Size
          • Record Extract
          • Appendix
          • Motion for Reconsideration
          • Response to Defendants Motion to Dismiss
          • Motion to Reconsider Dismissal
      • General Election fraud and recount complaints
    • Cindy Walsh goes to Federal Court for Maryland election violations >
      • Complaints filed with the FCC, the IRS, and the FBI
      • Zapple Doctrine---Media Time for Major Party candidates
      • Complaint filed with the US Justice Department for election fraud and court irregularities.
      • US Attorney General, Maryland Attorney General, and Maryland Board of Elections are charged with enforcing election law
      • Private media has a responsibility to allow access to all candidates in an election race. >
        • Print press accountable to false statement of facts
      • Polling should not determine a candidate's viability especially if the polling is arbitrary
      • Viability of a candidate
      • Public media violates election law regarding do no damage to candidate's campaign
      • 501c3 Organizations violate election law in doing no damage to a candidate in a race >
        • 501c3 violations of election law-----private capital
      • Voter apathy increases when elections are not free and fair
  • Maryland Board of Elections certifies election on July 10, 2014
  • Maryland Elections ---2016

August 08th, 2014

8/8/2014

0 Comments

 
'The TPP will re-regulate the pharmaceutical and medical device industry patent protections, eroding the affordability of life saving medicines.  Generic drugs will become less available. EVERGREENING drug patents will extend patents ensuring a never ending upward cost spiral sacrificing affordability for the many to the profit making on medicines exorbitantly priced for the few.  Surgical Techniques, laboratory tests and medical treatments can be patented restricting availability to people in need'.

There has also been concern about the problem of patent ‘ever greening’ — that the TPP will impose low patent standards ‘likely to lead to a proliferation of secondary patents being granted … preventing fair competition for long periods’. This would be an undesirable outcome, creating excessive opportunities for the extension of monopoly protections.

In Maryland it was Johns Hopkins that wrote the policies of Trans Pacific Trade Pact in health care and the structures being implemented by neo-liberals and neo-cons in the Maryland Assembly with Governor O'Malley.  It is the Hopkins private non-profit Maryland Health Care for All that pushed Affordable Care Act to deregulate and consolidate the health industry preparing for TPP.  Below you see Hopkins' associate Beilenson building the structure that will capture most Marylanders not able to access health care and it is the model of third world clinic care.  Above you see the term 'evergreening' meaning privatization and profiteering in TPP trade policies that create the conditions of dismantling public health.  Below you see Johns Hopkins and their use of the term as the name of the so-called private non-profits that will manage the masses not able to access health care in Maryland.
   The very institutions guilty of making the US health system the worst in the world are now writing policy to take the US health system third world.


At Evergreen Health we put your health first.


Evergreen Health is a new health insurance company in Maryland created to give you a better health care experience.

We were founded by local doctors who imagined a health care system that puts a patient’s health first – not corporate profits. Evergreen Health offers quality, affordable health insurance plans  for individuals and families in Maryland.  We also offer group plans for employees of your business who work in Maryland.


______________________________________________

The reason Beilenson thinks Evergreen is well-positioned is that if Affordable Care Act is implemented more and more people will be forced into these non-profit plans.  Evergreen will be the health structure people are forced to as Medicare, Medicaid, and people's corporate plans disappear.  As with evergreening in TPP-----it will move the American people to a third world platform of health care.  Beilenson is Johns Hopkins and Johns Hopkins is third world health care.  Baltimore doesn't have citizens dying 30 years too early because of good policy!

OH WELL------IT'S ONLY THE POOR!  WELL, IN THIRD WORLD NATIONS DOCTORS, LAWYERS, AND INDIAN CHIEFS ARE POOR.


Why do we need a private non-profit co-op to bring prices down when Medicare and Medicaid does just that?
  As Beilenson knows------he is there to replace these Federal programs and will not have to meet any Federal guidelines of care-----they are staged to downgrade a public health structure in Medicare that has served wonderfully for decades.  All we need to keep Medicare is to stop the health industry fraud by institutions like Johns Hopkins.

OH, LET'S CREATE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS TO TAKE OVER PUBLIC HEALTH PROGRAMS LIKE MEDICARE AND MEDICAID THAT ALREADY WORK TO KEEP PRICES DOWN----
  if 1/2 of entitlement spending wasn't lost to corporate fraud.


In the land of neo-liberalism/neo-cons,  ending all Federal agencies that come with public protections is a must in order to allow global corporations to do anything they want in the US and to American citizens.

Evergreen faces challenges in delivering health insurance

Small businesses may be the future of health insurance co-op in MarylandOctober 29, 2013|By Meredith Cohn, The Baltimore Sun

Four weeks since it began selling health insurance on the state's new marketplace for the uninsured, Evergreen Health Cooperative Inc. has signed up only five people.

That's a long way from the nonprofit health insurance provider's first-year goal of 15,000 people, so Evergreen is already shifting focus.

Technical problems making it difficult for people to register for the state exchange culminated last week for Evergreen when its plans disappeared from the exchange offerings. The plans were restored after a short time.

Statewide, more than 3,100 people have signed up for health coverage on the exchange, according to the latest numbers released by the Maryland Health Connection. There are about 800,000 uninsured Marylanders.

Evergreen isn't waiting for the exchange to start working properly. For now, the co-op has switched focus from individuals buying its insurance on the exchange to small businesses buying plans directly from Evergreen, said Dr. Peter Beilenson, the former city health commissioner who started it. (The state's small-business exchange has been delayed until Jan. 1.)

"We obviously were predicating most of our business on the exchange market, which is not bearing fruit right now," Beilenson said. "That was a problem for us in two ways: financially in terms of generating enough members and for our mission. We did this for the middle class who would qualify for subsidies."

But the co-op was new and nimble enough to switch "almost overnight to small businesses," he said. "We think it will provide us with enough members to get through until the exchange is running smoothly."

Evergreen's small group rates were approved Oct. 25, so no group has enrolled yet, but the prices are below average and attracting attention from businesses and brokers, Beilenson said. The co-op will depend on enrollment to survive — members' premiums will pay to run the co-op and cover startup costs. Any profits would be returned to the plans.

The co-op's small-group rates are at the lower end of the spectrum, with an average premium of about $368 per insured, according to data from the Maryland Insurance Administration.

The lower rates may reflect Evergreen's model. The co-op employs its own doctors, who work in one of four centers for a salary rather than fee-for-service. The idea is to focus on prevention while managing multiple chronic conditions and staving off costly emergency visits and hospital stays.

Evergreen also offers a traditional plan using a network of doctors.

It's cost that matters most to small businesses, and a competitive premium will serve Evergreen well, said Karen Davis, a professor in the Johns Hopkins University's department of health policy and management. There is a "fair amount of evidence" that shows Evergreen's patient-centered model cuts costs, she said.

But insurance tends to be dominated by large insurance companies, so it remains unclear whether Evergreen and co-ops in other states can slice off enough business.

"The major challenge is size and scale," Davis said. "But the advantage Evergreen has is that its model of care is more effective. … I think they're in a better position than most of the co-ops."

Nationwide, 24 co-ops received federal funding as part of the Affordable Care Act. Evergreen got $65 million in federal loans, but all but about $13 million will go to a required reserve fund

Others wanted to start co-ops in Maryland, seeing the potential to compete with traditional insurance companies and bring down prices. One was MedChi, the state medical society, which planned to start a co-op largely on the Eastern Shore but was stymied when Congress cut startup funding.

"We're very supportive of the idea of co-ops and think they can work really well," said Gene Ransom, MedChi's CEO. "I don't think they have an easy task ahead. We are rooting for Evergreen because more competition is good for the marketplace."

Beilenson said Evergreen has made other adjustments to survive. It has hired some staff from the insurance industry to serve as a balance with those employees who know more about public health. It has raised $5 million in startup money from private foundations and another $1 million from other private sources for marketing, including a new TV ad (federal law prohibits explicit marketing with government money).

"I think we're well-positioned," Beilenson said. "We think we know what we're doing. And we think we have a really good product."
_____________________________________________



One of the elements in Affordable Care Act is the connection of generic drugs to Medicare.  Obama and neo-liberals in Congress told the American people that because massive health industry fraud of our Medicare Trust occurred over these few decades they would have to reduce our health benefits to cover the money stolen.  In the case of health care this means Medicare and Medicaid enrollees limited to what medications they can access.  Common drugs will no longer be available to 80% of Americans because of this ACA clause pushing people to generic drugs only.  IT SAVES MONEY AND LOWERS THE NATIONAL DEBT!  As the statement at the top shows this ACA policy corresponds to the TPP health policies making generic drugs less common and harder to get.  Neo-liberals and neo-cons are sending people to generics at the same time they are pushing TPP limiting access to generics.  It's the same policy as pushing NAFTA and global markets knowing it will cause massive unemployment and poverty at the same time ending Welfare as a safety net-----creating the deepest poverty in US history.  These are all Republican policies written for wealth and profit being installed by Clinton neo-liberals.  Republican voters who are shouting against lost US Constitutional rights and dismantling of Rule of Law------lost access to health care need to remember these are all Republican policies.  Don't vote Republican to fix this-----rebuild the Democratic Party at the national, state, and local level.


Below you see from what the Affordable Care Act is modeled......third world clinic care.  Baltimore has had this system in place for a few decades but the model is being expanded because of the huge number of citizens falling into poverty.  Only 1/2 of taxpayer money sent for social services are spent on the people meant to be served.....the rest has been funneled to Johns Hopkins and/or University of Maryland as profit.  This is why the poor in Baltimore have life spans equal to third world countries.  Neo-liberalism = third world poverty so 90% of Americans will be pushed into this system.   Below you see a neo-liberal solution to our exploding health care costs fueled by health industry fraud and profiteering------third world clinic care and using college students to replace the public sector health care and social services employees.  Health care outcomes in the US are at second and third world levels because of the dismantling of public health systems.  College students are not prepared to be the backbone of public/social services-----they need practical experience of working with public professionals.  Making volunteers and students the backbone of public health is a third world structure. 


The US is now on par with countries like Hungary and Slovenia because Reagan/Clinton neo-liberalism dismantles all first world structures the protect and serve the public and all taxpayer money is looted in corporate fraud and subsidy.  Simply rebuilding these oversight and accountability structures returns the US to first world status.


DEMAND EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL IN YOUR STATE TO KEEP OUR FEDERAL MEDICARE PROGRAM STRONG AND EVERYONE COVERED!  PUBLIC HEALTH IS WHAT KEEPS COSTS DOWN.  WE SIMPLY NEED TO REBUILD OVERSIGHT TO ELIMINATE 1/2 OF HEALTH SPENDING AS FRAUD.


Doctor and Patient What We Can Learn From Third-World Health Care

By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D. July 26, 2012 12:01 amJuly 26, 2012 11:16 pm  New York Times


The young doctor had just returned from a month working in a country in Africa, familiar to the rest of us only through pictures of its impoverished population and news reports of recurring natural disasters and political upheavals. “You must feel exhausted but great,” a senior colleague commented. “You went in there and you really helped those people.”

Doctor and PatientDr. Pauline Chen on medical care.

But my younger colleague felt neither exhausted nor relieved to be back home, she confided when the older doctor had left the room. She had cared for dozens of patients with abscesses and broken bones, tumors and arrow wounds, relying on nothing more than a single rickety X-ray machine, a handful of battered surgical instruments and the aid of one well-connected local nurse.

“We could get so much done with so little over there,” she said. “It’s like we’re not doing something right over here.”


Put another way, the American health care system has become the great international paradox, spending more but getting less.

With all the most advanced technology and equipment, spending far more on health care than any other nation — a whopping $2.6 trillion annually, or over 17 percent of our gross domestic product — the United States consistently underperforms on some of the most important health indicators. Our infant mortality rates, for example, are worse than those in countries like Hungary, Cuba and Slovenia. Our life expectancy rates are not much better; in global rankings, we sit within spitting distance of Cuba, Chile and Libya.

This quality conundrum dogs us, even as our best and brightest have tried to imagine a more cost-efficient system. Some have pursued the carrot-and-stick route, linking quality measures to reimbursement. Others have attempted to reduce quality to its most basic parts, creating checklists and to-do lists. And still others have rearranged networks of hospitals, clinics, physician practices and payments, conjuring up a breathtaking array of combinations, permutations and bundles of care in order to create more cost-efficient systems.

But, according to an essay published this summer in The Stanford Social Innovation Review, we might have saved ourselves the huge effort, the expenses and the disappointments of only marginally successful initiatives, if we had first looked to countries traditionally viewed as needing our aid and learned from their successes in facing challenges similar to our own.

In the essay, Rebecca D. Onie, a founder and the chief executive of Health Leads, a domestic health care organization; Dr. Paul Farmer, a founder of Partners in Health, a Boston-based medical nonprofit group; and Dr. Heidi Behforouz, medical and executive director of the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment project, a community-based health care initiative in the United States that is part of Partners in Health, argue eloquently for “reverse innovation.” They contend that for decades, several nongovernmental and nonprofit medical organizations have delivered high-quality care in some of the most challenging circumstances possible. Applying the solutions these medical organizations have already discovered could allow us to bypass or at least foreshorten what has become an interminable trial-and-error search for the answers to our country’s health care woes.

Their own organizations offer several models of success. For nearly three decades, Partners in Health, for example, has delivered consistently high-quality care to more than 2.5 million people in a dozen countries like Haiti, Rwanda and Peru, places with widespread poverty, scarce numbers of providers and no health care infrastructure. But they have managed to achieve, among other successes, the highest rate of cure of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in the world and better rates of adherence to treatment regimens and follow-up than in much of the United States.

The key to their success is an unabashed disregard for some of our most cherished assumptions about what constitutes good care. Instead of providing antibiotics, CT scans and high-tech interventions, Partners in Health considers basic necessities like food and housing as critical components of the group’s medical work. Instead of asking patients to travel miles to the only clinic and see only the doctor or nurse, they train cadres of community health workers who can monitor, administer and advise in the heart of local villages and in people’s homes.

Applied to organizations in the United States, this approach has proved startlingly effective, as the Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment, or PACT, program has demonstrated. PACT targets some of the poorest and sickest patients with H.I.V. and other chronic illnesses in the greater Boston area. Just like Partners in Health, PACT relies extensively on community health workers who are trained in tasks like helping patients take their medications and make it to clinic appointments as well as reviewing their pantries and teaching them to prepare healthy meals. Applying these broad definitions of care, PACT has significantly decreased the number of emergency room visits and life-threatening opportunistic infections, cut hospitalization rates by 60 percent and yielded a 16 percent savings for Medicaid.

Health Leads has stretched these definitions even further, giving the terms “provider” and “care” a millennial twist. Each year, Health Leads trains a selected group of technology-savvy and tenacious college students to staff “resource desks” in primary care and prenatal clinics in cities like New York, Baltimore, Boston and Chicago. With these Health Leads volunteers in place, doctors can, for example, “prescribe” housing assistance for a family whose child’s severe asthma has been exacerbated by a cockroach infestation, healthy foods and nutrition resources for a man suffering from obesity, or transportation to a drugstore for an elderly woman who needs diabetes medications. At the resource desk, a Health Leads volunteer then “fills” these prescriptions by finding the best solutions for the problems at hand, whether that means tracking down the appropriate agency, navigating complicated online application processes or providing support as the patient makes the calls. In clinics where a single social worker may be responsible for as many as 25,000 patients, Health Leads volunteers have more than doubled the services provided.

The successes of PACT and Health Leads are no secret. But what does remain mysterious as our health care system threatens to implode is why more of us haven’t done the same and rushed to apply the lessons learned and proved elsewhere.

“We keep trying to reinvent the wheel,” Ms. Onie observed. “The humbling reality is that we are trying to recreate innovations that have been robustly developed in the developing world.”

In other words, we have yet to deploy what could prove to be the most powerful weapon in the fight to contain costs and improve the quality of health care: our own humility.

$200- 400 BILLION DOLLARS EVERY YEAR ARE LOST TO MEDICARE AND MEDICAID TO HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD.  THAT IS WHERE THE HUMILITY NEEDS TO BE FELT!


___________________________________________
People must understand the neo-liberal jargon---- when they say they work for the middle-class they see the middle-class in the US as people earning $250,000 as a family.  They see Medicare and making it last longer for those 10% of people.  Needless to say the working and current middle-class are the only ones having paid payroll taxes into this Medicare Trust so the very people that should be getting full benefit are the ones being pushed out with the ACA.  That 'donut hole' will do no one any good if you cannot access or afford the kinds of PHARMA you need.  I already have friends having bad health effects because of being forced to use a generic that does not work for a chronic condition. 

THIS IS SERIOUS FOLKS.  THE SAME PEOPLE TRYING TO KILL PUBLIC HEALTH WORLD-WIDE WITH TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT ARE WRITING THESE HEALTH POLICIES.

Remember, the answer is not to vote Republican because the Affordable Care Act is Republican policy.  The solution is getting rid of neo-liberals in the Democratic Party.
  Do you hear your labor and justice leaders shouting out against neo-liberals?

In Maryland, Brown, Gansler, and Mizeur all supported these policies----while Cindy Walsh did not.

THE KING AND QUEEN OF NEO-LIBERALISM, BILL AND HILLARY CLINTON TAKING THE US FROM FIRST WORLD STATUS TO THIRD WORLD STATUS.


Which tier will your family fall?  In the US almost 70% of Americans are at poverty line meaning they will fall into the lowest 2 tiers.
  Don't forget that TPP will keep generic drug availability at a minimum and when they do come available they will be very outdated.  That's what the masses get say the neo-liberals and neo-cons.   Someone has to replace the trillions of dollars in health industry fraud from our Medicare and Medicaid programs....

ACA 5-Tier Drug List

For Individual PPO and Small Group HMO, POS, and PPO plans (including Marketplace/QHP plans) with ACA-compliant coverage becoming effective on or after January 1, 2014

About tiers

Most covered prescription drugs will be categorized into one of five tiers. The cost of drugs varies widely, even though several different medications may be used to treat the same condition. What you pay for the prescription depends upon what tier the drug is listed in. Health First offers many benefit plans that can vary in coverage for each tier. Details about your specific benefit for each tier are included in the Health First Summary of Benefits.

•Tier 1 — Preferred Generic Drugs •

Tier 2 — Non-Preferred Generic Drugs •

Tier 3 — Preferred Brand Name Drugs and some generics

•Tier 4 — Non-Preferred Brand Name Drugs and some generics (limited to a 30-day supply)

•Tier 5 — Specialty Drugs (limited to a 30-day supply, must obtain from Health First Family Pharmacy)


Generic drugs are prescription drugs that are identified by their chemical name. When the patent has expired on a brand name drug, the FDA permits new manufacturers to create an equivalent of the brand name drug and make it available to the public. Generally, more than one manufacturer will create generic versions, although often the same pharmaceutical firm that produces the brand name drug also makes the generic version. This prompts competitive pricing of the generic version and usually results in a less expensive drug. The Drug List is subject to change In order to continue to offer a safe and cost effective selection of prescription drugs, Health First periodically makes changes to the Drug List. These changes may include removing medications, adding restrictions, and/or covering a drug at a higher tier. The following list represents some of the most common scenarios in which changes to drug coverage will occur: •Throughout the year, new medications are approved by the FDA. It is the policy of Health First that new drugs will be excluded for 6 months from the date of FDA approval, during which time the Health First Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee can review the drug for safety and efficacy. •The Drug List may change when a medication is withdrawn from the market due to safety reasons or if it becomes available over-the-counter (OTC). At the time that a medication on the Health First Drug List becomes available OTC, it may be excluded from coverage from that point forward. •When a brand-name prescription drug loses its patent and the equivalent generic form is added to the Drug List, the brand-name drug may be moved to the highest non-specialty drug tier, which is generally Tier 4 or removed from the formulary.

0 Comments

August 06th, 2014

8/6/2014

0 Comments

 
We need to remember it was Reagan/Clinton that started the privatization of all that is public----neo-liberalism.  Clinton did as much damage to the state of our democracy than any President and that comes from the fact that he ran as a Democrat as he was embracing a Republican policy of global and free markets.  The Democratic Platform protects labor and justice and free and global markets kill labor and justice.  Reagan was a Republican pushing Republican policies for wealth and profit.....so, it is Clinton who created this political deceit for Democratic voters of telling them what they want to hear and then do what you want.  It was George Bush who then did that to the Republican voters by adopting neo-liberal policies of corporate welfare/cronyism/corruption.  This is what the Tea Party fights on the Republican side

and it is what labor and justice should be fighting on the Democratic side.


I want to revisit health care policy and look at what deregulation and dismantling the public sector oversight and accountability of health care is looking like.  Clinton was the culprit in starting the move of public universities as corporate research facilities.  Patenting products using taxpayer money takes the public university from public interest and holding power accountable to creating data that supports that university-patented product.

RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU KNOW THIS IS BAD PUBLIC POLICY?  IT LITERALLY KILLS PEOPLE.
  THAT'S A NEO-LIBERAL/NEO-CON FOR YOU-----ANYTHING FOR PROFIT!

The Clintons have a major shareholder stake and spent their time in office pushing Monsanto all over the world.......industrialized patented food.  Below you see one of the products that resulted-----for Monsanto it was EQUAL sugar substitute.  There is no problem creating new food products----the problem is that none of these biotech food products goes through the clinical trial research that finds how these new products not only effect people, but in the case of food----the food chain.

The point I take from the article below is that we are finding over and over that much of the obesity and diabetes in society today is created by these products released with little to no research.  This is important because the same neo-liberals who worked to dismantle regulations and oversight of health research are the ones passing Affordable Care Act which seeks to move the working and middle-class out of full health coverage and into preventative health only.  They scorn those low-income people who are obese and suffering from diabetes as careless!  Actually all Americans are victims of these biotech advancements and our health will show it!


ALL OF MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS CREATING THESE POLICIES.


Just as Clinton ended Welfare as he pushed NAFTA and global markets knowing millions of Americans would be impoverished and unemployed-----creating the deepest poverty in US history---we are having a health crisis in America at the same time Obama and today's neo-liberals are working to end access to the health care for those Americans subjected to food that should have never passed FDA approval.
  Note that this professor was a Perdue University academic.......the ability to get money and do research that proves corporate accountability in harm is drying up and Trans Pacific Trade Pact allows corporations to sue for these kinds of studies as hurting profits.
  So, the intent is to harass and eliminate any attempts to hold corporations accountable at universities across the US.

These are Republican policies of small government with free markets so don't vote Republican to rebuild public protections!


The Center for Public Integrity


Meet Susan Swithers, a Purdue University professor who conducts studies about the health effects of artificial sweeteners.

As The Center for Public Integrity reporter Chris Young writes today, trade groups representing diet- and low-calorie food companies will go to great lengths — and often use questionable public relations tactics — to protect its interests by blasting the work of academics such as Swithers.

Read our investigation here:


Critic of artificial sweeteners pilloried by industry-backed scientists


Critic of artificial sweeteners pilloried by industry-backed scienConflicts abound among industry's defenders, even on national TV
Susan Swithers is no stranger to food industry criticism.

In fact, the Purdue University professor anticipates a swift public relations blitz from trade groups representing diet- and low-calorie food companies every time she publishes a study about the health effects of artificial sweeteners.

“They reflexively put out a press release that spins it as, ‘Here’s what’s wrong with the study,’” says Swithers, a professor of behavioral neuroscience who has been researching artificial sweeteners for the past decade. “I’m sure I’m on somebody’s Google Alert at this point.”

Still, even Swithers was surprised by the way in which the diet food industry attacked a paper she published last summer that raised health concerns about popular sugar substitutes used in snack foods and diet drinks. In her widely publicized work, published as an opinion article in the journal Trends in Endocrinology and Metabolism, Swithers reviewed recent studies on artificial sweeteners and concluded that people who frequently consume sugar substitutes “may … be at increased risk of excessive weight gain, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.”

Seizing on the “opinion” tag, the food and beverage industry responded quickly. The American Beverage Association, for example, dismissed the paper’s findings, arguing that it was “not a scientific study.”

But perhaps the strongest, most wide-ranging attacks came from the Calorie Control Council, a lesser-known industry group with an innocuous-sounding name, a long history and a penchant for stealthy public relations tactics. The organization, which is run by an account executive with a global management and public relations firm, represents the low- and reduced-calorie food and beverage industry. But it functions more like an industry front group than a trade association.

In criticizing Swithers, the Council relied on industry-funded scientists, bloggers and dietitians — it even wrote a letter to the professor’s university demanding that the school stop promoting “biased science.”

“The intimidation tactics, going to somebody’s employer, it just seems to go beyond the realm of what’s reasonable,” says Swithers, who disputes the “opinion” critiques by noting that her paper was peer-reviewed and based on her assessment of recent scientific studies conducted about artificial sweeteners. “But I guess that’s par for the course in their world.”

Indeed, tracking the Calorie Control Council’s efforts to discredit Swithers’ paper on artificial sweeteners provides a lesson in how the food and beverage industry will go to great lengths — and often use questionable tactics — to protect its interests. With a brand new artificial sweetener about to hit the market, and with the science still unclear about the safety of sugar substitutes, industry’s efforts to discredit science unfavorable to their interests are unlikely to end anytime soon.

“This isn’t personal,” Swithers acknowledges. “This is about somebody’s bottom line."

_____________________________________________
I'm highlighting today common products that are now connected to one major disease vector----diabetes.  Children are now getting early-stage diabetes and it is less about family genetics and pre-disposition and more about the dismantling of public protections in our Federal agencies for food and drugs.  Over and again you will see that women are being hit the hardest in this failure to adequately test because when shortcuts are allowed to maximize profits it is women and children that are dropped in clinical testing.

Lipitor is a great product....we would not want to lose the benefits it provides.  The point is that all of these side effects may have been mitigated by simple reformulation.  That is what clinical trial data forces product designers to do.  Is ten years of clinical trials and reformulation worth creating a product people can trust?  IN A FIRST WORLD DEMOCRACY THAT IS A GREAT BIG YES.

NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS SAY-----TAKE YOUR CHANCES---WE'RE IN IT FOR THE PROFIT!



Lipitor Lawsuits Claim Drug Causes Diabetes, Seek Damages for Suffering  

The attorneys at Morgan & Morgan are actively filing lawsuits on behalf of women who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after using Lipitor. Several studies have linked Lipitor and other cholesterol-lowering statin drugs to an increased risk of diabetes, particularly in middle-aged and older women. Our attorneys believe that the maker of Lipitor, Pfizer, Inc., failed to properly warn consumers of this risk and is therefore legally responsible for the medical bills, pain and suffering and lost wages of women who developed diabetes as a result of taking Lipitor.

If you or a loved one was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes after using Lipitor, you may be able to sue the drug’s manufacturer and recover compensation for your injuries. If you have questions about your legal rights or would like more information on filing a lawsuit, complete our free case review form today. The attorneys at Morgan & Morgan are offering this online consultation with no cost and no obligation.

Why Are Lawsuits Being Filed?

Typically, lawsuits involving pharmaceuticals allege that a drug is unreasonably dangerous and/or that the manufacturer failed to provide adequate warnings for side effects associated with the drug. Women filing lawsuits against Pfizer allege:

  • Patients and doctors were not adequately warned about the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes with use of Lipitor
  • Pfizer promoted Lipitor as safe and effective, despite knowing that it could elevate blood sugar levels and/or cause Type 2 diabetes
  • Lipitor’s label never carried a warning that it could cause changes in blood sugar levels and/or Type 2 diabetes until the FDA requested a label change in February 2012
  • Even after the label change, Lipitor’s label still does not adequately warn patients about the risk of Type 2 diabetes
  • Patients who developed diabetes due to Lipitor use now have to undergo regular testing of their blood glucose levels, adhere to a strict diets and take medication for the remainder of their lives and are at an increased risk for kidney disease, blindness, heart disease and other complications of diabetes
These lawsuits are seeking to reimburse patients for physical and emotional suffering, and the cost of past and future medical care.

Is This a Class Action?

This is not a class action lawsuit. Our attorneys are helping women who have used Lipitor and developed Type 2 diabetes file individual lawsuits to recover compensation for their specific injuries.

To help conserve judicial resources and ensure a consistent and efficient resolution to the growing litigation, a multidistrict litigation (MDL) has been formed to handle these lawsuits. This means that all federally-filed lawsuits, as well as any future cases filed in federal courts, will be transferred to the U.S. District Court District of South Carolina to be overseen by the Honorable Judge Richard M. Gergel. Judge Gergel will manage the lawsuits and oversee the pretrial and discovery process, which includes taking witness testimony and reviewing relevant documents. While one judge is overseeing the litigation, each plaintiff will retain his or her own lawsuit, attorney and right to an individual award.

How is Lipitor Causing Diabetes?

Several studies have uncovered a link between Lipitor and Type 2 diabetes, a life-long condition that causes a patient to develop high blood sugar levels. To understand the potential link between Lipitor and Type 2 diabetes, it is important to understand the science behind the disease.

In the body, food is broken down into sugar (glucose), which travels through the bloodstream. In a normal patient, the pancreas will release insulin in response to a meal to reduce blood sugar levels and allow glucose to enter the body’s cells, providing them with the energy needed to function. Patients with Type 2 diabetes, however, cannot produce enough insulin or cannot use the insulin well enough. As a result, glucose cannot enter the body’s cells and instead builds up in the blood, causing a spike in blood sugar levels. High levels of sugar in the blood can result in a number of serious health problems, including organ damage and heart attack.


Researchers suspect that Lipitor can inhibit the function of the pancreatic cells responsible for storing and releasing insulin, and may also decrease the body’s sensitivity to the hormone.


Studies on Lipitor

Highlight Diabetes Risk for Women, Statin Users

Patients on a high-dose Lipitor regimen may have an increased risk of developing diabetes A number of studies have linked use of Lipitor and cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins to diabetes. In 2013, researchers in Canada found that patients taking Lipitor had a 22 percent increased risk of developing diabetes compared to those taking Pravachol, another drug used to lower cholesterol. Two years earlier, a study based on data from three large clinical trials also suggested that patients on a high-dose Lipitor regimen may have an increased risk of developing diabetes, especially if they have other risk factors for the disease. The trial included nearly 4,000 adults who did not have diabetes, but had a history of stroke. It is believed that women, including those with a healthy body mass index (BMI), are at the highest risk of developing diabetes from statin use.

FDA Warning Highlights Increased Diabetes Risk

In February 2012, the FDA released a statement on Lipitor and statins. The agency warned that patients taking these drugs may have an increased risk of developing high blood sugar levels and type 2 diabetes, and announced that changes will be made to the drugs’ labeling to reflect this concern. According to an FDA spokesperson, prescribing doctors should assess patients’ blood sugar levels after they have started treatment with Lipitor or another statin.

The FDA warning also commented on the potential risk for liver injury, memory loss and muscle damage; however, the current litigation surrounding Lipitor pertains only to the manufacturer’s alleged failure to warn about the type 2 diabetes risk.

At Morgan & Morgan, our attorneys have been assigned leadership roles in some of the largest defective drug litigations across the country and have recovered millions on behalf of injured patients. We believe that the maker of Lipitor put profits before patient safety and are committed to helping patients recover the compensation they deserve. For more information on how we may be able to help, do not hesitate to contact us today. There is no cost or obligation.


____________________________________________


Below you see the kind of advocate for eliminating the FDA and public protections because of the costs and limits to profit.  Remember, public universities are the ones that do these clinical trials and taxpayer money funds them.  Ten year clinical trials are expensive but the product rarely harmed the public.  If this is too costly for private industry they should not be in the PHARMA business.  What Clinton, Bush, and Obama are doing with universities as research corporations is placing what this article below suggests on steroids.  Universities like Johns Hopkins has a BioTech building attached just to rifle these biotech products through with patents ------with absolutely no value to humanity for the most part.  Most of these 'innovations' are simply are reshuffling of compound configuration and this rifling is what is causing class action lawsuits to soar.  The solution say neo-liberals and neo-cons-----take away the ability of the public to sue for health damages.

Neo-liberals and neo-cons say----TAKE YOUR CHANCES-----IF YOU ARE INJURED YOU ARE A LOSER/VICTIM.


BASIC RESEARCH ON THE CHEMISTRY OF THESE 'INNOVATIONS' IS WHAT PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES DO.  ONCE WE KNOW THE SCIENCE THEN WE GO TO MARKET AND 'INNOVATE'.

The excuse of harming people by delaying new product is bogus.  So few people are in need of these new products and exceptions are made for those needing these products as a last resort. 


Paying for Permissionless Innovation
  • by Adam Gurri
  • August 4, 2014


Here at The Ümlaut we’re big fans of permissionless innovation—the concept and Adam Thierer’s excellent book. The biggest, most consequential enemy of permissionless innovation in the US is undoubtedly the FDA. Its long, expensive approval process delays access to life-saving drugs and other innovations for years, dramatically increases the price of such things once they reach the market, and skews the investment incentives for the health industry.
Many economists would like to see the FDA radically reformed, some would like to abolish it entirely. In the spirit of the sort of political compromises that Milton Friedman was famous for proposing, I’d like to suggest an intermediate solution: a permissionless premium. Here’s how it would work: there would be some specified amount (either an absolute amount per unit or a percentage of the revenue) that patients would have to pay in order to get a given drug or access to a medical device before it was FDA approved. The patient should be made well aware that the risks are at this point unknown (not that they’re thoroughly understood just after FDA approval anyway). The revenue would bolster the FDA’s budget, thus in theory helping to investigate the risks associated with the drug and drugs like it in the future.

Moreover, this would allow pharmaceutical companies to start getting revenue before FDA approval, lowering the burden of their overhead. As things currently stand, they spend billions on drug development and by the time the FDA process is complete they have a very short window before their patent expires. As Alex Tabarrok documents well, the result is that pharma companies have almost no incentive to develop drugs that treat diseases that are anything other that very broadly experienced. The pharma dream in this scenario is not to find an effective treatment for rare but aggressive cancers, but to find the next Lipitor.

However, if they could develop experimental new drugs for rare diseases that could be bring in revenue immediately, that might just change the cost-benefit analysis sufficiently to see some real progress on that front. The premium will act as a Pigovian tax rather than an outright ban on the consumption of such still largely untested drugs, and will help fund both pharmaceutical companies and the FDA’s efforts to increase our stock of medical knowledge. It seems, from a number of perspectives, to be a win-win.



_____________________________________________________________________

The hype for the ACA was having insurance would create better health results.  As we know, requiring people to buy insurance and then having people unable to afford co-pays and deductibles to access that care are two different things.  Neo-liberals never expected access to health care----they are pushing everyone to preventative health.  Counseling on better eating habits and blood tests will control diabetes.  Except, that is not true.  The environmental exposures as we saw in the articles above will not be mitigated by preventative care.  The huge numbers of people aging into these policies already having diabetes will not be helped because most people can only afford Bronze and/or Medicaid coverage.

The US was already  at the bottom in the developed world for health outcomes.....the ACA will take the US to third world status.....



'A widely cited experiment in Oregon offered an early look at what happens when people suddenly get Medicaid coverage. Researchers found that physical health, like obesity and the prevalence of diabetes, did not change much'.




Affordable Care Act to provide preventive health care coverage to millions with diabetes

  • July 22, 2010
The Obama Administration has announced implementation of the Affordable Care Act, which will require new insurance plans to provide preventive care without cost-sharing to millions of Americans.

With expanded access to preventive services, individuals may obtain the information they need to make health care decisions that are right for them.



Plan LevelInsurance

                            Company Pays                                
Bronze        60% of health care costs

                                You Pay   
                    40% of health care costs


Silver              Company pays
                    70% of health care costs


                              You pay

                       30% of health care costs


___________________________________________

Access to preventative health care will do nothing with widespread health disease and infection vectors brought from deregulation and global markets.  We are already back to the age of The Jungle-----US food is as contaminated as before US advanced to the first world society.  Now we are being assaulted by biotech industry food and health care products that create pre-conditions.  All of the promotion of access to insurance is simply hype.

We must remove corporate structures from our public universities and rebuild our public health system being dismantled with deregulation and neo-liberalism.  We must demand Expanded and Improved Medicare for All to allow all citizens access to basic medical procedures and treatments. 

WE PAID TAXES FOR DECADES TO HAVE THE COVERAGE WE NEED ------THESE TAXES ARE PAYROLL TAXES INTO MEDICARE TRUSTS AND INCOME TAXES THAT FUND NIH AND NCA RESEARCH.  YOU PAID FOR YOUR ACCESS TO QUALITY CARE.  CORPORATE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION EMPTIED GOVERNMENT COFFERS.



NYT Covers Food Safety Deregulation the US Beef Export Crisis
  • Bad Cow Disease
    By Paul Krugman
    The New York Times, June 13, 2008
    Straight to the Source

"Mary had a little lamb / And when she saw it sicken / She shipped it off to Packingtown / And now it's labeled chicken."

That little ditty famously summarized the message of "The Jungle," Upton Sinclair's 1906 exposé of conditions in America's meat-packing industry. Sinclair's muckraking helped Theodore Roosevelt pass the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act - and for most of the next century, Americans trusted government inspectors to keep their food safe.

Lately, however, there always seems to be at least one food-safety crisis in the headlines - tainted spinach, poisonous peanut butter and, currently, the attack of the killer tomatoes. The declining credibility of U.S. food regulation has even led to a foreign-policy crisis: there have been mass demonstrations in South Korea protesting the pro-American prime minister's decision to allow imports of U.S. beef, banned after mad cow disease was detected in 2003.

How did America find itself back in The Jungle?

It started with ideology. Hard-core American conservatives have long idealized the Gilded Age, regarding everything that followed - not just the New Deal, but even the Progressive Era - as a great diversion from the true path of capitalism.

Thus, when Grover Norquist, the anti-tax advocate, was asked about his ultimate goal, he replied that he wanted a restoration of the way America was "up until Teddy Roosevelt, when the socialists took over. The income tax, the death tax, regulation, all that."

The late Milton Friedman agreed, calling for the abolition of the Food and Drug Administration. It was unnecessary, he argued: private companies would avoid taking risks with public health to safeguard their reputations and to avoid damaging class-action lawsuits. (Friedman, unlike almost every other conservative I can think of, viewed lawyers as the guardians of free-market capitalism.)

Such hard-core opponents of regulation were once part of the political fringe, but with the rise of modern movement conservatism they moved into the corridors of power. They never had enough votes to abolish the F.D.A. or eliminate meat inspections, but they could and did set about making the agencies charged with ensuring food safety ineffective.

They did this in part by simply denying these agencies enough resources to do the job.
For example, the work of the F.D.A. has become vastly more complex over time thanks to the combination of scientific advances and globalization. Yet the agency has a substantially smaller work force now than it did in 1994, the year Republicans took over Congress.

Perhaps even more important, however, was the systematic appointment of foxes to guard henhouses.

Thus, when mad cow disease was detected in the U.S. in 2003, the Department of Agriculture was headed by Ann M. Veneman, a former food-industry lobbyist...

0 Comments

July 10th, 2014

7/10/2014

0 Comments

 
IT IS WOMEN AND CHILDREN THAT MAKE UP THE BULK OF FAMILIES FACING THE DISMANTLING OF OUR DEMOCRACY AND PUBLIC PROGRAMS AND SERVICES.  IT IS NEO-LIBERAL POLITICIANS WORKING WITH NEO-CONS DOING IT!

I want to continue one more day on private non-profits and commissions and health care in Maryland.  Remember, large sectors of Marylanders are not accessing health care----having a longevity 30 years less than affluent communities shows this.  Having the worse VA system in the nation shows this. The clinic care system built to keep Marylanders out of hospitals offer almost no access to basic medical procedures.

IT IS A DISASTER AND IT IS BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVING NO MORALITY OR ETHICS ARE CREATING THESE POLICIES ONLY AIMED AT MAKING A FEW EVER MORE RICH.

The average citizen working for these organizations are not bad people----they just want jobs.  Each time you create a private non-profit or commission for health care you have eliminated the public sector employees that would do that job.  You eliminate the public's ability to see what is happening and the accountability tasked to our government to serve and protect. 

DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLITICIANS SHOUTING THIS?  IF NOT, THEY ARE NEO-LIBERALS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT AND NOT YOU AND I!


Yesterday we saw the commissions filled with the health executives writing the law and regulating themselves.  Let's look at the front lines where the health care is delivered----or, in Maryland, not delivered.  This is where the fraud and corruption fills the system.  Again, it is not the average staff doing this---they are being told to do this.  I spoke at length about the dismantling of the VA to private non-profits and showed they were receiving the money and doing nothing.  Medicaid and Medicare is handled just the same.  Remember, in Maryland Medicaid and Medicare is handled the same as private insurance so none of the requirements of coverage or accountability have occurred for a few decades.  Billions of dollars are lost as fewer Medicare patients enter the hospital but Medicare bills per patient climb.....THAT IS FRAUD CAUSING THOSE BILLS TO CLIMB.


Below you see the private non-profit that took over yet another duty of public health and it has been at it for 15 years---the very years that gave Baltimore the 30 year longevity difference.  If you look today health access has never been worse so we know this organization is not doing its job!  Remember, the people affected are not only black and brown or unemployed and impoverished or working poor.  Middle-class families with expenses that take money that would go for health care are included in these stats. 

DO NOT ALLOW PREJUDICE OF CLASS OR RACE SKEW YOUR THOUGHTS ON HEALTH ACCESS----THIS AFFECTS EVERYONE.


Our Organization Enroll In Benefits

HealthCare Access Maryland (HCAM)

is a nonprofit agency that plays a critical role in strengthening Maryland’s health care delivery system. Working with both government and private-sector support, HCAM helps residents enroll in public health care coverage, navigate the complex health care system and connect to educational and other resources.

HCAM was established in 1997 as Baltimore HealthCare Access to initially assist with the Medicaid transition to managed care. What began as a small organization with 40 employees, a $3 million budget and two core grants has grown steadily.

  • Funding has grown to $23 million and the agency has earned more than 30 major grants, including a $7.9 million grant from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) as part of the State’s efforts to implement health care reform in Maryland and help uninsured residents gain access to affordable health care.
  • The number of programs offered has grown from the original two to 19, allowing HCAM’s 200 employees to help connect over 125,000 clients each year to health insurance and care and to vital community resources through a variety of programs serving the uninsured, under-insured and vulnerable populations of the state.
As a 501(C)3 not-for-profit organization, HCAM is overseen by a committed board of directors and supported by public and private sector grants, as well as corporate and individual donations. This unique funding allows us to provide a variety of specialized services for the residents of Maryland in four areas of expertise:

  • Eligibility and enrollment
  • Navigation of the health care system
  • Care coordination
  • Education and advocacy
HCAM’s expertise in these areas led the agency to broaden its reach and help provide services to people throughout the state. To signify this expanded focus, the organization changed its name in 2011 from Baltimore HealthCare Access to HealthCare Access Maryland.

The agency’s ability to help people live healthier lives has been recognized by others in our field. The agency is the proud recipient of Maryland Nonprofits’ Seal of Excellence, a designation that recognizes HCAM’s reputation for delivering high-quality programs and services in a fiscally responsible way.

Although HCAM specializes in health care access, we continue to serve the needs of our clients beyond just helping them obtain an insurance card. We serve children, pregnant women, parents, childless adults and youth in foster care, as well as those with addiction issues, immigrants, individuals recently released from jail and the homeless.

HCAM’s work to implement health care reform in Maryland

Throughout its 15-year history, HCAM has become a critical player in strengthening Maryland’s health care delivery system, earning a spot as a public health leader in the state and working with policymakers, nonprofit organizations and elected officials on innovative approaches to improving the health of all Marylanders.

In the Spring of 2013, HealthCare Access Maryland (HCAM) received a $7.9 million grant from the Maryland Health Benefit Exchange (MHBE) as part of the State’s consumer assistance program to implement the Affordable Care Act and help uninsured residents learn about, apply for and enroll in health insurance. HCAM was selected as the State’s Central Region Connector, serving Baltimore City, Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County.

As the Central Region Connector, HCAM will organize services across the region and has partnered with 17 organizations to provide outreach, education and eligibility determinations and to facilitate enrollment of the nearly 217,000 uninsured residents in the region into Medicaid, the Maryland Children’s Health Program (MCHP) and subsidized and non-subsidized qualified health plans.


__________________________________________

Baltimore is ground zero for Medicaid and Medicare spending and as we know the money is not getting to the people.  Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland Medical Center are handling many of these groups so that is where you start your search.  Since Johns Hopkins has captured all public policy and creates all the private non-profits that are then funded to work in these low-income communities----that is who is charged with overseeing this distribution only THERE IS NO OVERSIGHT!  THERE IS THE PROBLEM.  If we had a public health department filled with employees whose job it is dispensing money and providing oversight and reporting to the citizens of Baltimore----this would not be happening.

If you have followed me these few years you know I do not like Sharfstein and Barbot.  They were appointed to dismantle all public health and build more of these private non-profits and

THEY HAVE BEEN VERY BUSY!  NO WONDER SHARFSTEIN COULDN'T ROLL OUT THE STATE HEALTH EXCHANGE----HE'S TOO BUSY MAKING SURE MARYLAND HAS NO PUBLIC HEALTH.  Slander you say----no, all you have to do is look at who is doing the work of public health and you see nothing but private non-profits.  The people supposedly served all complaining they cannot access care.
  The money is flowing but not where its supposed to------

DID YOU KNOW THAT JOHNS HOPKINS BUILT A GLOBAL CORPORATE EMPIRE THESE FEW DECADES THAT MEDICARE AND MEDICAID FRAUD WAS THE WORSE-----just saying there's likely a link!


This should anger everyone as this looted Medicare Trust is now being addressed by limiting more access to most people....you and I!



Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Healthy Baltimore 2015 Last month, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation issued the second annual County Health Rankings. As it did last year, Baltimore City ranked last in the state. 

One statistic in particular stuck out: 14,887. That’s the number of years of potential life lost before the age of 75.  Put simply, far too many Baltimore City residents are dying before their time.
Statistics like these give great urgency to the work we do to improve the health of our city, our neighborhoods and our residents.  It also makes clear that traditional medical or public health approaches aren’t working and it’s time to try something different.
That conversation starts today with the release of Healthy Baltimore 2015.
This comprehensive health policy agenda highlights 10 priority areas that account for the greatest morbidity and mortality in Baltimore.  These areas were chosen because there are evidence-based interventions proven to make a difference.  The plan looks at the relevance of where we live, work and play on health outcomes, as oftentimes they play as significant a role in making us sick as they do in keeping us healthy.
The city has set ambitious, yet reachable, improvement goals for the following priority areas:
1. Promote access to quality health care for all. 
2. Be tobacco free. 
3. Redesign Communities to Prevent Obesity.
4. Promote Heart Health.
5. Stop the spread of HIV and other STIs. 
6. Recognize and Treat Mental Health Disorders. 
7. Reduce Drug Use and Alcohol Abuse.
8. Encourage early detection of cancer.
9. Promote Healthy Children and Adolescents.   
10. Create Health Promoting Neighborhoods. 


For more information on the specific indicators we will use to measure progress in these areas, please view the full Healthy Baltimore 2015 report.
As you can see, there is much work to be done. Healthy Baltimore 2015 makes clear that we all play a role in improving the health of our city.
Over the course of the next several weeks to months, we will work with partners throughout the city to flesh out a 3-pronged approach to moving the needle for each of the leading indicators, including policy development; prevention, quality, and access; and community engagement.  Later this spring, senior leaders within the department will visit communities around the city to share this plan and the updated neighborhood health profiles.  We hope communities will put this information to use in designing new strategies and interventions for tackling the top priorities they identify for creating health promoting environments.
Let me be clear: the health department alone cannot successfully execute Healthy Baltimore 2015.  We welcome all motivated neighborhood leaders, individual citizens, aca­demic institutions, community-based organizations, business owners and the media to join us in this effort as partners in health. 
Partners can contribute to the success of Healthy Baltimore 2015 in many ways. These varying levels of engagement include, but are not limited to:
  • Communication – displaying or distributing health information materials within each of the ten priority areas.
  • Facilitation – actively participating in interventions such as incorporating wellness at work programs into the business day.
  • Integration – actively considering the potential health impacts of pending business or policy decisions.
To become a partner, please email me at health.commissioner@baltimorecity.gov. Together, we can reshape the landscape to make Baltimore City a place where all residents realize their full health potential.  Posted by Oxiris Barbot, M.D. at 8:37 AM

_________________________________________

Using Maryland for the divide between wealthier counties and poor counties we need to be clear-----while the poorest were excluded from accessing health in Maryland these last decades it is now coming higher up the economic scale....The Affordable Care Act is designed to make preventative care the only care 80% of Americans can afford and percentage is rising soon to 90%.  We will see with these forced re-negotiations of corporate and public sector health benefits that the middle-class will now be the ones forced out of care because they cannot afford co-pays and deductibles or once they pay the health insurance premiums they have no money for the health care itself.  THAT IS THE GOAL....

IT'S LIKE AUTO INSURANCE....YOU PAY AND PAY FOR COVERAGE AND IF YOU USE IT, THEY HIKE YOUR RATES OR CANCEL YOUR POLICY.

That is what is coming.  Below you see the other factor that will keep most people out of basic medical care----the need for a primary care doctor to access specialists and their care.  Activists have tried for decades to have medical school training be made free.  Get rid of the medical grads high tuition debt and you get lots of people in doctoring less motivated to earn $500,000 or more.  THIS ONE POLICY HAS CREATED THIS SHORTAGE AND AGAIN---IT IS DONE DELIBERATELY.  If corporations and the rich are paying no taxes and receive all revenue that is collected as corporate subsidy----where does all that free money for medical schools come from?  No, say corporations its better to simply exclude most people from health care access to maximize corporate profits.

FREE MEDICAL SCHOOL PAID FOR BY SIMPLY RECOVERING TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD AND STOPPING IT IN THE FUTURE FLOODS THE MARKET WITH PRIMARY CARE DOCTORS.


But then say health corporations we cannot pretend to need to bring third world doctors to the US that are used to high levels of fraud and corruption and not bothering with the Hippocratic Oath and HIPAA regulations and who have no rights as citizens so as to be exploited by these growing US  global health systems!

What is being said here is nothing new----we have been shouting it for decades----they simply are pretending they are working on this solution as they dismantle all the avenues to address this.

Primary care access a key to health disparities among counties ■ An annual ranking of counties based on health status found that gaps between the healthiest and unhealthiest regions of states are wide — and getting wider.

By Jennifer Lubell — Posted April 1, 2013 AMED NEWS.com

Washington If you're a resident of Howard County, Md., chances are fairly high that you have insurance, enjoy good health and have relatively easy access to a primary care physician. Take a short car ride to Baltimore, however, and the situation for residents is much more grim.

In Howard County, ranked as Maryland's healthiest in the most recent County Health Rankings and Roadmaps survey, only 9% of residents are uninsured, and just 8% are considered in poor health. There's one primary care physician for every 577 patients. In Baltimore City, the unhealthiest county in the state, the uninsured rate is nearly twice as high, and there's only one primary care doctor for every 985 patients — a combination that means a significant access-to-care problem.

The comparison underscores a key finding in the 2013 survey: Gaps between the healthiest and unhealthiest counties in individual states are large and continue to grow. The survey highlighted the fact that residents in the healthiest counties are 1.4 times more likely to have access to a primary care physician than those in the least healthy counties. Unhealthy areas also had higher rates when it came to a host of other negative indicators of overall health, including child poverty, teen pregnancy and premature death.

This is the fourth year that the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health have surveyed the health of every county in the U.S., ranking them on a state-by-state basis to gauge the factors determining the health of residents. All survey measures use figures or percentages that take population into account so that a county such as Howard, with a population of less than 300,000, can be compared with Baltimore City's population of more than 600,000.

The rankings are set up so that every state has a healthiest and unhealthiest county despite the overall health of the state. But health outcomes can vary widely within a state, said Patrick Remington, MD, MPH, professor and associate dean at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health, during a teleconference to discuss the 2013 rankings. Louisiana and Mississippi are two states that often rank last in the nation on overall health. But when researchers dig into each state, they find as much variability among individual counties in Louisiana and Mississippi as they do in Vermont, a state that ranks relatively high nationally on patient health outcomes, he said.

Competition drives improvement Dr. Remington said promoting the results of county rankings has made a difference, “sparking action all over the country as people from all sectors join forces to create new possibilities in health — county by county.”

One of those areas is New Orleans, which has been trying to rebuild its infrastructure after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, said Karen B. DeSalvo, MD, New Orleans health commissioner and senior health policy adviser to the city's mayor. Orleans Parish typically has ranked in the 60-62 range in a state that has 64 counties, Dr. DeSalvo said. “So we've been at the bottom of the pack in one of the more unhealthy states in the country. What we're excited about this year is we've jumped up to number 48, so that's a big leap.”

In addition to overhauling its education system and making improvements to parks and playgrounds, the city has spent seven years on an initiative to develop its primary care infrastructure.

“We had essentially no neighborhood-based primary care before Katrina. People were reliant upon hospital-based services, especially those who were uninsured and underinsured,” Dr. DeSalvo said.

Since then, the city has responded by working with 25 organizations, ranging from small clinics to large hospital systems, to build access to primary care and outpatient mental care, with a particular focus on patient-centered medical homes and health information technology. The initiative has received financial support from philanthropic sources as well as some federal demonstration program funding to expand access to primary care rapidly. “This is a true public-private partnership,” she said.

Dr. DeSalvo said the renewed focus on building strong primary and preventive care at the neighborhood level probably has reduced unnecessary hospitalizations and led to improvements in screening rates for such conditions as diabetes and breast cancer.

Improving patient-reported measures and clinical outcomes is one of the strategic goals recently adopted by the American Medical Association. The AMA is focusing on promoting quality and safety, reducing unwarranted variation in care, and fostering appropriate use of limited health care resources.

Other factors leading to poor health The fact that fewer physicians and dentists practice in certain communities obviously contributes to poorer health in those areas, said Bridget B. Catlin, PhD. She's a senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and director of the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps survey. But, as she and other health care observers pointed out, lack of access is just one of many problems that go hand in hand with poor health among residents. In addition to measuring clinical care outcomes, the survey analyzes health behaviors, social and economic statistics, morbidity, and such physical environment elements as air and water quality.

“Other key factors that influence the health of a community are education, employment, income, and whether people smoke or have access to healthy foods and places to exercise. Some of these factors probably also influence physicians' decisions about where to practice,” Catlin said. “In particular, there is a widespread need for health care providers in rural areas.”

At least in Maryland, the health gap between the highest- and lowest-ranking counties largely comes down to socioeconomic conditions, said Brian Avin, MD, a neurologist and the president of MedChi, the Maryland State Medical Society. Howard County, a suburb of Washington, is one of the most affluent areas of the nation, “so whatever social factors you want to create, Howard is going to be the highest and Baltimore City is going to be the lowest,” he said. There's much more poverty and unemployment in Baltimore, as well as more people on Medicaid or going without insurance, generating more uncompensated care cases. “Obesity, smoking, any individual feature you're going to look at is going to be worse when you're not getting basic care.”

Howard County also has been trying to get all of its population insured, whereas no such strategic initiative exists in Baltimore City, Dr. Avin said.
___________________________________________


Baltimore has a policy of replacing school athletic courts and community center athletic courts with 'greening' development moving all of this to private non-profits like YMCA located too far for most to reach.  I literally had to fight for an athletic court for an elementary school of 300 students----Johns Hopkins Homewood wanted to make it a park. Parks and playgrounds across the city have been neglected as the city dismantled its Parks department and handed the funding to a private non-profit.  So school grounds have grass up to your knees, broken glass all because the city does not collect revenue from corporations and the rich and any that is collected go to projects connected to the same.   Baltimore City schools often have no recess and most schools have no athletic teams.  The tiered funding leaving these low-income schools run as businesses make it impossible to address these disparities so NOTHING is being done to actually address health issues ------they simply say they are doing so.

Private wellness non-profits are going into poor neighborhoods telling people to eat better and scolding when people explain that living in poverty places survival over preparing a good meal or even having a living space that allows it.  So, we are seeing these national private non-profits coming in to talk the talk of better health to communities now being kept from accessing any health care but preventative care.


There are some good programs-----Food stamps being used at Farmers Markets is a good thing.  If you are creating an environment of deeper and wider poverty as neo-liberals and neo-cons are doing today----none of this will end in data having better results and THEY KNOW THIS.

EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL SIMPLY ALLOWS EVERYONE TO GET ALL THE CARE THEY NEED AND THAT IS THE BEST PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE AND YOU PAY FOR IT BY ENDING HEALTH INDUSTRY FRAUD AND PROFITEERING.


Below you see the vestige of a city no caring for families and with that goes health.  Day care is where children receive healthy exposure and access is critical to a family working and having low-incomes.  So, if you do not provide a system of day care-----and you are closing and defunding parks and playgrounds-----YOU DO NOT CARE ABOUT WELLNESS.
None of this information is new and Johns Hopkins is behind the redirecting of money and the lack of oversight and accountability and is the one charged now with the most responsibility in these Maryland health care reforms....THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT IS NEEDED FOR REAL CHANGE.


Below you see middle-class families saying OMG!!!!!  and it is all centered on the corporations/ rich taking all the revenue through fraud and corruption in the City of Baltimore and this expands across the State of Maryland.

Day care shortage frustrates parents in Baltimore.  Costs can top tuition at University of Maryland, College Park

The Children's Choice Learning Center, housed in the… (Karen Jackson, BALTIMORE…)July 14, 2013|By Tricia Bishop, The Baltimore Sun

In five months, the downtown Baltimore day care attended by Celine Plachez's youngest son is slated to close, yet she's not looking for a backup. She can't stomach it.

She searched before he was born, calling about a dozen places, some of which said they wouldn't have an opening in the foreseeable future. Others were so expensive, they cost more than tuition at the University of Maryland, College Park. And a handful were just plain unacceptable in terms of quality.

So she's devoting her energy to finding a way to keep open the Children's Choice Learning Center, housed in the Social Security Administration building on North Greene Street.

"Call me crazy — I refuse to look. I want to fight," said Plachez, a scientist who lives in Federal Hill. "We can make it happen. It's not impossible, it's not unrealistic."

Plachez's response to the center's planned closure highlights a frustrating reality: At a time when the city is trying to attract and retain families — and more women work than ever before — there's a lack of high-quality, affordable, regulated child care in Baltimore.

The shortage is particularly pronounced for children younger than 2, like Plachez's son, who require a higher, 3-1 ratio of children to staff under state law, making their care cost-prohibitive for many facilities.

For some who live or work in the city, the situation has significant consequences.

Rachel Winer Sticklin of Canton is postponing having a second child until the first is out of day care because her family can't afford to pay for two at once.

Judy O'Brien of Otterbein started looking for a spot two years before her newborn needs it, knowing she faced long waiting lists at many places.

And Jana Gauvey of Federal Hill brings her kids to Baltimore County, where she works in marketing, for their care.

"There weren't that many options close to our home," Gauvey said.

Others, particularly those with low incomes, are putting their kids in informal, unregulated city settings — often in the homes of neighbors operating babysitting businesses — in the hope that the financial savings won't equate to inadequate care.

Not enough spaces

Roughly 13,300 Baltimore children younger than 2 have mothers who work, and many of them need some kind of child care, from relatives, hired sitters or centers, according to a Baltimore Sun analysis of state data. Licensed facilities can accommodate at most 20 percent of them.

The surrounding counties face a similar issue, though only Anne Arundel County's case is as severe. In Howard County, for example, licensed facilities can handle up to 35 percent of the children under 2 who might need care; in Baltimore County up to 27 percent can be accommodated.

The quality of care is also thought to be less variable in the counties. A greater percentage of children enter kindergarten fully prepared in the counties than in Baltimore.

"In most cities, there is always a shortage of infant and toddler care, mainly because it's expensive to do it right," and Baltimore is no exception, said David W. Andrews, dean of the Johns Hopkins University School of Education. "The ratios of adults to children [here] just don't make it a very profitable scenario unless you're able to charge upward of 17, 18, 19 thousand per kid."

There are also a "number of consequences associated with" doing it wrong, Andrews said.

Studies increasingly show that the early years are crucial to a person's development. Ninety percent of brain growth happens before age 5, and the first three years of life are particularly important. Young children and infants are primed for learning, educators said, and their environment has a lasting impact.

Studies show that while parents have a strong influence on young children, day care effects can linger. Children in the highest-quality programs — where kids feel comfortable, stimulated and cared for by a stable staff — do the best years later in terms of social and academic development, and even health and economic prospects. Those who receive poor care are more likely to wind up in the criminal justice system, act out or drop out of school.

Yet early childhood education in the United States receives the least public investment of any schooling, leaving parents to bear much of the financial burden.

The average cost of full-time infant care at a Baltimore center, as opposed to a home-based site, is about $11,560, according to data from the Maryland Family Network, a private nonprofit that advocates for children and families.

That figure, which factors in the highest- and lowest-quality care options, is 40 percent higher than the average cost of tuition and fees at a state university — $8,220 in 2012. And it's roughly 30 percent of the median household income in the city before taxes.

"It's a real struggle for most parents," said Steve Rohde, the network's deputy director of child care resource and referral services.

____________________________________________
This article shows the mechanism that creates all this disparity and dysfunction.  A Baltimore global corporation headquartered in the Enterprise Zones that allow corporations to pay no taxes starve Baltimore's coffers for a few decades causing all of the crumbling of infrastructure and closing of facilities geared towards keeping citizens healthy.  All money is directed to boosting profits for this global corporation that adds almost nothing to the economy of Baltimore. 

IT IS A HUGE SUCKING MACHINE AND CORPORATE SUBSIDY IS ITS BEST ACHIEVEMENT.

So, here we have our Baltimore media giving this global corporation recognition for 'donating' a playground so it can write the costs of donation from any taxes that might be left to pay again starving government coffers.  Rather than consistently paying taxes so general funds can be distributed equitably across the city-----we have corporation simply selecting where they want their tax deduction to go.


THIS IS JOHNS HOPKINS DRIVING THESE POLICIES AND HOPKINS IS NEO-CONSERVATIVE WORKING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATE WEALTH WITH POLITICIANS RUNNING AS DEMOCRATS CREATING ALL THESE POLICIES.

The point is this-----the structures in place that have the public sector dismantled and complete control of policy given to corporations will never end with health policy that does what they say it will do.  They will simply create private non-profits that for the most part pretend to be doing something.  Remember, more and more people are falling into this abyss so we need the middle-class to WAKE UP and care about where these policies lead.

The taxes this corporation should have paid for a decade or so would have built dozens of playgrounds across the city.

If city employees were being paid to build this playground they could afford to live more healthily!

press release

June 10, 2014, 7:13 p.m. EDT

Baltimore-Based Global Education Company Builds New Playground for Local School

BALTIMORE, June 10, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Laureate Education, Inc., the world's largest higher education network, today built and donated a playground at The Historic Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School in Baltimore. Nearly 300 of Laureate's most senior executives from around the world came to Baltimore to build the playground. Laureate, formerly known as Sylvan Learning Systems, relocated its global headquarters to Baltimore in 1996, the first company to do so in more than twenty years. Laureate was the first company in the Harbor East neighborhood, a key part of Baltimore's federally designated empowerment zone. In the 18 years since moving to Baltimore, the company has grown from employing 300 people at the headquarters to more than 2,700.

More than 100 local volunteers joined Laureate executives and students to build the playground, in partnership with KaBOOM!. The playground will be accessible to nearby residents.

"It's a great honor to give back to the community that has given me -- and Laureate Education -- so much," said Douglas L. Becker, Laureate's founder, chief executive officer, and a Baltimore native. "We are committed to doing work that is here for good in every community in which we operate."

"The Historic Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Elementary School really is the center of this community and this new playground will help foster that sense of community that we cherish," said the school's principal, Dr. Harold A. Barber.

"Congratulations to Baltimore's own Doug Becker and Laureate Education on their 15th anniversary," said Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake. "I'm so grateful that this Baltimore-based global company continues to invest in the local community in ways that benefit the people of this great city. The students of the historic Samuel-Coleridge Taylor Elementary School and members of the neighboring community will truly enjoy the new playground more than you will ever know. Thank you."
















0 Comments

July 08th, 2014

7/8/2014

0 Comments

 
CORPORATIONS ARE USING PRIVATE NON-PROFITS TO CONTROL PUBLIC POLICY.  THEY CAPTURE AN ISSUE AND PROMOTE POLICY THAT WORKS TO THE ADVANTAGE OF CORPORATIONS.  IN MARYLAND THE PUBLIC SECTOR HAS BEEN DISMANTLED AND IS REPLACED BY THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS.  IT IS WHY THERE IS NO PUBLIC VOICE OR CONTROL OF POLICY IN MARYLAND.  A DEMOCRAT WOULD NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN....NE0-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ARE DOING THIS!


I have spoken about Maryland's capture of politics centered in the movement away from a strong public sector which has been replaced by private non-profits controlled by corporations that simply place someone as head of the organization that makes sure public policy goes the way the corporations want.  In Maryland we have AGAB serving that goal.  Johns Hopkins creates and controls most non-profits in Baltimore and in doing so captures all public policy.  What we see less of in Maryland and Baltimore are real citizens coming out and organizing and controlling their own non-profits.  My non-profit, Citizens Oversight Maryland speaks freely because there is no corporate connection.  If you see a non-profit that is silent on all of the issues I address here-----they are being controlled by a corporation.  We have great groups doing good work in Baltimore but very few of them will shout against the power structures -----Johns Hopkins and Baltimore Development or identify the fact that all of Baltimore's politicians work for these institutions and not the citizens of Baltimore.  I told you about the anti-fracking environmental group that ran when I asked them to educate about Trans Pacific Trade Pact and the fact that it allows all environmental laws to be ignored.  Now, if an environmental non-profit is not talking about this----it is headed by a corporation.  This is why TPP is not even mentioned in Maryland.....corporations control all of our private non-profits.

PLEASE WAKE UP AND ENGAGE IN POLITICS FOLKS!  THE MIDDLE CLASS CANNOT WATCH AS THE POOR ARE BRUTALIZED BECAUSE WE KNOW THE GOAL OF NEO-LIBERALISM IS TO GET RID OF ALL MIDDLE-CLASS.  YOU OR YOUR CHILDREN/GRANDCHILDREN WILL BE THE POOR.  YOU CANNOT BE SILENT FOR FEAR OF YOUR JOB BECAUSE LOSING DEMOCRACY AND YOUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS IS MORE IMPORTANT.


Maryland and especially Baltimore is now running just a global corporations do overseas----Non-governmental organizations NGOs control our state and local governments as a 'quasi-governmental agency' and corporations 'donate' rather than pay taxes to private non-profits that then do what that 'donor' wants.  No doubt national non-profits have always been this way but now they are controlling all policy at state and local levels as well.  This is the capture we are feeling in Maryland.  The neo-liberals and neo-cons work to establish these private non-profits and then make sure that these groups are the ones heard in policy discussion.  This is why many community associations in Baltimore are silent to politicians pushing neo-conservative/neo-liberal policies that are killing the residents living in these communities.  They instead are the ones backing these same pols dismantling our democratic structures.  The heads of these organizations sound to be supporting the community when in fact they are working to push corporate policy.

As you see below you must have politicians in office that want the public engaged in public policy.  They build the structures to make sure to stimulate participation.  In Maryland all policy is written behind closed doors and the public is pulled from public meetings if they try to speak on the most important issues.  Go to Baltimore City Hall and you look at pols that are simply sitting there----they are no more connected to the people speaking than a man on the moon.  They are simply meeting a charter requirement to have hearings.

IT IS THE DISMANTLING OF ALL OF THE PUBLIC STRUCTURES OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT THAT HAS PRODUCED THE LACK OF PARTICIPATION AND IT HAS BEEN REPLACED BY THESE PRIVATE NON-PROFITS.



The Citizens Most Vocal in Local Government

View detailed demographic data from a national survey about the most and least likely people to speak up. by Mike Maciag | July 2014 Flickr/Kelby Carr


In his first few months in office, Park City, Utah, Mayor Jack Thomas has heard from quite a few constituents. His office phone rings off the hook. Going out for lunch takes about twice as long as before, too, as he constantly fields concerns from residents who walk up. “If you want a quiet moment,” he jokes, “you’ve got to leave town.”

The small resort community is home to some of the nation’s more vocal residents. In a recent survey, 28 percent of city residents reported contacting elected officials to express their opinions and 37 percent said they had attended a local public meeting over a 12-month period.

Nationwide, though, citizen participation in local government remains abysmally low. The National Research Center (NRC), a firm that conducts citizen surveys for more than 200 communities, compiled data for Governing shedding light on the types of residents who are most active. Overall, only 19 percent of Americans recently surveyed contacted their local elected officials over a 12-month period, while about a quarter reported attending a public meeting.

In many city halls, extremists on either side of an issue dominate public hearings. Those who do show up at the sparsely attended meetings are often the same cast of characters week after week. But some public officials have found ways to reach a much wider segment of residents.

Park City’s Mayor Thomas said he’ll go door-to-door along the town’s main corridor to gauge resident sentiment about everything from new development projects to air quality and garbage pickup. “If you want to have a government that’s rooted in the community, you better start that way,” Thomas said. “It’s all about trust.”

NRC survey data identifies types of residents who are the most active or, in some cases, the least vocal. Individuals living in a community for more than 10 years, for example, are about three times more likely to attend public meetings and contact elected officials than new residents. Among racial groups, Asians tend to have the lowest participation rates. Low-income residents also aren’t as active as those earning six-figure incomes.

In general, residents often aren’t compelled to weigh in on an issue unless it negatively affects them, said Cheryl Hilvert of the International City/County Management Association. It’s for this reason that much of the citizen engagement in communities is confined to typical hot-button issues, such as planning and zoning meetings.

Many residents don’t think they have time to participate. Others, particularly newer residents with lower participation rates, may not know where or how to get involved, Hilvert said.

Survey data further suggests that younger residents aren’t inclined to speak up. Those under the age of 35 attend meetings and contact elected officials at far lower rates than those over 35. Hilvert suspects their busy lifestyles may have something to do with it, especially if they have children.

Connecting with these groups of residents requires stepping outside of city hall and meeting residents on their own turf. Park City officials say they’ve held meetings in school lunch rooms, performing arts centers and with local homeowners’ associations.

“To truly engage the community,” Hilvert said, “managers have to think broader about it than in the past.”

Some localities employ unconventional approaches to raise the level of citizen engagement. When the city of Rancho Cordova, Calif., debated permitting more residents to raise chickens on their properties last year, it launched an online Open Town Hall. More than 500 residents visited the interactive forum to make or review public statements. “It is noisy and smelly enough with pigeons, turkeys, feral cats, and untended dogs without adding chickens to the mix,” wrote one resident. The city drafted an ordinance reflecting citizen input, then emailed it to forum subscribers.

Outreach efforts through local media or civic organizations help further community involvement. Some residents also form Facebook groups or online petitions to promote their causes.

The city of Chanhassen, Minn., relied heavily on social media to connect with citizens when it confronted an issue that’s about as contentious as any local government can face: a proposal to build a new Walmart. The city posted regular updates on its Facebook page and uploaded all documents online. Laurie Hokkanen, the city’s assistant city manager, said residents continued hearing rumors even after the city rejected the company’s rezoning proposal. As a result, staff kept lines of communication open.

“A vote by the city council does not end the issue for residents who are invested in it,” Hokkanen said. “It’s important to tell people you appreciate their input.”

Citizen Survey Data Across much of the country, citizens rarely voice their opinion to local governments. The National Research Center provided survey results from local jurisdictions throughout the country participating in the National Citizen Survey, collected between 2012 and earlier this year.

Two questions on the survey assessed how vocal citizens were in government. Survey respondents were asked if they had done the following in the last 12 months:

1) "Contacted [locality name] elected officials (in-person, phone, email or web) to express your opinion?"

  • Yes: 19 percent
  • No: 81 percent
2) "Attended a local public meeting?"

  • Two times a week or more: 1 percent
  • Two to four times a month: 1 percent
  • Once a month or less: 22 percent
  • Not at all: 76 percent
___________________________________________
We all know the quasi nature of Baltimore Development and the University of Maryland Medical Center but let's look at AGAB and how corporations 'donate' for tax write-offs and then simply write the public policy tied to that non-profit.

If you could look at what this organization does------and the details are very private-----you will see that corporations and the rich simply choose a category to contribute and then are allowed to write what that 'donation' will create.  So, greening as a category can channel money to paying for corporate parks that simply subsidize the costs of a corporation's headquarters.  Why pay to landscape your property when you can get a tax write-off as 'donation' to greening and have the city contribute a chunk for example.   A corporation wanting to 'donate' to eduction would direct that money to a national education non-profit controlled by corporations to go into schools and tell parents, teachers, and students just what 'wellness' will look like in the schools.  In Baltimore parents asking for recess for their children may not be discussed in these 'wellness' groups in many schools.

This entire system allows corporations not paying taxes in Baltimore and Maryland to instead 'donate' money and then control the public policy in whatever area they choose.  This is how the citizens of Maryland have lost their voices in their own communities.  When I first moved to Baltimore I had the nerve as a citizen to try to organize for an athletic field on a vacant lot in my community and the response-----JOHNS HOPKINS HOMEWOOD DEVELOPMENT WILL DECIDE WHAT WILL GO THERE----ARE YOU CRAZY?  As a resident of a community you must go to that development corporation for community grants to do anything and that allows that development corporation to decide what they want-----


AND ALL OF THIS IS THE CORPORATION THAT IS JOHNS HOPKINS AND BALTIMORE DEVELOPMENT.



This is what happens when the public sector is dismantled-----all money is funneled through private non-profits that have no transparency and whose membership becomes ever more exclusive.

GET RID OF THE NEO-LIBERALS AND NEO-CONS ALLOWING THIS DISMANTLING OF OUR PUBLIC SECTOR----REMEMBER, IF YOU THINK GOVERNMENT HAS TOO MUCH CONTROL----CORPORATE CONTROL IS MUCH WORSE AS REGARDS DEMOCRATIC FREEDOMS.

About The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers (ABAG)

ABAG's mission is to maximize the impact of philanthropic giving on community life through a growing network of diverse, informed and effective grantmakers.

The Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers is the region’s premier resource on philanthropy, dedicated to informing grantmakers and improving our community. ABAG was founded in 1983 to provide a forum in which colleagues could address common problems, approaches and interests.

Our members include more than 145 private and community foundations, donor advised funds, and corporations with strategic grantmaking programs - representing the vast majority of institutional giving in our area.

ABAG is …

  • The Resource on Grantmaking
ABAG provides critical information and services to the philanthropic and nonprofit communities.

  • The Network for Givers
ABAG convenes grantmakers and others to address issues and create lasting solutions.

  • The Voice for Philanthropy
ABAG represents the philanthropic sector to key audiences, including the media, legislators, and national organizations, raising public awareness and understanding about the role and impact of philanthropy on our society.


_________________________________________

Maryand Health Care for All and Baltimore Education Coalition are two examples of many.  Maryland Health Care for All is a Johns Hopkins non-profit created to make sure the Affordable Care Act was the health reform that moved forward in Maryland and not REAL health care for all like Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.  People see that the ACA is not about access----it is about building structures that will deregulate and consolidate the health industry killing oversight and accountability and denying most people most access to care.  Maryland has already disconnected from Medicare by receiving exemptions from the Federal government.  All of this makes Maryland have one of the worst health environments in the nation.  The poor have a life span  30 years less than affluent, people are fearful when going to the hospital because of poor quality and staff work in some of the most difficult conditions.  Now, the state health reform is creating a tiered health system that has most people only able to connect to clinic care.  We see this breakdown in health care in Maryland best if we look at the dismantled Veteran's Administration with Baltimore having the worst in the nation.  All of the doctors in this system were moved out and into private health systems that now cater to the world's rich------HEALTH TOURISM.  THIS IS JOHNS HOPKINS SPECIALTY NOW.



Below you see two Hopkins grads placed in charge of controlling the health care policy.  Bill and Hillary tried to do to health care what Obama has done with ACA at the same time they created the conditions for global banks---so this group in 1999 had the goal of moving health policy in that direction.  This is why Maryland sought the exemption from Medicare----to create the private health systems that are tied to the Maryland state health exchange.  Medicare and Medicaid fraud is rampant in Maryland because the oversight and accountability of the public sector was long ago dismantled.

The leaders advocating for the Affordable Care Act knew the goal was maximizing corporate profits and building global health corporations and not REAL health care for all.  The groups joining this coalition often did not.  They assumed they were actually working for health care for all.  This is an example of corporate capture of a policy.  Maryland spent this time from 1999 dismantling the public programs Medicare and Medicaid---and the Veteran's Administration and creating a tiered level of coverage that denied basic access by allowing health institutions to create the most profitable definition of care. 

While neo-liberals claimed to be building the most cost-effective health delivery system------patient outcomes in Maryland worsened and longevity declined.  So much for health care for all.  Johns Hopkins was able to build a global corporate empire with all that Medicare and Medicaid----not to mention Federal, state, and local grants and public funding. 

A GLOBAL HEALTH EMPIRE BUILT ON PUBLIC MONEY----THAT IS A SUCCESSFUL PRIVATE NON-PROFIT.

The people attached to Maryland Health Care for All really seeking this goal now need to join Expanded and Improved Medicare for All in Maryland to actually get health care for all.
  We need to replace the most private and profit-driven health system in the nation that is Maryland health exchange with this public structure that keeps Medicare strong.


The Founder of the Initiative is Peter Beilenson, MD, MPH, and the President is Vincent DeMarco, MA, JD.

The Maryland Citizens’ Health Initiative Education Fund (“MCHI”) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy organization that was created in 1999 with a mission to educate all Marylanders about sound ways to achieve quality, affordable health care for all. In order to create a comprehensive, economically sound health care for all plan, MCHI organized the state’s largest coalition and solicited input from coalition members and thousands of Maryland citizens in town hall meetings.  National experts at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and the University of Maryland Law School then worked to incorporate this community input into MCHI’s Health Care for All! Plan.  In 2002, MCHI released its first plan and conducted a statewide campaign to educate people about how the plan would guarantee health care security for all Marylanders.  A revised version of the plan was released in 2008 by the same set of experts that created the original following another round of public stakeholder meetings. The updated plan includes similar components as the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010) and is being used to guide analysis and planning for state and local implementation of the federal health reform law.

Over 1,200 faith, labor, business, health, and community organizations have joined the Health Care for All! Coalition to support enactment of MCHI’s plan.  This is the largest coalition ever created in Maryland and certainly one of the largest health care consumer coalitions in the country.

The Coalition successfully advocated for a number of laws that will increase access to care and prescription drugs.  In addition, MCHI continues to work with key state leaders to educate members of our broad coalition about how they can access health care programs now in existence.  In the years ahead, MCHI will continue to educate and activate its powerful coalition to increase health care access in Maryland.

___________________________________________


Baltimore Education Coalition is the Michelle Rhee of privatization groups again created by Johns Hopkins this time with the goal of capturing education policy and making sure reforms go the way of corporate control-----just as did Maryland Health Care for All.  In both cases the leaders knew the goal but the people joining often think they are really working towards the goal of health care for all or quality public education.  It is not until all of the bad policy the BEC unrolls that many people in these coalitions find they did not get what they bargained for.  Good people wanting to work for good public policy captured by joining private non-profits that exist to make sure that does not happen.

This is why activism in Baltimore and Maryland is so low----people trying to organize have to fight these corporate non-profits ! 

Please stop allowing corporate non-profits to control all public policy in Maryland.  Know what the policies these groups are advocating and know that they actually have a goal that works for the people and not only for maximizing corporate profit.

This is a prime example of why getting rid of neo-liberals and neo-cons is so important.  It is not only how they vote in City Hall or the Maryland Assembly.  It is the environment they allow to exist in public community organizations ------where is the public discussion-----is it open and inclusive?  Neither Maryland Health Care for All nor Baltimore Education Coalition would allow Cindy Walsh to come in to educate and/or speak against these policies.
  If they do not allow open dialog----they are hiding something and that is that what they are doing is not in the public interest!


Baltimore Education Coalition

We are public schools – traditional and charter. We are after-school programs and neighborhood associations. We are education policy organizations, religious institutions, broad-based organizations, and schools. We are policy analysts, teachers, students, parents, community members, grandparents, and Baltimoreans working together to organize, mobilize, and energize the City of Baltimore to achieve our mission that all Baltimore students receive an excellent education. We focus on the issues that impact our students and families the most. Together, we have stopped over $100 million dollars in proposed funding cuts to city schools. In the face of potential harmful cuts to School Based Health Centers the BEC responded and advocated to successfully keep this important resource in the budget. We have also worked together to address the deplorable facility conditions in Baltimore City including winning the bottle tax in Baltimore City to support the successful campaign to pass state legislation to provide an unprecedented financing plan providing up to $1 billion to rebuild or renovate schools in Baltimore City. This effort was successful due to the dedication and perseverance of the more than 3,000 parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community leaders who came to Annapolis and City Hall to make their voices heard for Baltimore City’s 85,000 students and their communities.



0 Comments

June 19th, 2014

6/19/2014

0 Comments

 
NEO-LIBERALS ARE NOT DEMOCRATS FOLKS----THEY WORK FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT----STOP ALLOWING A DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL PARTY CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS CHOOSE YOUR CANDIDATES IN PRIMARIES!

CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND IS THE ONLY CANDIDATE FIGHTING GLOBAL CORPORATE CONTROL OF OUR ECONOMY!

DO YOU KNOW WHY THE MEDIA HAS MADE A CIRCUS OF THE RIDICULOUS HEALTH CARE SYSTEM ROLL-OUT?  IT TAKES ALL OF THE MEDIA ATTENTION FROM WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING WITH THE AFFORDABLE CARE REFORM.

I'll move on to Social Security on Friday but wanted to look specifically at what will happen with the Affordable Care Act in place as affects PHARMA.  Remember, Trans Pacific Trade Pact acts to curb all subsidy to PHARMA in nations joined to this treaty and to curb manufacturing of generics----a big business in developing nations.  Bill Gates and his PHARMA empire want to maximize profits by getting rid of generics and extending patenting rights to name brand.  That is what TPP does.  We already know what happens when an industry develops global markets-----the prices climb to 'market-value' and start being inflated by market speculation and manipulation.  So, we know PHARMA prices will soar with ACA.  Look below to see some of the effects already as drugs become scarce because they do not bring profits and generic prices rise as nations around the world are forced to close generic PHARMA factories. 

THE UNITED STATES IS DOING THIS AND IT IS OBAMA AND THE NEO-LIBERALS IN CONGRESS ALLOWING HEALTH CORPORATIONS TO WRITE THESE POLICIES.


Keep in mind as well-----when all this instability in pricing that comes with global market pricing and speculation, small businesses will not be able to stay in business.  There goes more small businesses in our communities....our local pharmacies.  Each time neo-liberals introduce these consolidation and deregulation policies as Clinton did and now Obama----an entire industry becomes controlled by the few global corporations at the top and prices soar, quality disappears, and service declines.

THIS IS WHAT WILL HAPPEN IF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT IS ALLOWED TO CONTINUE.  NEO-LIBERALS WORK FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT----THEY ARE NOT DEMOCRATS.

Expanded and Improved Medicare for All takes all of the global health systems out of the mix eliminating private insurers......controlling profit-margins through public market-share.  Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland will build several small generic manufacturing facilities across Maryland to supply the citizens with all the generics they need and we can contain the costs.



Pharmacists concerned about drug pricing, Affordable Care Act

Posted: Sep 30, 2013 4:39 PM EST Updated: Sep 30, 2013 4:47 PM EST By Rebecca Trylch l   SWARTZ CREEK (WJRT) - (09/30/13) - The lead-up to the beginning phases of the Affordable Care Act has been a roller coaster ride for some independent pharmacies.

In recent months some pharmacists say generic drug prices have uncharacteristically spiked.

A couple of the pharmacists ABC12 spoke with directly tie that roller coaster effect to the Affordable Care Act, also referred to as Obamacare. Others aren't ready to link the two together.

But here's what pharmacist Mark Luea with Luea Pharmacy in Swartz Creek tells us has happened to him.

Since June he's seen several of his generic prescription drug prices go up, drastically.

One example he provided involved an anti-seizure medication.

It was just under $135 one week. The very next week that same drug cost more than $1,600.

"When I see the drastic prices, our jaws drop," Luea said. "This is not normal. This is the first time I've seen anything like this in the pharmaceutical market in 30 years."

When Luea questioned the increase, he was first told there was an issue with the raw materials.

Then he was told a contamination issue shut down the place it was made in India, causing a supply shortage.

Later he was told by his wholesale supplier, who he buys most of his prescription drugs from, that manufacturers were to blame.

"Apparently the manufacturers are concerned that their profits are going to be cut horribly by the Affordable Care Act. So it's kind of the feast and famine, and right now they're really feasting," Luea said. "They're worried about a fixed profit that is going to be starting Jan. 1, 2014."

Luea says the ever-changing prices has lead to a related battle with health insurance companies that is costing him money.

Sometimes insurance companies won't reimburse him for the full cost that he paid.

"So who gets hurt? The pharmacy, not just my retail pharmacy, all retail pharmacies, and of course ultimately the consumer," Luea said.

He hopes this struggle isn't permanent.

"I truly, truly believe that the wholesale manufacturers of generic drugs will continue this high pricing right up until Dec. 31. After that, we'll see."


The Michigan Pharmacists Association is concerned about drug pricing and insurance reimbursement problems too.

And while it's not linking the issue to the Affordable Care Act, it is urging its members to contact their state lawmakers.

Chief Executive Officer Larry D. Wagenknecht also released this statement:

"When the pharmacist's cost to purchase generic prescription drugs increases, insurance companies and pharmacy benefit managers are very slow at raising their reimbursement rates, sometimes taking week to months. Because of this, pharmacists are unable to provide the essential medications and treatments required to care for their patients."



_______________________________________________
As you see below, the ACA hands ever more ability of states to decide all avenues of health care and policy so each state will look differently as to how it will meet the continual gutting of funding of Medicare and Medicaid-----if you are going to dismantle a Federal program you first piecemeal the power of policy and that is what the ACA does.

Looking at drug costs we already see where citizens are having to make decisions as to what health insurance plan to buy according to what PHARMA or medical procedures it covers.  Everyone knows a person cannot be adequately covered under this process and that such piece-mealing with make costs soar for the American people trying to get what they need.  This is happening first with the lower-level plans like Medicaid and Bronze plans but it will engulf Medicare as it ends as a Federal program and the costs to upper-tier plans like Silver and Gold plans will take more and more disposable income from the upper-middle.

THE BOTTOM LINE IS THAT THE CREATION OF GLOBAL HEALTH SYSTEMS DRIVEN BY WORLD MARKETS WILL COMPLETELY DISMANTLE OUR FEDERAL PROTECTIONS AND BENEFITS WE RECEIVE THROUGH  OUR FEDERALLY RUN HEALTH PROGRAMS.


Remember, this is exactly what happened to the financial industry when Clinton deregulated and consolidated to create the global banking system.  We are now paying for financial services with fees for every single service----and that will be what health care will look like under ACA.  You will be forced to purchase your health plan like you do cable television stations.

Raise your hands if you knew that handing the responsibility of controlling health costs to the very health institutions creating the soaring costs would result in the American people unable to access most health care and in this case PHARMA!  EVERYONE.  So, when the Affordable Care Act states its intentions were to lower cost and all we see is what happens when corporations are encouraged to consolidate and grow in power----maximization of profit by any means------

WE KNOW THAT NEO-LIBERALS ARE LYING ABOUT THE INTENT OF THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT.




'Although the money for covering uninsured Americans is coming from Washington, the heath care law gives states broad leeway to tailor benefits, and the local approach can also allow disparities to emerge'.

Drug Cost May Vary Greatly By State After Obamacare Implementation

By RICARDO ALONSO-ZALDIVAR 05/13/13 11:35 AM ET EDT

  WASHINGTON — Cancer patients could face high costs for medications under President Barack Obama's health care law, industry analysts and advocates warn.

Where you live could make a huge difference in what you'll pay.

To try to keep premiums low, some states are allowing insurers to charge patients a hefty share of the cost for expensive medications used to treat cancer, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and other life-altering chronic diseases.


Such "specialty drugs" can cost thousands of dollars a month, and in California, patients would pay up to 30 percent of the cost. For one widely used cancer drug, Gleevec, the patient could pay more than $2,000 for a month's supply, says the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

New York is taking a different approach, setting flat dollar copayments for medications. The highest is $70, and it would apply to specialty drugs as well.

Critics fear most states will follow California's lead, and that could defeat the purpose of Obama's overhaul, because some of the sickest patients may be unable to afford their prescriptions.

"It's important that the benefit design not discriminate against people with chronic illness, and high copays do that," said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere Health, a data analysis firm catering to the health care industry and government.


Avalere's research shows that 1 in 4 cancer patients walks away from the pharmacy counter empty-handed when facing a copay of $500 or more for a newly prescribed drug.

"You have to worry about a world where if you happen to contract cancer or multiple sclerosis, you are stuck with a really big bill," Mendelson said. "It's going to be very important for states to take a long, hard look at their benefit design."

Although the money for covering uninsured Americans is coming from Washington, the heath care law gives states broad leeway to tailor benefits, and the local approach can also allow disparities to emerge.

A spokesman for Covered California said state officials are trying to balance between two conflicting priorities: comprehensive coverage and affordable premiums.

"We are trying to keep the insurance affordable across the board," said Dana Howard, the group's spokesman. "This is just part of trying to manage the overall risk of the pool." Covered California is one of the new state marketplaces where people who don't get coverage on the job will be able to shop for private insurance starting this fall. Coverage takes effect Jan. 1.

Insurers are forecasting double-digit premium increases for individual policies, as people with health problems flock to buy coverage previously denied them. The Obama administration says the industry warnings are overblown, and that for many consumers, premium increases will be offset by tax credits to help buy insurance. And officials say it's important to realize that the law sets overall limits on patients' liability, even if those seem high to some people. Still, a full picture of costs and benefits isn't likely to come into focus until the fall.

Howard said California officials are aware of the concerns about drug costs and are trying to make medications more affordable.

Meanwhile, he said consumers will be protected because the law limits total out-of-pocket costs – the deductibles and copayments that policy holders are responsible for, apart from monthly premiums. In California, the annual out-of-pocket limit for an individual is $6,400, although it can be as low as $2,250 for low-income people. Once that limit is reached, insurance pays 100 percent.

That's still a lot of money, and such reassurances haven't dispelled the concerns.

"The intent of the Affordable Care Act is to make sure that all Americans have access to quality, affordable health care," said Brian Rosen, a senior vice president of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. He adds that there is a danger that the insurance marketplaces "will discriminate against the patients with the highest medical need. That would completely undermine the spirit of the ACA."

The group has been joined by Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Calif., in urging state officials to reconsider the policy. The high copays "could prevent many patients from receiving the lifesaving treatments they need because of prohibitively high cost," Matsui wrote to the state.

The problem with costly drugs is similar to another money issue with the health care law – a provision that could price millions of smokers out of coverage. Insurers are allowed to charge tobacco users buying an individual policy up to 50 percent higher premiums. For a 55-year-old smoker, the penalty could reach nearly $4,250 a year, on top of the standard premium. California is trying to override that problem by passing its own law. There's also pending state legislation to address some issues with prescription costs, but its prospects are unclear.

Meanwhile, leukemia patient Lisa Lusk worries about what will happen to her. A nursing assistant who lives near Fresno, Lusk is hoping to return to work in the next few months. When that happens, she expects to lose emergency coverage she's now getting through the state. And the medication Lusk takes to manage her chronic form of the disease costs more than $5,000 a month.

"I'm scared that when I get a job my copay may be more than $1,500 a month," said Lusk. "I'll just be working to pay for my medications."
___________________________________________

So, the health market manipulation begins as Obama's Health Secretary says------she does not see the state health plans under ACA as FEDERAL HEALTH CARE PROGRAMS HELD TO FEDERAL PROTECTIVE LAWS.  So, bring the fraud and corruption on says the neo-liberal Sebelius-------lying, cheating, and stealing rules with the Affordable Care Act.

'HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on October 30 sent a letter that threatens to further exacerbate health insurance affordability concerns.  The Sebelius letter to Rep Jim McDermott (D-WA) says that HHS “does not consider” qualified health plans under the Affordable Care Act to be “Federal health care programs” for purposes of federal anti-kickback rules.  Pharmaceutical industry representatives cheered this letter because, in their view, it gives a green light to the use of copay coupons'.

Remember, Obama appointed Sebelius knowing this Kansas insurance regulator had a history of working for the health insurance industry, not the public.  So, having Sebelius set the legal stage for making it harder for the public to seek justice from abuse of the Affordable Care Act would be expected.  Below you see the conversation over 'co-pay coupons' designed to undermine any effort to make these state insurance systems 'affordable'.  What will people who cannot meet co-pays and deductibles do to access the most limited amount of care?  Go to coupons.

Keep in mind as well, the ACA is premised completely on high levels of subsidy and in this age of massive corporate fraud and exploding economies drawing government coffers deeper into debt------

THOSE SUBSIDIES WILL DISAPPEAR JUST AS PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEE BENEFITS ARE DISAPPEARING.


Can you imagine as a family trying to figure out how to buy insurance with a hodge-podge of coverage designed to have costs soar if you need to go outside of what is listed in a plan? 

WAKE UP PEOPLE-----YOU ARE BEING TAKEN TO THE CLEANERS AND THIS IS LIFE AND DEATH!


Simply ending this very private and profit-driven state health system and replacing it with Expanded and Improved Medicare for All will keep our Federal Medicare program strong and keep health care coverage standard for all. 

MARYLAND HAS ONE OF THE WORST OF PRIVATE HEALTH PLANS AND HAS ALREADY MOVED AWAY FROM ANY FEDERAL OVERSIGHT.  IT ALSO HAS THE GREATEST HEALTH DISPARITIES.

Insurance Premiums Affordable Care Act — HHS Blind Eye to Copay Coupons Will Lead to Increased Health Insurance Premiums


11-7-2013
| 1 Comment | Edward C Lawrence



As if the White House and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) weren’t already feeling political heat over the botched federal health insurance website launch and over health insurance cancellation letters and increased premiums for millions of Americans, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius on October 30 sent a letter that threatens to further exacerbate health insurance affordability concerns.  The Sebelius letter to Rep Jim McDermott (D-WA) says that HHS “does not consider” qualified health plans under the Affordable Care Act to be “Federal health care programs” for purposes of federal anti-kickback rules.  Pharmaceutical industry representatives cheered this letter because, in their view, it gives a green light to the use of copay coupons.

We have written about how drug manufacturer copay coupons for brand-name drugs increase health insurance costs by undercutting health plan incentives for beneficiaries to use equally appropriate generic or less-expensive brand drugs.  In an interview we published in September, Kevin G. McAnaney, a former official in the HHS Inspector General’s office, talked about how the use of copay coupons in connection with federally-subsidized health insurance plans under the Affordable Care Act would likely violate federal anti-kickback laws.  In McAnaney’s view, federally subsidized plans under the Affordable Care Act, whether purchased on the federal exchange or in state exchanges, are “Federal health care programs” subject to criminal anti-kickback laws.  McAnaney talked about the potential legal exposure of pharmaceutical companies offering copay coupons and pharmacies accepting them.

Secretary Sebelius’s letter stating that HHS does not consider ACA health insurance plans to be “Federal health care programs” provides absolutely no legal justification for its conclusion.
  The letter correctly recites that under the relevant portion of the anti-kickback law, a “Federal health care program” is “any plan or program that provides health benefits, whether directly, through insurance, or otherwise, which is funded directly, in whole or in part, by the United States Government…or any State health care program….” But then the letter simply states that the department “does not consider” qualified health plans and other programs related to the Federal health exchange to be “Federal health care programs.”  The letter goes on to say this includes the State-based and Federally-facilitated Marketplaces; the cost-sharing reductions and advance payments of the premium tax credit; navigators and other federally-funded consumer assistance programs; and co-op health plans.  According to the letter, this “conclusion was based upon a careful review of the definition of ‘Federal health care program’ and an assessment of the various aspects of each program under Title I of the Affordable Care Act and consultation with the Department of Justice.”  That’s the entirety of the HHS rationale!

Fortunately for those whose health insurance premiums would be increased if copay coupons are allowed under Affordable Care Act plans, the HHS letter is not the final word.  The Sebelius letter does not, and cannot, change the underlying Federal anti-kickback rules that will almost certainly be interpreted by the courts.  According to a Wall St. Journal article, “Branded Drugs Chalk Up a Win Under Health Law” (Nov. 3, 2013), the “Pharmaceutical Care Management Association plans to challenge the HHS determination.”  The HHS decision “also could be reversed …by one of the lawsuits that union health-insurance plans and other plaintiffs have filed to block copay-card use, or by a probe by the HHS Office of Inspector General into illegal copay-card use by Medicare Part D beneficiaries.” 

Perhaps more of a risk for drug companies and pharmacies involved with copay coupons is the threat of Federal False Claims Act suits brought by private parties.  A Bloomberg BNA story, “Sebelius: ACA Exchange Plans Are Not ‘Federal Health Care Programs’” (Oct. 31, 2013) (subscription) quotes Arnold & Porter attorney Kirk Ogrosky as saying the HHS decision “simply opens the door to coupons in exchanges, but it also signals that relator’s counsel are free to file False Claims Act cases.”  The False Claims Act gives a significant incentive to private parties to file qui tam, or whistleblower, suits even when government agencies may not be interested in doing so.  As an example, on November 4, 2013, the Justice Department announced that pharmaceutical manufacturer Johnson & Johnson would pay $2.2 billion to resolve criminal and civil liability and that whistleblowers would receive nearly $168 million from that.

In what appears to be a belated recognition of the adverse implications for health insurance underwriting resulting from the Sebelius letter, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (part of HHS) on November 4 released guidance encouraging health insurance issuers to reject support of cost-sharing payments by commercial entities.  While not specifically mentioned in the CMS guidance, the discouraged practices clearly include drug company copay coupons:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has broad authority to regulate the Federal and State Marketplaces (e.g., section 1321(a) of the Affordable Care Act). It has been suggested that hospitals, other healthcare providers, and other commercial entities may be considering supporting premium payments and cost-sharing obligations with respect to qualified health plans purchased by patients in the Marketplaces. HHS has significant concerns with this practice because it could skew the insurance risk pool and create an unlevel field in the Marketplaces. HHS discourages this practice and encourages issuers to reject such third party payments. HHS intends to monitor this practice and to take appropriate action, if necessary.

We would not be surprised to see the HHS Inspector General and/or Congressional committees inquire into the decision process behind the Sebelius letter.



_____________________________________________
The last article will talk about the Obama administration 'fighting' what we all know will be the result of PHARMA amassing huge wealth through global markets-----buying off any market-mechanism that will take market share away from big PHARMA.  Obama and neo-liberals took PHARMA out of the health reform issue by making sure none of the reform hurt PHARMA and indeed, these corporations will be cashing in big time as the world's citizens are soaked for the very life-saving drugs we have all been used to accessing.

The number of people made unable to access ordinary PHARMA will be in the hundreds of millions if not a billion and many of those will be right here in the US.  This article on TPP talks of how the drug distribution in developing worlds will change but remember-----

OBAMA AND NEO-LIBERALS HAVE TPP SITTING THERE AND NEO-LIBERALS IN STATES LIKE MARYLAND ARE ALREADY PASSING THE LAWS THAT ALLOW ALL OF THESE TPP REQUIREMENTS BE MET.

This is what Maryland's Sharfstein and Barbot have been doing as head of Maryland and Baltimore Health Departments.....creating the structures that will deliver this tiered level of access and the third world clinic care/home health care that will handle people dying from lack of access to ordinary care.
  Johns Hopkins has built an entire global health tourism system on the backs of Baltimore citizens lack of access from stolen Medicare and Medicaid leaving longevity inequity of 30 years.  This is what the Affordable Care Act makes standard all across America.

THOSE 'COST SAVINGS' FROM BUNDLED PAYMENTS MEANS YOU AND I WILL BE NICKEL AND DIMED TO DEATH IN THE PURSUIT OF MAXIMIZING PROFIT.

As Obama uses the Federal legal system to 'fight in court' what we all know corporations with increasing size and wealth will do-----Obama is pushing to fast-track the TPP which he has spent his entire time in office working with corporations to write.  Bush and neo-cons started TPP and Obama and neo-liberals are trying to finish the deal. 

WE DON'T KNOW WHAT IS IN TPP SHOUT YOUR DEMOCRATIC INCUMBENT!  THE ENTIRE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT BUILDS THE STRUCTURES TO INSTALL TPP FOR GOODNESS SAKE AND YOUR POLS KNOW IT.



The Trans-Pacific Partnership and Public Health

The TPP would provide large pharmaceutical firms with new rights and powers to increase medicine prices and limit consumers' access to cheaper generic drugs. This would include extensions of monopoly drug patents that would allow drug companies to raise prices for more medicines and even allow monopoly rights over surgical procedures. For people in the developing countries involved in TPP, these rules could be deadly - denying consumers access to HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis and cancer drugs.

The TPP would establish new rules that could undermine government programs in developed countries. The TPP would control the cost of medicines by employing drug formularies. These are lists of proven medicines that the government selects for use by government health care systems. Lower prices are negotiated for bulk purchase of such drugs and new medicines that are under monopoly patents are not approved if less expensive generic drugs are equally effective. Drug firms would be empowered to challenge these decisions and pricing standards. In the United States, these rules threaten provisions included in Medicare, Medicaid and veterans' health programs to make medicines more affordable for seniors, military families and the poor.

TPP would empower foreign pharmaceutical corporations to directly attack our domestic patent and drug-pricing laws in foreign tribunals. Already under NAFTA, which does not contain the new rules proposed for TPP, drug firm Eli Lilly has launched such a case against Canada, demanding $100 million for the government's enforcement of its own patent standards. 

The TPP would also empower foreign corporations to directly challenge domestic toxics, zoning, cigarette and alcohol and other public health and environmental policies to demand taxpayer compensation for any such policies that undermine their expected future profits. Often initiatives to improve such laws are chilled by the mere filing of such an "investor-state" case. In other instances, countries eliminate the attacked policies. For instance Canada lifted a ban on a gasoline additive already banned in the U.S. as a suspected carcinogen after an investor attack by Ethyl Corporation under NAFTA. It also paid the firm $13 million and published a formal statement that the chemical was not hazardous.




____________________________________________
How do you end the availability of generics?  You create massively wealthy global PHARMA corporations that can afford to buy out all deals to form generic-producing companies.  ARE YOU SURPRISED THAT THIS IS ALREADY HAPPENING?  How have large corporations always gained market share-----by stamping out the competition.  So, big PHARMA sees a group of business people planning to create a generic manufacturing of a brand name drug and simply pay them not to.

That is what is happening all over the world.  So, when the Affordable Care Act sends more money to funding generic medication for the American people at the same time they know the consolidation of the health industry will give such power to these global health systems as to eliminate the production of generics-----THEY ARE LYING TO YOU AS TO THE INTENT OF THE ACA.

One more point with what is called 'biologics'.  For those noticing a corporation like Johns Hopkins now having a BIOTECH campus attached to its campus......this is the patent pipeline to new PHARMA that will hit the market.  ACA allows 'biologics' to hit the market with little FDA oversight or clinical trial requirements.  It will fast-track what will be multiple versions of 'generic' protein-based PHARMA allowing a corporation like Johns Hopkins to hit the market with drug after drug having no real value but earning money simply through winning market share with marketing.  All of this is completely without value to society----it is simply happening to allow Johns Hopkins to make a slight change in PHARMA formula to patent and sell. All of the manipulation of the drug market with the few methods I shared today will explode and the quality of drug most people will receive will deteriorate.  The most current drugs will be unattainable for most and the availability of what will be called 'generic' will be limited to PHARMA that is so old-----as to have no efficacy.




ALL OF MARYLAND POLS KNOW THIS IS WHAT IS IN STORE AND THEY ARE PASSING ALL THE LAWS NECESSARY AND MARYLAND IS BUILDING ONE OF THE MOST PROFIT-DRIVEN SYSTEMS IN THE NATION.

Court: Can drug companies pay to delay generics?

By JESSE J. HOLLAND and LINDA A. JOHNSON March 24, 2013 11:51 PM WASHINGTON (AP) --

Federal regulators are pressing the Supreme Court to stop big pharmaceutical corporations from paying generic drug competitors to delay releasing their cheaper versions of brand-name drugs. They argue these deals deny American consumers, usually for years, steep price declines that can top 90 percent.

The Obama administration, backed by consumer groups and the American Medical Association, says these so-called "pay for delay" deals profit the drug companies but harm consumers by adding 3.5 billion annually to their drug bills.

But the pharmaceutical companies counter that they need to preserve longer the billions of dollars in revenue from their patented products in order to recover the billions they spend developing new drugs. And both the large companies and the generic makers say the marketing of generics often is hastened by these deals.

The justices will hear the argument Monday.

Such pay-for-delay deals arise when generic companies file a challenge at the Food and Drug Administration to the patents that give brand-name drugs a 20-year monopoly. The generic drugmakers aim to prove the patent is flawed or otherwise invalid, so they can launch a generic version well before the patent ends.

Brand-name drugmakers then usually sue the generic companies, which sets up what could be years of expensive litigation. When the two sides aren't certain who will win, they often reach a compromise deal that allows the generic company to sell its cheaper copycat drug in a few years — but years before the drug's patent would expire. Often, that settlement comes with a sizeable payment from the brand-name company to the generic drugmaker.

Numerous brand-name and generic drugmakers and their respective trade groups say the settlements protect their interests but also benefit consumers by bringing inexpensive copycat medicines to market years earlier than they would arrive in any case generic drugmakers took to trial and lost. But federal officials counter that such deals add billions to the drug bills of American patients and taxpayers, compared to what would happen if the generic companies won the lawsuits and could begin marketing right away.

A study by RBC Capital Markets Corp. of 371 cases during 2000-2009 found brand-name companies won 89 at trial compared to 82 won by generic drugmakers. Another 175 ended in settlement deals, and 25 were dropped.

Generic drugs account for about 80 percent of all American prescriptions for medicines and vaccines, but a far smaller percentage of the $325 billion spent by U.S. consumers on drugs each year. Generics saved American patients, taxpayers and the healthcare system an estimated $193 billion in 2011 alone, according to health data firm IMS Health.

  But government officials believe the number of potentially anticompetitive patent settlements is increasing. Pay-for-delay deals increased from 28 to 40 in just the last two fiscal years and the deals in fiscal 2012 covered 31 brand-name pharmaceuticals, Federal Trade Commission officials said. Those had combined annual U.S. sales of more than $8.3 billion.

The Obama administration argues the agreements are illegal if they're based solely on keeping the generic drug off the market. Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, speaking at Georgetown Law School recently, noted that once a generic drug gets on the market and competes with a brand-name drug, "the price drops 85 percent." That quickly decimates sales of the brand-name medicine.

"These agreements should actually be considered presumptively unlawful because of the potential effects on consumers," Verrilli said.

In the case before the court, Brussels, Belgium-based Solvay — now part of a new company called AbbVie Inc. — reached a deal with generic drugmaker Watson Pharmaceuticals allowing it to launch a cheaper version of Solvay's male hormone drug AndroGel in August 2015. Solvay agreed to pay Watson an estimated $19 million-$30 million annually, government officials said. The patent runs until August 2020. Watson, now called Actavis Inc., agreed to also help sell the brand-name version, AndroGel.

Actavis spokesman David Belian disputed the government's characterization of the agreement with Solvay. Belian said that in addition to licensing agreement over Solvay's Androgel patents, Watson was being compensated for using its sales force to promote Androgel to doctors.

AndroGel, which brought in $1.2 billion last year for AbbVie, is a gel applied to the skin daily to treat low testosterone in men. Low testosterone can affect sex drive, energy level, mood, muscle mass and bone strength.

The FTC called the deal anticompetitive and sued Actavis.

The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected the government's objections, and the FTC appealed to the Supreme Court.

The federal district and appellate courts both ruled against the government, AbbVie, which is based in North Chicago, Ill., said. "We are confident that these decisions will be upheld by the Supreme Court."

The Generic Pharmaceutical Association's head, Ralph Neas, said the settlements are "pro-consumer, pro-competition and transparent." He said every patent settlement to date has brought a generic drug to market before the relevant patent ended, with two-thirds of the new generic drugs launched in 2010 and 2011 hitting the market early due to a settlement.

"By doing what the FTC wants, you're going to hurt consumers rather than help them," said Paul Bisaro, CEO of Actavis of Parsippany, N.J.

Bisaro said consumers will save an estimated $50 billion just from patent settlements involving Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering drug made by Pfizer Inc. of New York that reigned for nearly a decade as the world's top-selling drug.

Lipitor's patent ran until 2017, but multiple generic companies challenged it. Pfizer reached a settlement that enabled Actavis and a second company to sell slightly cheaper generic versions starting Nov. 30, 2011 and several other generic drugmakers to begin selling generic Lipitor six months later. The price then plummeted from Pfizer's $375 to $530 for a three-month supply, depending on dosage, to $20 to $40 for generic versions.

Because generic companies tend to challenge patents of every successful drug, the FTC's position would impose onerous legal costs on brand-name drugmakers and limit their ability to fund expensive research to create new drugs, said the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents brand-name drugmakers.

According to the 2010 RBC Capital Markets study, when trial victories, settlements between drugmakers and dropped cases are combined, generic companies were able to bring their product to market before the brand-name drug's patent expired in 76 percent of the 371 drug patent suits decided from 2000 through 2009.

Consumer, doctor and drugstore groups have lined up to support the Obama administration in this case.

"AARP believes it is in the interest of those fifty and older, and indeed the public at large, to hasten the entry of generic prescription drugs to the marketplace," said Ken Zeller, senior attorney with the AARP Foundation Litigation. "Pay-for-delay agreements such as those at issue in this case frustrate that public interest."

The American Medical Association, the giant doctors' group, believes pay-for-delay agreements undermine the balance between spurring innovation through patents and fostering competition through generics, AMA President Dr. Jeremy A., Lazarus said. "Pay for delay must stop to ensure the most cost-effective treatment options are available to patients."

Drugstores also believe pay-for-delay deals "pose considerable harm to patients because they postpone the availability of generic drugs which limits patient access to generic medications," said Chrissy Kopple of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores.

Eight justices will decide this case later this year. Justice Samuel Alito did not take part in considering whether to take this case and is not expected to take part in arguments.



0 Comments

June 03rd, 2014

6/3/2014

0 Comments

 
TALKING ONE MORE TIME FOR NOW ON THE DISASTER OF PRIVATIZING PUBLIC HEALTH THROUGH PRIVATIZING UNIVERSITIES AND THE EFFECTS OF AFFORDABLE CARE ACT.  WE CAN SEE TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT IN THE WAY THE PRIVATIZED PATENT SYSTEM AND THE LACK OF FDA OVERSIGHT IS MAKING OUR HEALTH SYSTEM DANGEROUS!

ALL OF MARYLAND CANDIDATE'S FOR GOVERNOR WILL CONTINUE THIS GLOBAL CORPORATE STRUCTURE FOR HEALTH CARE EXCEPT CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR



I listened to a NPR------corporate media all the time----report on the escalating problem of medical procedures and devices passing FDA approval and failing and sometimes killing the American people.  The numbers are soaring as the FDA is now working to send these products to market for profit and allowing the failures to be discovered after the fact by harming the citizens of America.  This NPR article looked at one medical procedure that was approved by the FDA after a supposed 'clinical trial' of a few hundreds of people.  The entire process looked to be filled with false data and sketchy connections with who and how the medical research was conducted and if any of the results were reproducible or if the efficacy was real.

  ERGO-----THE ENTIRE PUBLIC HEALTH CLINICAL TRIAL PROCEDURE IS BEING DISMANTLED AND THE GENERAL PUBLIC WILL NOW BE THE TEST SUBJECTS.  IF HARM IS DONE-----TOUGH LUCK AND WE WILL ALLOW THE BAD MEDICAL PROCEDURE TO CONTINUE REGARDLESS IN ANOTHER FORM.

This is what a corporate state looks like and it is Trans Pacific Trade Pact already in action as Obama has filled his Federal agencies with the same kinds of people that Bush did-----people committed to global corporate control of all public policy.

THIS IS WHAT YOUR ELECTIONS FOR GOVERNOR AND MAYOR ARE ABOUT-----WE THE PEOPLE MUST WIN THESE ELECTIONS!

What is happening as well is that Obama and your neo-liberal Congress person sent hundreds of billions of dollars to higher education under the guise of building stronger education but what they are building are corporate university research facilities complete with patenting of research done at this university.  Most institutions receiving those hundreds of billions to build their corporate R and D?  Ivy League universities like Johns Hopkins.  What this policy does is make these universities corporations that receive tons of public taxpayer money to subsidize research in the guise of education while it is simply a patent machine for corporate R and D.  When you see BIOPARK outside of Johns Hopkins or University of Maryland Medical System in Baltimore (a quasi-institution, not public so they say)   ---you are seeing the public subsidizing with what is called education funding the profits of what are now corporations.

More important is combining this with the fact that the clinical trial structure and fast FDA approval of these patented procedures, devices, or medications that are simply rubber-stamped and you have ABSOLUTELY NO PUBLIC OVERSIGHT OF ANY OF THE HEALTH INDUSTRY ACTIONS.  Remember, universities----especially public universities ------were the one institutions charged with making sure the data and research of products protected the people.  These corporate structures built by neo-liberals like O'Malley and neo-cons like Erhlich are now doing just that.......creating an unaccountable and fraudulent system in our medical research structure.

OBAMA AND NEO-LIBERALS IN CONGRESS-----ALL MARYLAND POLS ARE NEO-LIBERALS------DELIBERATELY SENT MONEY TO BUILD WHAT THEY KNOW WILL HURT AND/OR KILL CITIZENS IN THE NAME OF CORPORATE PROFIT.


This is what Trans Pacific Trade Pact and the Affordable Care Act is all about.....consolidating the health industry into global corporate health systems that are deregulated and unaccountable and that will do harm without a second thought in pursuit of profit.  This is what the Maryland Health reform has done these several years under O'Malley and Rawlings-Blake in Baltimore-----created the structures to allow all this to happen and with no oversight or accountability structures.

SEE WHY CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND AND HER PLATFORM MUST BE KEPT OUT OF THIS ELECTION????


'The 510(k) loophole

Although the FDA requests clinical data in about 10% of cases, one concern over the 510(k) system is that testing is insufficient and so products that are either unsafe or ineffective could be released to market'.


Please read below to the 510 loophole.....it has made the FDA just as the SEC----working for corporate interests against the people's interests.  That is what a corporate state does.

How does the FDA 'approve' medical products?

Thursday 20 February 2014 - 8am PST

Written by David McNamee  Medical News Today



  You may have seen medical products that claim to be "FDA cleared," "FDA registered," "FDA listed" or "FDA approved" - but what do these labels mean? You would be forgiven for feeling confused.

In this feature, we look at what the differences in Food and Drug Administration (FDA) classification actually mean, what you need to be aware of as a consumer and what the future holds for the regulation and classification of medical products in the US.

Though you may see labels on a wide variety of medical products - from implantable defibrillators to smartphone apps - bearing legends such as "FDA registered," in reality these claims are often disingenuous. But regulation over the correct terminology is rarely enforced.

Class 1, 2 and 3 In truth, the only products that the FDA specifically "approve" are drugs and life-threatening or life-sustaining "Class 3" medical technology (such as defibrillators). These are submitted to a rigorous review process called "pre-market approval" (PMA), to prove that the benefits of the products outweigh any potential risks to the health of the patient.


The only products that the FDA specifically "approve" are drugs and life-threatening or life-sustaining "Class 3" medical technology. Scientific evidence from clinical trials must be provided by the manufacturers demonstrating the safety and effectiveness of their product. Just 1% of products pass PMA.

Over-the-counter drugs are monitored by the FDA, but they are submitted to a less rigorous testing procedure, especially if they are assumed to be safe.

Vitamins, herbs and supplements are not tested by the FDA unless they are an active ingredient in a drug that requires FDA approval - so manufacturers of supplements are not allowed to claim that their products can treat any specific disease, only that they "promote health."

Despite this, some supplement companies are known to illegally claim their supplements are "FDA approved." It is thought that the FDA are unable to intervene in every instance due to limited resources.

Low-risk medical devices, such as stethoscopes and gauze, are known as "Class 1" and are exempt from FDA review.

"Class 2" medical devices are defined as not life-sustaining or life-threatening, though this category covers a wide spectrum of devices, from X-ray machines to some exercise equipment.

The level of scrutiny attached to Class 2 devices is much lower than Class 3. The devices do need FDA "clearance" before they can be marketed and sold, but rather than submit their products for clinical trial, the manufacturers are required instead to convince the FDA that their products are "substantially equivalent" to products that have been previously cleared by the FDA.

Substantially equivalent means that the device has the same intended use and approximate technical characteristics as an existing product.

Products that pass this clearance process may be referred to as "FDA cleared" or "FDA listed," but this is not the same as "FDA approved," which only relates to the prescription drugs and Class 3 devices that have passed PMA.

This approval method for Class 2 devices has been the subject of mounting controversy. The process is known as "510(k)" - named after its section in the law.

The 510(k) loophole


Although the FDA requests clinical data in about 10% of cases, one concern over the 510(k) system is that testing is insufficient and so products that are either unsafe or ineffective could be released to market.


Under 510(k), devices that have passed clearance, but have later been found dangerous or ineffective and are recalled, are not automatically removed from the FDA's list of cleared products. Another worry about this process is that the more "substantially equivalent" (but not identical) products are listed, the more a chain grows of FDA-cleared products that increasingly move away from the original product.


But perhaps the most concerning feature of 510(k) is that devices that have passed clearance, but then have later been found dangerous or ineffective and are recalled, are not automatically removed from the FDA's list of cleared products.

This is a loophole that allows any new products bearing the same faults to remain eligible for FDA clearance through 510(k).

In a 2012 report, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommended that 510(k) be replaced with an "integrated pre-market and post-market regulatory framework that effectively provides a reasonable assurance of safety and effectiveness throughout the device life cycle."

But these recommendations - though popular with consumer advocacy groups - were rejected by the FDA.

A congressman (now senator) for Massachusetts, Ed Markey, campaigned for the reform of 510(k) and proposed a 2012 bill to close the loophole.

But the bill was not passed. It received opposition from medical device manufacturers and members of Congress who claimed that the existing FDA review processes are already too time-consuming and unpredictable, compared with other countries, so inserting more safeguards and regulatory steps would have the effect of strangling innovation.

Medical News Today spoke to Dr. Michael A. Carome, director of the non-profit consumer rights organization Public Citizen's Health Research Group, about 510(k).

Dr. Carome cites a report that Public Citizen issued in 2012 highlighting "a concerted lobbying campaign intended to weaken the already lax regulatory oversight of medical devices."

"For example, in 2011 the medical device industry spent $33.3 million on lobbying, raising its total to $158.7 million since 2007. This lobbying campaign has been very successful and has generally drowned out calls for stronger medical device regulation from consumer advocates like Public Citizen."

Carome also sees a second obstacle in the FDA itself, "which has been very resistant to proposals to strengthen or replace the 510(k) system."


"The FDA seems beholden to the medical device industry and the mantra that promotion of 'innovation' is the most important goal in the regulation of medical devices," he adds.


More recently, Sen. Markey wrote to the FDA, appealing directly for them to reform 510(k).

Sen. Markey was satisfied with the FDA's response, announcing in December 2013 that database modifications proposed by the agency "will help decrease the dangers and increase the awareness of medical devices that may be made based on flawed models."

Dr. Carome feels, though, that the FDA's proposed measures "fail to adequately address the underlying flaws in the 510(k) premarket clearance process."

The central issue remains that new Class 2 medical devices found to be "substantially equivalent" to recalled but previously cleared devices are still obliged - by law - to be cleared by the FDA, despite whatever flaws the devices contain.

"The slightly improved transparency provided by FDA's revised database for 510(k)-cleared devices does not close this dangerous loophole in the existing law that threatens patient safety," Carome concludes.

But what are the Class 2 devices that have caused patient safety concerns?

Carome points to the DePuy metal-on-metal Articular Surface Replacement (ASR) hip implant - an "example of a medical device heavily promoted as being innovative and better than earlier types of devices."

In November 2013, DePuy - an orthopedics company owned by Johnson & Johnson - announced a $2.5 billion settlement to resolve more than 8,000 of 12,000 public liability claims filed in US courts after their metal-on-metal hip was recalled in 2010. The ASR was found to shed metallic debris as it wears, causing pain and injury to the patient.

The Myxo ring In 2008, a surgeon named Dr. Patrick McCarthy at Chicago's prestigious academic medical center, Northwestern Memorial Hospital, was found to be installing a device he had invented - the McCarthy Annuloplasty Ring - into the hearts of cardiology patients without the informed consent of the patients.


"If you are planning to receive a medical device in a US hospital, there is no way to confirm whether the device is FDA approved, investigational or registered," says Dr. Rajamannan. Concerned patients were even more alarmed when they discovered that the ring had also not been submitted to the FDA for review.

"There are no guideposts for us. You don't learn about this stuff in med school," McCarthy was quoted by the Chicago Tribune as saying, when questioned on why he had bypassed FDA approval.

The ring's manufacturer, a company called Edwards Lifesciences, later falsely claimed that the device was exempt from the 510(k) process and so did not require FDA clearance.


When a concerned colleague of McCarthy's, Dr. Nalini Rajamannan, contacted the FDA, an investigation was triggered, which ultimately saw the ring cleared for use - despite having already been sewn into the hearts of 667 patients.

But further controversy surrounded the FDA's clearance, which simply relied on a clinical study Dr. McCarthy himself had written as evidence that the ring - now rebranded "Myxo dETlogix" - was safe and effective.

Dr. Rajamannan - who was co-author on that study before withdrawing when she learned that the patients involved were not giving informed consent - later wrote a book detailing the controversy and continues to campaign on behalf of patients installed with the Myxo ring.

Speaking to Medical News Today, she says that the concerns over the Myxo device have still not been addressed by the FDA:


"The FDA has written a formal letter stating that they would not be investigating the matter any further. These heart valve rings that are being cleared under the 510k process for Edwards Lifesciences are associated with over 4,000 adverse events and over 645 deaths."

"The other major heart valve manufacturers have less than 20 events for their rings in the FDA database."

What does the future hold for FDA regulation? As we have shown in this feature, the confusion over the various stages of FDA "approval" and "clearance" is not limited to patients. These examples show that FDA classifications and processes can also - naively or wilfully - be misinterpreted by manufacturers and medical professionals.

The concerns from doctors, patients and consumer advocacy groups on the lack of regulation of medical products and the conflicts of interest within those regulatory processes remain.

Dr. Carome recommends that the IOM's 2012 guidelines be implemented and suggests that more of the Class 2 products sped through to market under 510(k) need to be reclassified as Class 3, for which the PMA process is much more stringent.

"Manufacturers do heavily promote their devices as being new and innovative, and many health care providers and patients believe that a 'newer' or 'innovative' device must be better," reasons Carome. "However, in most cases, there is no evidence that the newer medical devices are any better than older devices or other less-invasive treatments that don't involve a medical device."

"It is a real safety problem," agrees Dr. Rajamannan, who adds: "If you are planning to receive a medical device in a US hospital, there is no way to confirm whether the device is FDA approved, investigational or registered."

"The patients in the US are at major risk and the FDA is doing nothing to help the patients."
_______________________________________________
As I said, Maryland TV is plastered with injury law firms gathering patients that are victims of this horrendous system.  As we all know, the injury lawyers get all the money in the end and the patients are harmed for life.  This is what a third world nation looks like----citizens cannot even seek medical help without being fearful the procedures are happening in their interests and not for profit.

In Maryland, the Maryland Assembly has passed laws that make it as hard as possible for the public to seek justice in medical malpractice and it does not require medical malpractice insurance---meaning doctors prone to bad practices would love to come to Maryland.  NONE OF THESE POLICIES ARE DEMOCRATIC----YET MARYLAND IS CALLED A 'PROGRESSIVE' STATE.  It is a neo-liberal/neo-con state.





New Jersey Personal Injury Blog FDA Failed to Properly Test Medical Devices before Approval

By Blume Donnelly Fried Forte Zerres & Molinari
on March 9, 2011

CNN
recently reported that a review of recall data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found that the majority of the 113 Class III medical devices that were recalled between 2005 and 2009 for serious, life-threatening dangers, did not undergo the FDA’s more rigorous pre-market approval process, also referred to as “PMA.” Instead, the agency cleared the devices using a less stringent process known as the 510(k) process, under which clinical testing is not required. This discovery brings to light that many medical products that were given clearance, such as automated external defibrillators (AEDs), artificial hip joints, and heart valves, were marketed to and used on consumers without undergoing clinical testing in advance.

Under FDA policy, all Class III devices are required to undergo the PMA premarket approval process, including clinical testing, in order to determine if “sufficient valid scientific evidence” is found that the medical device is safe for its intended use.

However, a report from the Government Accountability Office in 2009 discovered that approximately 66 percent of all Class III devices were approved using the less demanding 510(k) process instead of the PMA because it was “less burdensome”. An additional study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Archives of Internal Medicine, found that approximately 71 percent of the 113 medical devices recalled between 2005 and 2009 were given approval through the 510(k) process.

Many believe the reasons for the shortcomings in testing are because the agency does not have the necessary funding and staff to conduct a clinical study for all medical devices requiring same. While a medical device’s manufacturer does pay for a fraction of the expenses related to a PMA approval, the majority of the cost falls to the FDA, which is under-funded. Choosing to approve a medical device under the 510(k) process is much less expensive.

The FDA has admitted that the 510(k) approval process needs to be toughened, and has stated it intends to take action to improve the process in 2011. Additionally, the FDA has stated it will evaluate all remaining Class III devices slated for the 510(k) process to determine if the device should undergo the PMA process. As a result, there may be dangerous medical devices on the market that have not received proper government approval.

If you believe that a defectively designed or manufactured medical device may have seriously affected your health or the health of a loved one, contact a New Jersey product liability attorney at Blume Goldfaden. Call 973-635-5400 to schedule a no-cost consultation with one of our lawyers.





____________________________________________________
Keep in mind that a republican Bush slashed funding for most Federal agencies as a way to make oversight and accountability go away.  So, when Obama makes an increase of 2-3% he is doing nothing towards rebuilding these agencies.  In fact, much of the funding that makes it to these agencies is simply lost in private outsourcing with all its fraud and corruption.

When they say 'it's the sequestration and the national debt' 

WE SAY----NO, IT'S THE FAILURE TO RECOVER TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN MASSIVE CORPORATE FRAUD THIS LAST DECADE.

This funding status quo simply keeps our Federal agencies in a mode of 'doing no harm' to corporate profits.

STOP ELECTING NEO-LIBERALS!  DO YOU HEAR YOUR POLS SHOUTING TO BRING BACK TENS OF TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN CORPORATE FRAUD!  MARYLAND POLS LOVE FRAUD AND CORRUPTION SO THERE IS NOT A WORD


Once again republican think tanks are crying foul but they are the ones behind all of the dismantling of these agencies creating the fraud and corruption and loss of trillions of dollars.  Their figures are right---$900 billion from Medicare will be taken from the patient's care and not hospital profits.


Reaction to Obama's 2015 HHS funding:

Various health care providers and organizations have responded to the proposal, with many calling for increased funding for health-related agencies and initiatives.

The Federation of American Hospitals criticized proposed funding cuts to Medicare, with FAH President and CEO Chip Kahn saying they would "further threate[n] seniors' access to vital hospital services" and noting that both Republicans and Democrats oppose such reductions (Demko/Zigmond, Modern Healthcare, 3/4). According to National Journal, the group is hoping to persuade Congress against the cuts by touting a new study estimating over $900 billion in Medicare savings over the next 10 years through cost cutting resulting from changes to the way providers deliver care (Ritger, National Journal, 3/4).

American Hospital Association President and CEO Richard Umbdenstock said the proposal contained some "problematic policies" that would hurt hospitals' abilities to improve the health care system and place patients' at risk of losing access to services (Demko/Zigmond, Modern Healthcare, 3/4).

Kasey Thompson, president and chair of the Alliance for a Stronger FDA and vice president of policy, planning and communications for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, called for additional FDA funding, saying, "Given that FDA regulates about 25 cents of every dollar of the gross domestic product, it does not have enough money to fulfill its public health mission."

Alliance for a Stronger FDA Deputy Executive Director Steven Grossman added that the group plans to ask Congress for more FDA funding (Lee, Modern Healthcare, 3/4).

The proposed increase in NIH funding also generated backlash. Research! America President Mary Woolley in a statement said that the U.S. "simply cannot sustain [its] research ecosystem, combat costly and deadly diseases ... and create quality jobs with anemic funding levels that threaten the health and prosperity of Americans," adding, "These funding levels jeopardize our global leadership in science -- in effect ceding leadership to other nations as they continue to invest in strong research and development infrastructures" (Viebeck, "Healthwatch," The Hill, 3/4).




_____________________________________________________


This is how crazy things have gotten.  California is indeed ground zero for this university as corporation model starting with Stanford and now consuming all public universities.  Remember, California had the best education system in the world----I had the pleasure of attending California schools at all levels-----but this move to corporatize has ruined the entire higher education system and they are now creating the tiered higher ed as they are in Maryland with working and middle class being tracked into vocational K-career college.

This is critical to health care because these large universities whether public or private are the source of public protections for health.  If the data is corrupt at universities-----no one is watching the health corporations either.  So, if you think funding universities by making them corporations is a good idea----THINK OF ALL THE FACTORS CONNECTED TO THIS.

It is interesting to note that Governor Brown-----who will try to run for President as a 'progressive' on his old record as a real progressive in the 1970s---appointed Napolitano-----HEAD OF HOMELAND SECURITY WITH NO EDUCATION BACKGROUND as Chancellor of California Higher Education School System.

THE CONTINUED USE OF INSIDERS FILLING APPOINTED POSITIONS AT ALL LEVELS.


When they talk of 'start ups from this university research' they do not tell you that 9 times out of ten those start-ups that are successful are simply absorbed into global corporations.  IT IS A PIPELINE.  Keep in mind that these corporate universities sell this corporate structure as funding schools but it is this structure that has student tuition sky high subsidizing this research and patenting process.  Maryland has done the same to its universities as this article shows in California and it is where all public funding for education is now going.  Johns Hopkins has had so much money funneled to it from our Congress neo-liberals that it owns much of the land in Baltimore's downtown and city center and it is all simply businesses connected to Hopkins.  THIS IS HOW YOU BUILD A GLOBAL CORPORATION THAT CONTROLS A REGION----

Patent-reform legislation spurs controversy among universities

Tina Pai/Staff By Tahmina Achekzai

Last Updated April 28, 2014

In 1994, Michael Doyle, then the director of a computer lab at UCSF, patented software that allowed doctors to view embryos online — the first “interactive” application on the web.

A few years later, the University of California licensed a patent to a company Doyle created called Eolas, which, claiming rights to the idea of embedding interactive content on web pages, sued Microsoft in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit.

The university, a co-plaintiff in the case, took a $30.4-million cut in what is now widely regarded as a classic case of “patent trolling.”

This week, Congress is marking up legislation in hopes of combating patent trolls — companies that purchase patents not to commercialize a product but to reap licensing revenue.

The UC system holds nearly 4,000 U.S. patents that have led to thousands of inventions and hundreds of startup companies. The University of California leads the nation’s universities in patent development, but pending legislation may change that.

Politicians vs. trolls

Traditionally, researchers apply for patents that give them full ownership of their idea or invention and then sell the rights to outside companies, hoping to take their discoveries from the lab to industry. But when the inventions seem to have little hope for commercialization, “patent trolls” may step into the picture.

Trolls, more formally known as patent-assertion entities, will find and subsequently sue businesses they accuse of infringing patent rights. Serving as a middleman between inventors and businesses, trolls collect licensing fees, a portion of which the inventors may receive.

According to the 2013 White House Patent Assertion and U.S. Innovation Report, suits filed by patent trolls tripled from 2010 to 2012, at which point they comprised 62 percent of all patent-infringement cases.

Experts say that because it costs millions of dollars to ascertain what a patent covers, companies faced with these lawsuits may choose to settle rather than to fight.

In November, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., introduced a bill hoping to increase transparency within the patent system and to curb the emerging trend of patent trolling.

The bill would require any patentee who has filed a lawsuit to disclose any financial interests. It also requires the Federal Trade Commission to exercise authority over the misuse of demand letters: notices to companies claiming restitution for breach of license.

Academic qualms

Though the legislation is designed to serve as a deterrent to patent trolls attempting to sue other parties, universities worry it will invariably impede their efforts to enforce their own patent rights.

Earlier this month, the Association of American Universities — of which the UC system is a part — signed a joint letter addressed to Leahy outlining its concerns. The letter was also signed by the Association of University Technology Managers, made up of representatives from “technology transfer” offices at many universities who guard university research.

“Much of the legislation that is currently under discussion in Washington goes far beyond what is necessary simply to prevent that abuse of the patent system,” said David Winwood, the vice president for advocacy at the Association of University Technology Managers.

Of particular concern among both universities and members of Congress is the possible addition of a fee-shifting provision, which would require the losing party in a lawsuit to cover fees and expenses incurred by the opposing party.

Carol Mimura, UC Berkeley’s assistant vice chancellor of intellectual property and research industry alliances, explained that the threat of incurring additional fees could discourage universities from filing lawsuits against actual infringers.

“The provision favors large, deep pockets, not the little guys,” Mimura said in an email. “Big companies and deep pockets create a David and Goliath situation that discourages investment, as opposed to encouraging it.”

While the university protects its employees, co-inventors are sometimes undergraduate students who are not protected and would have to pay for the damages. As a result, she said, they may be discouraged from filing patents — and, consequently, inhibited from advancing “innovation.”

Gary Falle, UC’s associate vice president for federal government relations, argues Congress needs to take a more “balanced approach” when addressing patent abuses.

“The UC is the lead in the nation in the number of patents (awarded annually), and we want to make sure that is protected,” said Falle. “We just want to make sure that the patents the university is awarded are able to move into technology, commercialization and innovation.”


Trimming the troll

Yet Robin Feldman, a law professor at UC Hastings College of the Law who researches patent trolling issues extensively, believes the legislation is vital to the abused patent system.

Feldman suggested universities might have underlying incentives in opposing the legislation. She noted that universities, while not filing patent lawsuits directly, may deliberately ally with nonpracticing entities to increase revenue.

“They do appear to be feeding the patent trolls at least to some extent,” she said. “There’s so much pressure on universities to find funding sources, and it is difficult for them to resist the temptation to sell to those who won’t make any products.”

Still, according to Mimura, UC Berkeley only licenses patents to commercial entities in accordance with university patent policy. And, despite what history may suggest, Mimura said the University of California does indeed support patent reform and has even reached out to Sen. Dianne Feinstein thanking her for support of patent reform.

In regard to current legislation efforts, the UC system only wants to shift the discussion in the right direction, Falle said.

“We believe that addressing bad behavior by stopping those who send multiple demand letters in the hope of extracting fees out of fear will be the focus of reform — not shutting down the entire patent system that is the goose that laid the golden egg,” Mimura said.

0 Comments

June 02nd, 2014

6/2/2014

0 Comments

 
PRIVATIZATION OF PUBLIC HEALTH IS DRIVEN BY THE US AND IT IS ALL WRITTEN INTO THESE TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACTS. THIS PACT WAS INITIATED BY BUSH AND CLINTON AND NOW OBAMA AND THE CLINTONS ARE OVERSEAS WITH US NEO-LIBERALS TRYING TO FORCE NATIONS ALL OVER THE WORLD TO SIGN A PACT THAT IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY BAD FOR ALL CITIZENS INVOLVED.  WE HAVE A DEMOCRATIC PARTY CONTROLLED BY NEO-LIBERALS AND SO DOES MARYLAND.  ALL THE CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND WILL EMBRACE TRANS PACIFIC TRADE PACT AND THE DISMANTLING OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR IS PART OF THIS.

For those that believe the hype about bringing jobs, remember what NAFTA did----it decimated our economy and TPP be worse!


The You Tube video below shows a good view of the concerns for public health in the US.  You can see that Affordable Care Act is an extension of what this TPP requires of all nations.  I will take this week to look at all public sectors to see what TPP will do to our rights as citizens and how it moves the US from second world now to third world after TPP is installed.
  Keep in mind that protests like this are happening all over the world and in the US but in Maryland------

NO ONE KNOWS WHAT IS HAPPENING BECAUSE THE MEDIA AND POLITICIANS ARE ALL CAPTURED AND WORKING FOR GLOBAL CORPORATIONS.



TPP protests hit Utah
www.youtube.com


Published on Nov 19, 2013

The lead negotiators for 12 countries involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership began meeting today in Salt Lake City, Utah. The TPP is a potential new trade deal that would open up markets among nations along the Pacific Rim. The negotiations have largely been secretive so far, but the agreement is expected to impact jobs, the environment, consumer safety and more. Last week, transparency organization WikiLeaks published leaked chapters of the TPP covering intellectual patents, and the organization's co-founder, Julian Assange, slammed the deal. Ameera David speaks with RT's Ramon Galindo, who is in Salt Lake City and attended demonstrations today against the TPP agreement.



This video is from 6 months ago.....Obama is traveling overseas to firm up this deal. If you think all of this buzz is hyperbole you need to learn about what TPP does. It sets US law in a way that gives corporations all the power of profit in all nations involved and the laws written and signed into affect by this treaty can only be changed by a global corporate tribunal.

IT ENDS OUR STATUS AS CITIZEN, OUR EQUAL PROTECTION UNDER LAW, OUR BILL OF RIGHTS AND THIS IS WHY WE ARE SEEING OUR WEALTH STOLEN, OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES AND RIGHTS OPENLY ABUSED....TPP IS ILLEGAL AND A COUP AGAINST THE US CONSTITUTION AS IT ASSAULTS OUR RIGHTS AS CITIZENS.

If your pol is not shouting this-----they are neo-liberals who intend on embracing TPP. Cindy Walsh for Governor of Maryland is the only candidate in the race that will use the governor's office to fight back and stop the TPP structures already being built in Maryland. We must return to a domestic economy. CONGRESS AND STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING....THIS IS WHY THEY ARE PRIVATIZING ALL THAT IS PUBLIC GIVING GLOBAL CORPORATIONS COMPLETE CONTROL IN OUR STATE AND CITY.

It's important to think about the fact that all of these TPP negotiations have taken place during all of Obama's terms in office and Congress knew these terms on health care because I KNEW THESE TERMS ON HEALTH CARE.....I AM JUST AN AVERAGE CITIZEN THAT DOES RESEARCH.  DO NOT LISTEN TO YOUR POLS AT STATE AND NATIONAL LEVELS TELL YOU THEY WERE IN THE DARK.



TPP would make health care even more expensive, less accountable, less accessible

June 21, 2013 Green Party

Health Council of the General Welfare Branch

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is a deal that is being secretly negotiated by the White House, with help from more than 600 corporate advisors, and Pacific Rim nations including Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Chile, Peru, Australia and New Zealand. While the TPP is being called a trade agreement, the United States already has trade agreements covering 90 percent of the GDP of the countries involved in the talks. Instead, the TPP is a major power grab by large corporations.

The text of the TPP includes 29 chapters, only five of which concern trade. The remaining chapters are focused on changes that multinational corporations have not been able to pass in Congress such as restrictions on internet privacy, increased patent protections, greater access to litigation and further financial deregulation.

So far, all that is known about the contents of the TPP is from documents that have been leaked and reports from non-governmental organizations and industry meetings. Unlike other trade deals, the White House refuses to make the text available to the public. In fact, the negotiators refuse to publish the text until four years after it is signed into law.

From the information available, one thing is clear about the impacts of the TPP on health care. The intention of the TPP is to enhance and protect the profits of medical and pharmaceutical corporations without regard for the harmful effects their policies will have on human health.

We know that the TPP will extend pharmaceutical and medical device patents and provide other tools to keep the prices of these necessities high. This will make medications and treatments unaffordable for millions of people and raise the costs of national health programs, including public health systems in the U.S.. At its worst, the TPP will provide a pathway to infect the world’s health systems with the deadly parasite of for-profit health corporations that plague the United States.

The major health threats posed by the TPP include:

  • Extensive patent protections. Through the TPP, pharmaceutical and medical device corporations are seeking extensive patent protections using a process known as ‘Evergreening.’ The TPP gives twenty years of patent protection for pharmaceuticals and medical devices; however, patents can be renewed for another twenty years each time there is a change in an indication or delivery. 
    • Doctors without Borders criticized this practice, stating that patent protections in previous trade agreements raised the price of life-saving medications and made them unavailable to people in poorer countries. Patents prevent the production of low cost generic forms of medications. 
    • Because of the negative impact on public health from patent protections in previous trade agreements, such as the Korea Free Trade Agreement, former President Bush rolled some of these practices back. Unfortunately, the TPP will move them forward again. In fact, the TPP goes farther to require patents on surgical techniques, medical tests and treatments.
  • Prevention of necessary innovation. Doctors without Borders also expressed concern that patent protections encourage innovation based on profit instead of on the needs of people, particularly those in poor nations. Corporations do not see it as in their financial interest to address health conditions more prevalent in poor nations which do not have the financial resources to buy their products. But it is often in these situations where treatment can have the greatest impact on quality of life.
  • Attack on public health systems. An area of great concern is language within the TPP concerning State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs). These are institutions that are fully or partially owned by governments, which could include public health systems.
    • Corporate lobbyists are concerned that SOEs have ‘unfair advantages’ over private industry. These advantages include government subsidies, preferred tax status, low finance rates and access to capital. According to a leaked chapter, corporate lobbyists believe that there is a conflict of interest because SOEs have political considerations such as functioning to provide basic goods and services for their population and believe that instead SOEs should operate strictly as commercial entities.
    • The TPP requires SOEs to disclose any special advantages they receive and the government to give the same advantages to corporations. It also provides methods for corporations to sue governments if they believe that they are not being treated fairly.
    • Text from a section of the TPP called “Annex on Transparency and Procedural Fairness for Healthcare Technologies” was leaked in June, 2011. It reveals that medical industries are pushing on all fronts to keep their prices and prevent public health systems from negotiating to keep prices affordable. To medical industries, price negotiation is one of the ‘unfair advantages’ of public health systems. When a public health system negotiates a lower price, it is said to be exerting its market power. On the flip side, when a government extends patent protections to medical industries, this is not considered to be a use of market power by the industry.
  • Greater control over reimbursement. Medical industries are pushing for other concessions within the TPP to ‘level the playing field,” also known as forcing public entities to operate as market-based entities, such as factoring the cost of not just research, development and production of drugs and medical devices but also the cost of marketing them into what is considered to be a fair market price. And they only view prices negotiated without any government influence as fair. These provisions are significant because the TPP allows pharmaceutical corporations and others to challenge the legitimacy of any reimbursement decisions made by public health systems through the courts.
    • Patent and price protections for multinational pharmaceutical and medical device corporations based in the U.S. will benefit their bottom line and their investor’s pockets, but may bounce back and undermine public health systems in the U.S.. The leaked text indicates that the above provisions only apply to health authorities under the jurisdiction of the federal government. However, the loop holes are large enough that all of the U.S. public health systems, which include Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare and the Veterans Health Administration, can arguably be considered to be federal.
To solve the health crisis in the U.S., we must move away from privatization of health care and towards a public health system with a mission to improve and protect the health of the public.

Therefore, the Health Council of the Green Shadow Cabinet opposes provisions within the TransPacific Partnership that make profit more important than public health. We oppose all provisions that restrict access to necessary medications, medical tests and treatments. Rather than the expansion of patent protections, there should be increased sharing of medical knowledge to promote improved global public health.

~ The Health Council is led by Secretary of Health Dr. Margaret Flowers, serving within the General Welfare Branch of the Green Shadow Cabinet.  This statement is one of over a dozen issued in support of the Green Shadow Cabinet's June 17th call for action against the TPP.

____________________________________________

Let's look locally to see how TPP drives Maryland health care reform.  Maryland is the only state in the nation that seeks exemption from Medicare and is given it.  This means that there is no Federal oversight or requirements that have to be met.  This is why Medicare is handled in Maryland as all health care----it is tiered rather than universal as the Federal program requires.  Maryland has spent these two terms under O'Malley dismantling public health and building private non-profit and corporate structures to handle public sector health care and it is building what is a clinic system for the lower/middle class that is modeled on third world clinic care.  Mind you, the working class and middle class that were driven into poverty from this massive fraud and now the capture of our economy with deliberate high unemployment has moved over 70% and rising of US citizens into or near poverty and they plan to keep pushing more into poverty.  So, this clinic care overage that is mostly preventative care will pertain to almost all US citizens.  Remember, public and private health plans are going to be sent to these state health systems as are Medicare and Medicaid and you will only received the amount of care your income category places you.  Medicare gives equal levels of care to all citizens because people pay their whole lives into Social Security and Medicare. 

TO PROTECT AGAINST THIS DISMANTLING OF OUR FEDERAL HEALTH PROGRAMS WE MUST MOVE FROM THIS PRIVATE HEALTH CARE SYSTEM TO EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL.  OTHER STATES HAVE ALREADY MOVED THIS WAY AND MARYLAND NEEDS TO AS WELL.

No matter how much they tell you all of this clinic care is going to make things easier and offer more access-----THEY ARE LYING.



The TPP’s Threats
to Public Health



The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) is an international trade and investment pact currently under
negotiation between the United States, Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico,
New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. It is also specifically intended as a “docking agreement”
that other countries would join over time, with Japan, Korea, China and others already expressing some
interest.
U.S. negotiators are pushing to complete the TPP as soon as possible.
NEGOTIATIONS ARE HEADED IN THE WRONG DIRECTION ON PUBLIC HEALTH


A roll back from the Bush administration. Leaked U.S. proposals for several chapters in the Trans-
Pacific Partnership reveal that U.S. trade negotiators have reversed hard-won reforms designed to
enhance access to affordable medicines that were made during the George W. Bush administration. In
addition to pushing for increased monopoly rights for drug companies,
the U.S. is also demanding new
rights for pharmaceutical firms to challenge pricing and other drug formulary policies used by many
countries to keep down health care costs.
PACT WOULD REDUCE ACCESS TO GENERIC MEDICATION BY EXTENDING DRUG PATENTS

Access to generic medicine is critical to saving lives. The first generation of HIV drugs has come
down in price from roughly $10,000 per patient per year to just $120 thanks to increased access to
generic medications. This reduction in price has helped to dramatically scale up the number of people
throughout the world who are now receiving treatment. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis
and Malaria, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, UNITAID and UNICEF all rely heavily on
access to quality generic medications. For millions of people throughout the globe, delaying access to
generic medications means delaying access to treatment.

The U.S. proposal would grant new monopoly patent rights, reducing access to generic
medicine.
If finalized and implemented, the leaked U.S. intellectual property proposal would roll back
access to generic medicine for people in
developing countries and throughout the
world. Specifically,
the U.S. proposal would
broaden the scope of patentability by making
it easier for pharmaceutical companies to
patent new uses and minor variations of old
medicines; slow the production of new
generics when patents expire by expanding
“data exclusivity” over clinical trials forcing
either the timely and costly replication of such
trials or an additional three-year delay
(beyond the current five) before such
“exclusivity” ends; constrict safeguards
against patent abuse by making it harder for
public health advocates to challenge
unjustified new patents; require new forms of
drug patent policing; and mandate that
countries allow patents on plants, animals
Trade Policy & Access to Medicine

and surgical methods. The U.S. is expected to also request extensions beyond existing 20-year drug
patents to “compensate” drug companies for time spent in regulatory approval processes.
International public health advocates are speaking out. According to Doctors Without
Borders/Medecins San Frontieres: “Access to affordable lifesaving medicines will be threatened where
they are needed most — in parts of the developing world — if the U.S. insists on implementing
restrictive intellectual property policies in the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement... The leaked
USTR position paper, now available to the public, reveals that the U.S. is pushing its trade partners,
including developing countries, to effectively lower the bar for granting patents, limit the capacity to
challenge patents, and impose new forms of intellectual property enforcement — all measures that
delay the introduction of more affordable generic drugs.”
EMPOWERING DRUG COMPANIES TO ATTACK COST-SAVING DRUG FORMULARIES
Governments use cost-saving drug formularies keep drug prices in check. Governments use
formularies to control health costs by listing medicines approved for government purchase or
reimbursement, and negotiating with drug firms to obtain the lowest prices. Among the current TPP
countries, such formularies are most associated with New Zealand’s Pharmaceutical Management
Agency (PHARMAC) and Australia’s Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS), but they are also used by
other governments, including a number of federal and state-based programs in the United States.
The U.S. proposal seeks to restrict cost-saving drug formularies. The leaked U.S. proposal for a pharmaceutical pricing chapter restricts the use of such formularies, by requiring that countries set up
new administrative and judicial appeal systems to help determine whether government programs
“appropriately recognize the value” of drug patents in their reimbursement proposals.
In Australia, the only country yet to implement such systems under a trade agreement, the result has been higher drug
prices.


NEGOTIATIONS HAVE BEEN TAKING PLACE IN THE
SHADOWS

The Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations have not
been transparent. Access to medicine has received the
attention it has because the U.S. proposals for
intellectual property and pharmaceutical pricing chapters
for the pact have been leaked. Neither of these, nor any
other negotiating texts, has been officially released. This
is completely undemocratic, and also outside the norm
for many international negotiations, including those at the
World Trade Organization, where draft negotiating texts
are regularly published. This excessive secrecy makes it
extremely difficult for civil society to comment on the
negotiations in a productive way while the pact is still
under negotiation and such comments could be valuable.



Learn more & get involved: www.citizenstrade.org


_________________________________________

The Affordable Care Act specifically states that Medicare PHARMA will now be generic in many cases and as we read above TPP seeks to greatly limit generics.  So, if policy pushes seniors towards using generics at the same time policy works to protect Brand names from generics-----

YOU SEE WHERE THIS WILL LEAD.  MOST PEOPLE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO AFFORD NAME BRAND AND THE NUMBER OF GENERICS WILL BE VERY LIMITED AND RESTRICTED TO THE OLDEST OF FORMULAS.


Below you see what ACA promises as all over the world we know the opposite is planned with TPP.  I have a friend already affectived negatively by having to leave a brand name drug for a generic that does not work as well.  This will be wide-spread and people will die from simple lack of access to common drugs.

SELLING THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

 Thousands in Savings by Providing Discounts in the Medicare “Donut Hole”
o More than 8 million seniors in 2007 hit the “donut hole,” or gap in prescription drug coverage in Medicare Part D. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will provide low and middle-income seniors a 50 percent discount on brand-name drug and biologic prices in the donut hole. It will also shrink the gap by $500 per senior for 2010.
 More Affordable Generic Drugs
o Some cutting edge drugs are simply too expensive for many seniors. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will create a pathway for the approval of generic biologic drugs to improve affordability of medications for seniors and all Americans.


Better preventative care for seniors and the poor!  Well, if all these groups will be able to access is preventative care -----will this be better?

OF COURSE NOT----THEY ARE SIMPLY BUILDING A STRUCTURE THAT A SUPER-MAJORITY OF AMERICANS WILL BE PUSHED TO.

Aren't neo-liberals just great allowing the American people the chance to buy yet another health insurance policy directed at long-term care?  The Social Security Disability program is being allowed to be gutted and emptied through fraud in the trillions of dollars and it will end.  Where will all those people with disabilities go?  Well, if you cannot afford yet another insurance policy you will see longevity fall steeply in America in just one generation.

IT TAKES A SPECIAL KING OF PERSON TO PUSH THIS AS POLICY ALL BECAUSE MEDICARE AND MEDICAID WAS GUTTED WITH FRAUD AND PROFITEERING AND NOW THESE HEALTH INSTITUTIONS NEED MORE PROFITS.


In Maryland the driver of these policies and in fact the institution writing these policies is Johns Hopkins University.  Mind you, they have made themselves a global health system through these massive frauds.


Preventive Care for Better Health

o Today, seniors must pay 20 percent of the cost of many preventive services. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will eliminate deductibles, copayments, and other cost-sharing for preventive care, and provide free annual wellness check-ups.

 Affordable Long-Term Care

o Sixty-five percent of seniors need long-term services at home, at an average cost of $18,000 each year. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act will create a voluntary long-term care insurance program, which will provide a cash benefit to help seniors and people with disabilities obtain services and supports that will enable them to remain in their homes and communities.



_______________________________________________
The idea of the Affordable Care Act is to deregulate and dismantle all the public oversight of health care so that the industry can act with impunity just as banks do.  So, health care once controlled within the confines of medical professionals are now handed to private corporations acting as clinic care and of course this will be the only access for the middle-working class families not able to afford the Silver or  higher health plans.

That goal of deregulation takes the form of placing health care everywhere-----at the same time public justice and oversight and accountability is dismantled meaning the public never knows if care is happening or where the money went. I further devolves the US into this third world systemic fraud and corruption this time with our health care.  People will die because tons of money is misappropriated and stolen and people will not have equal access rights as people will be denied for any reason.  THAT'S WHAT LOSING EQUAL PROTECTION IS ALL ABOUT!


When you read that 30 million people will be entering the system it is mostly the people mandated to buy insurance with no protections on how high those insurance rates will go----and they will go high.

MANDATED TO BUY INSURANCE THAT ONLY ALLOWS YOU ACCESS TO PREVENTATIVE CARE AND THEN THOSE RATES CAN SOAR.....


PEOPLE WILL BE BANKRUPTED IN NO TIME AND LIVE IN POVERTY IF THEY TRY TO ACCESS ORDINARY MEDICAL PROCEDURES.

The Affordable Care Act Will Drive Retail Pharmacies To Higher Profits

Nov. 14, 2013 6:23 PM ET  |  Includes: ABC, CVS, ESRX, RAD, WAG Disclosure: I have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. (More...)

It's been a good year for the three major retail pharmacy chains: YTD CVS Caremark (CVS) is up 31%, Walgreen Co. (WAG) is up 61%, and Rite Aid (RAD) has soared 286%. With more generic drugs coming to market and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) less than two months away, retail pharmacy chains are gearing up to welcome what is expected to be an onslaught of newly insured Americans. With the changes in healthcare, pharmacy chains are expanding their reach to become a one-stop healthcare shop for not just prescriptions, but for other medical needs such as flu shots and minor injuries. Soon these retail pharmacies will further encroach on an area where physicians once had the monopoly: managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and asthma. This strategy should add to more revenue for the pharmacy chains with both CVS and Walgreen leading the way.

Adam J. Fein, a healthcare industry consultant who runs the Drug Channels blog, sees changes coming to the way people are currently treated. "Retail competition is coming to healthcare, and pharmacies are on the leading edge." According to the Congressional Budget Office, healthcare spending in America will balloon to 22% of gross domestic product in 2038, from 16.4% in 2011. That means that healthcare spending will account for more than a fifth of the economy, and retail pharmacies are looking for a larger piece of the pie as they move beyond filling prescriptions.

ACA -- Making Pharmacies A One Stop Shop


The government's ACA will bring in approximately 30 million newly insured customers into the healthcare system. Walgreen, CVS, and Rite aid recognize that the millions of people who stand to gain health insurance represent an opportunity for increased pharmacy business in all aspects of the store from drugs to personal products to acute medical needs. To insure a share of the new found customer base, the pharmacy companies have been working closely with the government in promoting uninsured customers to sign up for health insurance with the goal of having them visit the pharmacy clinic and load their baskets with front end merchandise.

____________________________________________
Raise your hand if you understand that policy with a goal of consolidating and deregulating the health industry combined with mandated purchase of insurance would lead to insurance industry capture of the American people!  EVERYONE

THESE POLS ARE NOT FIGHTING IT----THEY VOTED THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT INTO PLACE KNOWING THAT THIS WOULD HAPPEN.

It is just as when neo-liberals with Clinton broke the Glass Steagall wall and passed NAFTA killing the middle-class and creating unaccountable global corporations. 


THE SAME POLS IN OFFICE NOW DID THAT THEN AND WE KEEP VOTING THEM BACK INTO OFFICE!

In Maryland that is Cardin, Sarbanes, Cummings, Hoyer still in office from moving the US from first world to second world and now working to send the US to third world.


Remember, the Trans Pacific Trade Pact specifically states that any national law that interferes with corporate profit will be ignored by global corporations.  So, any law passed that supposedly controls cost will not legally stand when TPP is passed.
  A deregulated insurance industry will soak Americans for all they are worth.




'Powerful corporate interests want to use the TPP to:


- Offshore good-paying jobs to low-wage nations and undercut working conditions globally and further reducing wages in the United States

- Create new tools for attacking environmental, health, labor and consumer safety standards

- Expand the deregulation of banks, hedge funds and insurance companies


- Further concentrate global food supplies, displacing family farmers and subjecting consumers to wild price fluctuations

- Institute longer patents that restrict access to affordable, generic medications'


Health Insurance Premiums Are Soaring as Industry Profits Continue to Rise - Sen. Feinstein, Rep. Schakowsky, Maine Insurance Superintendent and State Insurance Experts Say Regulation Works to Hold Down Rate Increases

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 General News  MED INDIA

Who: Sen. Dianne Feinstein

Rep. Jan Schakowsky

Mila Kofman - Maine Insurance Superintendent

Harvey Rosenfield and Carmen Balber - Consumer Watchdog

What: Newsmaker Briefing: "How Health Insurance Rate Regulation Can Lower Premiums and Save Health Reform"

When: 2:00 p.m. - 3:30 p.m., Wednesday, May 11.

Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Schakowsky will open the briefing

Where: 116 Dirksen Senate Office Building

Constitution Ave and 1st St NE, Washington, D.C.

Join Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Schakowsky, Maine's top insurance regulator and state insurance experts to discuss spiraling health insurance rate increases and how regulation can hold down costs for consumers at a Consumer Watchdog briefing Wednesday afternoon on Capitol Hill.

Consumer Watchdog will also release a new report that examines health insurance rate regulation in the states, and finds that states that are instituting or strengthening laws requiring rate review and approval, including New York, Massachusetts and Maine, are seeing cost-control results.

Sen. Feinstein and Rep. Schakowsky introduced legislation in the 112th Congress to require HHS or the states to reject excessive or unjustified health insurance rates.

Maine Insurance Superintendent Mila Kofman has used that state's law to conduct comprehensive reviews of rate increases -- including public hearings, consumer intervenors and transparency requirements -- to protect consumers from millions in unnecessary rate increases.

Consumer Watchdog founder Harvey Rosenfield wrote California's model law for review and prior approval of property casualty insurance rates that has saved drivers $62 billion.

Consumer Watchdog Washington, DDCD director Carmen Balber will outline HHS regulations from the federal health reform law requiring review of unreasonable rate increases, and highlight regulatory successes and failures in other states.

Health insurance premiums increased 138% in the last decade while medical inflation rose just 31%. 1st quarter 2011 financial reports show health insurance industry profits are on track to beat last year's huge results. Consumer Watchdog's report finds that, if premium increases continue unchecked, health reform will fail in its primary goal of expanding access to health insurance.

CONTACT: Carmen Balber, +1-202-629-3043, cell: +1-310-403-0284, Judy Dugan, cell +1-213-280-0175

/PRNewswire-USNewswire -- May 10, 2011/

SOURCE Consumer Watchdog






0 Comments

May 07th, 2014

5/7/2014

0 Comments

 
ALL CANDIDATES FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND INTEND TO CONTINUE THIS MOST PRIVATE AND PROFIT-DRIVEN OF STATE HEALTH SYSTEMS IN THE NATION  EXCEPT CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR.  WHERE DO NEO-LIBERALS IN MARYLAND GO WHEN YET ANOTHER PRIVATE CONTRACTOR IS GIVEN HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS TO FAIL?  GLOBAL CORPORATE NEO-LIBERALS GO TO THE CONNECTICUT MODEL-----CONNECTICUT BEING WEALTH AND PROFIT AND HOME OF THE US INSURANCE INDUSTRY.

YOU WILL NOT HEAR A CORPORATE NEO-LIBERAL TALK ABOUT EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL OR GIVE YOU A HEADS UP THAT THESE PRIVATE SYSTEMS ARE GEARED TO ENDING MEDICARE AND MEDICAID.

Today I would like to look at what happens when oversight and accountability is taken from health care and when patients become a vehicle to profit rather than a consumer of public health.  We know that PHARMA now manufactures drugs with an eye on how to increase profit----so, we have drug shortages for drugs vital to people but not profitable for drug corporations to make.  Patent extensions are being built and we know Trans Pacific Trade Pact specifically makes it harder for generic drugs to hit the market at a time when the Affordable Care Act specifically states the American people will use generic over name brand.  We know that fraud and corruption is systemic in the health industry taking 1/2 of health spending. 

ALL THIS HAPPENS BECAUSE OF DEREGULATING AND PRIVATIZING PUBLIC HEALTH.


I watched FOX NEWS a few weeks ago and it had as a report that OLESTRA was actually good for you.  Remember, olestra is the food additive that made everyone sick and it was found to be harmful to health and foods having it were pulled from the market a decade ago.  Well, its back and now they are marketing that olestra is good for you, neutralizing all kinds of bad environmental stuff in foods.  The report was given by a man with no public health background----he appeared to simply be a corporate researcher.  THIS IS FOX NEWS MARKETING A FOOD KNOWN TO BE HARMFUL TO AN AUDIENCE LARGELY WORKING CLASS AND POOR.....


We are seeing more and more where the Federal agencies charged with public health are silent on all matters regarding the efficacy ------whether things are helpful or harmful-----and allow corporations to market as they want regardless of clinical trial.  The American people are now exposed to deliberate health harm.  THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN PUBLIC HEALTH IS DISMANTLED.  Maryland has no oversight or accountability and Maryland Assembly has passed laws making it as hard as possible for Maryland citizens to seek justice in cases of medical misconduct.

That's what corporate neo-liberals do-----stop voting for them in primaries----run and vote for labor and justice.


Center for Science in the Public Interest

The Problems With Olestra
Olestra rapidly depletes blood levels of many valuable fat-soluble substances, including carotenoids. Olestra has an extraordinary avidity for certain fat-soluble substances, far exceeding what one would expect based on the fat substitute's proportion of the diet. Olestra's removal from the body of fat-soluble nutrients is linked directly to the additive's being a non-absorbable lipid-like substance.

In Procter & Gamble's two eight-week clinical studies, the lowest level tested -- 8 gm/day (equivalent to 16 olestra-containing potato chips) — caused dramatic depletion of fat-soluble vitamins within two weeks. Procter & Gamble also measured total serum carotenoids, alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lutein, and lycopene. Olestra caused significant declines in all carotenoids monitored. Total serum carotenoids declined sharply by the fourteenth day of olestra consumption and was down by 50% to 60% by the end of the studies. A dosage of 32 gm/day of olestra reduced total serum carotenoids by 70% over the eight weeks.

In a recent four-week study conducted in Holland, 3 gm/day (equivalent to just 6 potato chips) of sucrose polyester (the general name for olestra-like chemicals) caused a 20% decline in beta-carotene levels and a 38% decrease in lycopene, another key carotenoid (Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 62:591 (1995)).

Feeding olestra with one or more meals, as was done in the several clinical studies, results in the greatest depletion of carotenoids. While that might seem to be a worst-case scenario, many people would, indeed, consume olestra-containing foods with meals. In fact, Procter & Gamble's petition states that mealtimes constitute the great majority (79%) of the occasions during which consumers eat "savory snacks." Also, since the frequency of consumption of snacks would likely increase if olestra snacks were available, interaction between nourishing foods and olestra at meals would be likely to increase, resulting in lower serum levels of fat-soluble carotenoids and other phytochemicals. There would also be more opportunities for olestra to reduce the absorption of beta-carotene and fat-soluble vitamins that people ingest in dietary supplements and fortified foods.

Olestra's depletion of carotenoids is of great concern, because a growing body of evidence indicates that they may confer important health benefits. The physiological activities of fat-soluble plant nutrients are just now being elucidated. For instance, in a recent case-control study, lutein (along with zeaxanthin) was strongly associated with a lower risk of macular degeneration, the most common cause of blindness in the elderly (J.A.M.A. 272: 1413 (1994)). That observation is buttressed by the fact that lutein and zeaxanthin form the yellow pigment in the macula (the central part of the retina). In three clinical studies, 3 gm/day of sucrose polyester or 8 gm/day of olestra reduced lutein levels by 20% to 40%.

Cancer experts are urging Americans to eat much greater quantities of vegetables and fruits, in part because of their carotenoids and other phytochemicals. Beta-carotene and other carotenoids have reduced cancer incidence in animals exposed to carcinogens. (J. Nutr. 119:123-6 (1989); Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 53(1 Suppl):238#-246S (1991))

In humans, numerous epidemiological studies have linked diets rich in carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables to lower risks of cancers of the lung, esophagus, pharynx, mouth, stomach, colon, rectum, and bladder. Several studies have found an association between low levels of serum beta-carotene [which could be a marker for other carotenoids) and high rates of stomach and lung cancer. (Am. J. Epidemiol. 135: 115 (1992)]

The Surgeon General's Report on Nutrition and Health, released in 1988 by the Department of Health and Human Services, states:

[E]pidemiological studies provide suggestive evidence that consumption of foods containing carotenoids, including the beta-carotene precursor of vitamin A, protects against development of epithelial cell cancers such as those of the oral cavity, bladder, or lung. These studies have generally shown lower rates of cancer among individuals consuming the highest overall levels of vitamin A, carotenoids, or fruits and vegetables. The National Research Council stated in its landmark 1989 report, Diet and Health, "[T]here is strong evidence that a low intake of carotenoids, which are present in green and yellow vegetables, contributes to an increased risk of lung cancer." The director of the National Cancer Institute's "5 A Day" program pointed out the plausible biochemical mechanisms for the association between fruits and vegetables and lower cancer risks:

Fruits and vegetables are sources of vitamins and minerals (including vitamins A, C, E, and folate), carotenoids and other antioxidants, fiber, and various phytochemicals. . . . Each of these substances may play a role in reducing risk. More likely, it is a combination of these factors, and others not yet explored, which may confer protections. (J. Heimendinger, program director, The National 5 A Day for Better Health Program, Scientific and Program Design Rationale (Aug. 10, 1994) In January, 1996, just three weeks before the FDA approved olestra, the federal government (HHS, USDA) published the newest edition of Dietary Guidelines for Americans, the nation's basic nutrition policies. That document urged people to consume carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables because of their likely role in preventing cancer and other chronic diseases.

While there is not yet conclusive proof that carotenoids reduce cancer risk, to approve a major new additive that would significantly reduce levels of carotenoids (and possibly other fat-soluble phytochemicals) defies logic. It is a remarkable case of governmental ineptitude to have one agency of the Department of Health and Human Services, the National Cancer Institute, encouraging consumers to eat more carotenoid-rich fruits and vegetables, while another agency, the FDA, approves a food additive that depletes the body of potentially beneficial substances in those foods.

Supplementing olestra with selected vitamins will not solve all of olestra's nutrient-depletion problems. Olestra is highly effective at reducing serum levels of the fat-soluble vitamins A, D, E, and K. Simply supplementing olestra with those vitamins, as Procter & Gamble has proposed, would not completely solve that problem. Consider the 1.5 million patients taking the anticoagulant drug Coumadin (warfarin). Coumadin therapy often employs low doses of the anticoagulant, making the drug's efficacy particularly sensitive to fluctuations in vitamin K levels. Eating snack foods containing olestra and added vitamin K might cause substantial fluctuations in serum vitamin K levels, possibly impairing the efficacy of Coumadin. Furthermore, researchers are now identifying important functions for vitamin K other than those associated with blood clotting, such as bone formation in fetal development and childhood and retention of bone in older women.

No animal or clinical studies have demonstrated that vitamin K-supplemented olestra would be safe for Coumadin users and effective in maintaining physiological functions in addition to blood coagulation.

Doctors will have to warn their patients to avoid olestra (or, more safely, all snack foods of unknown composition).

Olestra causes gastrointestinal disturbances, which are sometimes severe, including diarrhea, fecal urgency, and more frequent and looser bowel movements. A variety of gastrointestinal symptoms occurred in subjects who consumed on a daily basis the amount of olestra that would be found in less than one ounce of potato chips (about 16 chips), as well as higher doses. For instance:

  • In Procter & Gamble's eight-week vitamin-restoration study, 8 gm/day of olestra caused a five-fold increase (1/17 versus 5/17) in diarrhea compared to the incidence in controls who ate natural fat.
  • In the eight-week vitamin-restoration and dose-response studies, 32 gm/day (the amount in about 3 ounces of chips) caused diarrhea in half the subjects (9/17 in one study, 13/24 in the other); control groups had much lower incidences (4/21 and 1/17, respectively).
  • In the dose-response study, 8 gm/day of olestra increased the total number of incidents of gastrointestinal symptoms — including diarrhea, loose stools, nausea, gas, and others — from 40 to 66 (65% increase). In the two clinical studies, 20 gm/day of olestra caused roughly a doubling of the number of incidents compared to controls.
  • At all doses of olestra in both eight-week studies, one or more people experienced symptoms that persisted on an intermittent basis for at least 40 days.
Gastrointestinal disturbances are not normally life-threatening, but they can be very inconvenient, unpleasant, uncomfortable, and worrisome. Imagine the plight of a school child who must repeatedly request permission to go to the toilet (and consider the teacher's plight, too). Think of the driver of a giant 18-wheeler barreling down the highway at 70 miles per hour when he gets hit with a bout of fecal urgency. Consider a teenager on a first date when he or she is constantly worrying about diarrhea and gas. Or a young woman who has to see a doctor because she worries that her nausea might be caused by a pregnancy, or an elderly person who fears that his diarrhea reflects a serious intestinal problem. Many people will eventually link the olestra snack foods to their gastrointestinal problems, but they may experience much discomfort before they make that link. And as long as olestra snack foods are marketed, new consumers will constantly be experiencing those problems.

Olestra sometimes causes underwear staining associated with "anal leakage." Olestra sometimes causes underwear staining. That phenomenon may be caused most commonly by greasy, hard-to-wipe-off fecal matter, but occasionally also from anal leakage (leakage of liquid olestra through the anal sphincter).

Procter & Gamble conducted a study that examined the effects of different formulations of olestra. The study used a dose of 34 gm/day, but, unfortunately, it lasted only five days, so it must be considered very preliminary. However, even that study showed that anal leakage occurred at a slightly higher rate in the test groups consuming the types of olestras than in the control group (which, inexplicably, included 2 cases of anal leakage). In addition, anal leakage was reported by one subject in the high-dose group (32 gm/day) of the eight-week dose-response study. Given the small size of the study groups (an average of 20 subjects/group) in the two eight-week studies, this single occurrence adds further evidence that Procter & Gamble has not yet resolved the anal leakage problem in heavy consumers of olestra.

Although underwear staining and anal leakage do not endanger consumers' physical health, those phenomena could cause psychological problems, including feelings of embarrassment and insecurity. Children and teenagers, especially, are likely to be disturbed about having dirty underwear, fearing embarrassment in front of friends and family. Snacking should be a pleasure undiluted with problems like dirty underwear.

Another condition associated with olestra consumption, "oil in toilet," occurred frequently in Procter & Gamble's two eight-week clinical studies. It could be disconcerting and might spur some people to see their doctor.

Data are lacking on the health effects of olestra on potentially vulnerable segments of the population. Key tests were unacceptably brief. Only poor studies have examined the effect of olestra on gastrointestinal disturbances in children, while no studies at all have focused on gastrointestinal problems and nutrient losses in healthy people over 44 years of age and people with poor nutritional status. For instance, the longest test on children, who would likely be major consumers of olestra-containing snacks, lasted only 7 days and exposed children to an average of only 7 gm/day of olestra, equivalent to two thirds of an ounce of potato chips. People who had poor diets and relatively low levels of carotenoids and who ate olestra regularly might be at special risk.

Furthermore, Procter & Gamble has not conducted human studies to assess the potential long-term health effects of olestra consumption. The results from brief (eight-week) clinical trials suggest possible serious long-term nutrient depletion and gastrointestinal effects for regular consumers of olestra. Eight-week-long studies are inadequate for a product that may be consumed by millions of people at high levels over a lifetime. Long-term tests on various population groups are essential to ascertaining the health effects of olestra. In addition, Procter & Gamble must conduct human studies to demonstrate the effect on serum carotenoid levels of occasional consumption of various amounts of olestra.

Olestra's possible carcinogenicity needs to be better resolved. Olestra was fed to rats (two studies) and mice (two studies) for two years at levels up to 10% of the animals' diets. Liver foci, which may be precursors of cancer, occurred in both rat studies. In one mouse study there was a statistically significant increase in lung tumors in the two highest-dosage groups; those tumors were not seen in a second study.

The levels of olestra fed to the rats and mice are of the same order of magnitude likely to be consumed by people. Especially since there is little margin of safety between human and animal consumption in these studies, findings of liver lesions in both rat studies and lung tumors in one mouse study are of particular concern. The FDA should appoint a committee of independent cancer experts (who do not consult for industry) to review the animal data and determine whether the liver foci and lung tumors (a) are definitely not a problem, (b) provide clear evidence of risk, or (c) raise questions that must be resolved through further research.

Procter & Gamble's claim that olestra's gastrointestinal effects are similar to those caused by high-fiber diets is not true. Procter & Gamble has claimed that olestra has gastrointestinal effects that are comparable to those caused by eating larger amounts of dietary fiber. In fact, the gut microflora usually adjust quickly to increased fiber, but do not adjust to olestra. Increasing fiber consumption often results in flatulence and similar effects, but, as the National Research Council has pointed out in Diet and Health, those effects seem to be temporary. Olestra's adverse effects persisted throughout the two eight-week studies and can be eliminated only by ceasing consumption of olestra.

It is not possible to set an Acceptable Daily Intake (ADI) for olestra use in snack foods. An ADI for food additives is normally set by dividing the highest "no-observed-effect level" (NOEL) by a safety factor. However, Procter & Gamble has not been able to demonstrate a NOEL for olestra. In eight-week clinical studies, important adverse effects, including depletion of fat-soluble carotenoids and vitamins and gastrointestinal disturbances, occurred at 8 gm/day, the lowest olestra consumption level tested. Arguendo, if 8 gm/day were considered the NOEL for olestra, dividing by a minimal safety factor of 10 would yield an ADI of 0.8 gm/day, far below the likely consumption levels for olestra if the pending petition were to be approved. If the 3 gm/day level of sucrose polyester at which other investigators found significant depletion of carotenoids were used as the NOEL, application of the 10-fold safety factor would result in a 0.3 gm/day ADI, even further below the likely daily intake of olestra from savory snacks.

The only NOEL justified to date for olestra is zero and that fact alone should have been sufficient to deny the petition. Of course, one could argue that diarrhea, fecal urgency, and flatulence are merely "unpleasant phenomena" and not "adverse effects," the average consumer would likely concur that those sometimes severe gastrointestinal effects are indeed "adverse effects." Some consumers would undoubtedly associate their adverse effects with consumption of olestra, but many others might not. Furthermore, it is highly inappropriate for the FDA to permit a laxative food additive to be used in foods that would be widely consumed by a large fraction of the population. Likewise, even though the benefits of carotenoids and other non-vitamin phytochemicals are just beginning to be understood, many independent researchers concerned about carotenoids have told the FDA that reduced levels of those dietary substances should be considered an adverse effect.

Any benefits of olestra do not outweigh the risks. Industry and the public have been excited about olestra because of the possibility that it would help people eat diets lower in fat and saturated fat — and prevent obesity and heart disease. The current petition asks for use of olestra only in potato chips and similar foods. A person who ate an ounce of potato chips only occasionally would receive little calorie-saving from olestra-containing chips. A frequent chip-eater would save more fat, but would also experience a substantial decline in carotenoids and other phytochemicals (along with an increased risk of macular degeneration and possibly cancer and heart disease) and might experience gastrointestinal problems. Poorly nourished people, Coumadin-users, and other subgroups might experience additional problems. On balance, olestra's meager benefits are outweighed by its risks. Of course, people who wanted safe fat-free or lowfat chips can simply choose from the growing variety of such products already on the market.

_________________________________________

Listening to corporate NPR/APM I heard a report that addressed the growing appearance of salmonella outbreaks because after all------OUR MEAT PROCESSING PLANTS ARE THIRD WORLD WITH NO OVERSIGHT AND REGULATION.  Since Obama came onboard-------oversight agencies are being dismantled faster than with Bush.  The corporate reporter simply said -----JUST COOK THE MEAT LONGER AND DON'T WASH IT!  That was our public health announcement.  This dismantling of oversight and deregulation of food industry is just another step towards Trans Pacific Trade Pact that allows foods from developing countries into America having the worst of health issues.  Neo-liberals are saying

------THE GOAL IS MAXIMIZING PROFITS FOR US GLOBAL AGRICULTURE AND MEAT IN OVERSEAS MARKETS----WHO CARES ABOUT THE HEALTH OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

These are pols you are electing as democrats folks~

As I showed earlier, Trans Pacific Trade Pact TPP has Obama and neo-liberals overseas demanding nations that partner in this allow antiobiotics and hormones in their nation's food supply even as we know it is a health crisis in America.  This is what dismantling public health looks like.  Normally, the Department of Health and Human Services at Federal and State level would be shouting against all of these policies as harmful to public health----but they are silent.  That is what dismantling public health does -----no public advocate.



New salmonella outbreak in chicken resists antibiotics
Elizabeth Weise , USA TODAY 7:35 p.m. EDT October 8, 2013

A salmonella outbreak linked to raw chicken from California involves several antibiotic-resistant strains of the disease and has put at least 42% of the victims in the hospital, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

"That's a high percentage," said CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds. "You would expect about 20% hospitalizations with salmonella Heidelberg."

There have been no deaths linked to the outbreak.

Thirteen percent of those sickened have salmonella septicemia, a serious, life-threatening whole-body inflammation, said Caroline Smith DeWaal, food safety director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington.

DeWaal was briefed by Christopher Braden, director of the division of food-borne illness at the CDC.

"This outbreak shows that it is a terrible time for government public health officials to be locked out of their offices and labs, and for government websites to go dark," she said.

As of Tuesday, 278 people in 18 states have been sickened in the salmonella Heidelberg outbreak. Interviews with some of the patients have linked it to chicken produced by Foster Farms at three California plants, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Monday.

The CDC has been hampered in tracing the outbreak because the government shutdown meant the agency had to shut down PulseNet, a national network of public health laboratories that looks for trends and matches reports to spot food-borne illness outbreaks. It's one of the agency's most important tools in detecting such problems.

"We were trying to do this without the automatic system, and it was nearly impossible," Reynolds said. Seven of the eight staffers who run the system were furloughed. "We were doing it by hand, and it just become untenable."

CDC director Thomas Frieden determined that not having PulseNet was resulting in "an imminent threat to health and safety," a finding that allowed the agency to bring back the seven staffers, Reynolds said Tuesday. "It's back up and running as of today."

There are seven strains of salmonella Heidelberg involved in the outbreak, and some are resistant to some commonly used antibodies. That makes it a very "complex" outbreak, Reynolds said.

"The salmonella strains are showing resistance to multiple antibiotics, and that means more people are going to the hospital and their infections will be harder for physicians to treat," DeWaal said.


The USDA's public health alert named three facilities operated by Foster Farms as the likely source of raw chicken contaminated with salmonella. Most of it was sold in California, Oregon and Washington, and most of the illnesses have been in California, the USDA said.

In an emailed statement, a Foster Farms spokeswoman said, "consumers should know that the frontline antibiotics used to treat salmonella are fully effective in treating the illness."

Congresswoman Louise Slaughter took strong exception to that. "They have no ground to stand on to make that statement," she said. Slaughter has been an outspoken advocate for ending the routine feeding of antibiotics to animals to promote growth, a practice which FDA and CDC agree can breed antibiotic resistant strains of disease.

Frontline antibiotics aren't all working in this outbreak, she said. "These Heidelberg strains are resistant to multiple antibiotics, including ampicillin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline and streptomycin."

The chicken has not been recalled because the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service "is unable to link the illnesses to a specific product and a specific production period," the news release says. Consumers can identify products that came from the three plants by looking for these packaging codes: P6137, P6137A and P7632.

In its own news release, Foster Farms said it is working with USDA inspectors and the CDC. The company's food safety chief, Robert O'Connor, said USDA inspections have not been affected by the federal government shutdown.

Common symptoms of salmonella food poisoning include diarrhea, cramps and fever that typically start eight to 72 hours after eating food with high levels of the bacteria. Some people get chills, nausea and vomiting, lasting up to seven days, the USDA says. For people with weak immune systems, including infants and the elderly, the infection can be deadly.

Foster Farms encouraged consumers to cook poultry to an internal temperature of 165 degrees to kill disease-carrying pathogens. The USDA recommends that consumers use a food thermometer as the only way to be sure the proper temperature is reached.

An outbreak of one of the same strains of salmonella was linked to Foster Farms chicken in 2012 in Oregon and Washington. That outbreak sickened 134 people in 13 states, the CDC reported this year.

In a statement on its website, Foster Farms said it has "instituted a number of additional food safety practices, processes and technology throughout company facilities that have already proven effective in controlling salmonella in its Pacific Northwest operations earlier this year."

Salmonella is known to contaminate poultry flocks in the USA.

"Salmonella is naturally occurring in poultry and can be fully eradicated if raw product is properly handled and fully cooked," O'Connor of Foster Farms said.

Several European countries have succeeded in eradicating it by stringent testing and eliminating any flock with an infected bird, but that is considered too costly to implement in the USA.

Contributing: Kim Painter


________________________________________


Remember, if neo-liberals are pushing hormones and antibiotics overseas----they have no intent in ridding the US of this public health disaster.  The joke in circles of the rich---an epidemic could take millions of people from an overpopulated planet.  The stage for epidemic has been set by Clinton and now Obama.  Democrats work for the people and republicans work for wealth and profit.  Neo-liberals are republicans.

Dismantling food safety in the US is necessary when the goal is to flood US markets with food from countries having no health standards.  That is what neo-liberalism has done from Reagan/Clinton and now Obama.  LET THE PEOPLE DIE----THIS IS ABOUT PROFITS!


Published on Thursday, August 22, 2013 by OtherWords

The Un-American Way: On the Anti-Democratic 'Trans-Pacific Partnership' Why the TPP deal threatens food safety and public health
by Wenonah Hauter

The United States is negotiating a NAFTA-style trade deal that should be alarming to American consumers. The main reason it’s not getting much attention is that the mainstream media is largely ignoring it.(GlobalTradeWatch/Flickr)

This pact deserves more news coverage. It threatens to undermine our own laws and increase the opportunity for corporate takeovers of public resources in the United States and abroad. The worst part? These negotiations are taking place behind closed doors.

This controversial agreement is called the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). It’s comprised of the United States plus 11 other nations that border the Pacific Ocean. The TPP would boost liquefied natural gas exports and food imports. This increases the real dangers posed by reckless fracking for natural gas and the growth of imported food from several countries whose safety standards fall far short of our own.

The TPP could become the biggest corporate power grab in U.S. history. This deal would establish a regime under which corporations would acquire an equal status to countries, allowing them to take legal action against governments both at the national and local levels.

With this power, multinational corporations — especially energy companies — could overturn laws enacted to protect the public and the environment if they were to deem that those protections violated the profit-based terms of this trade agreement.

The United States currently has enough challenges plaguing our food system, with many of our would-be TPP partners shipping unsafe food even without these so-called free-trade agreements. Seafood imports alone have been particularly troubling. Much of the seafood we import is farm-raised using antibiotics and hormones that are illegal in our own country, and a mere 2 percent of those imports are actually inspected by the FDA.

The TPP would encourage increasing the amount of seafood we take in without requiring the trading partners to ban the use of illegal chemicals.

This could also hurt the American consumers through the expansion of the oil and gas industry, as it tries to increase its land use at home to frack more gas for export to our new TPP partners.

This pact could quickly undermine local, state, and even federal laws that protect public health and the environment. Many localities have recently passed laws to ban fracking. Unfortunately, a lot of the companies that are pursuing hydraulic fracturing in the U.S. are either foreign-owned or have foreign investors.

The TPP would potentially give companies the power to sue local governments, granting them their own permission to exploit natural resources and undermine local laws.

Treaties like the TPP undermine important efforts by grassroots movements and governments to protect people and the environment against the dangers of infecting our food system with increased use of antibiotics and hormones or the risks associated with fracking for natural gas.

Protests against this trade accord have already gotten started in other countries, including Japan and Malaysia, as concerns grow over its expected negative effects. The bottom line is that TPP will bring little, if any, benefit to small-scale growers and producers.


As negotiations near completion, it’s critical that we let our members of Congress know that we don’t support this kind of corporate power grab. President Barack Obama is asking Congress to grant “fast-track” authority, allowing him to negotiate the TPP and other trade deals without otherwise requisite congressional oversight. We must stop that from happening.

Undermining laws that U.S. citizens voted to put in place isn’t the American way.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License Wenonah Hauter is the executive director of the consumer advocacy group Food & Water Watch. She has worked extensively on energy, food, water and environmental issues at the national, state and local level. Experienced in developing policy positions and legislative strategies, she is also a skilled and accomplished organizer, having lobbied and developed grassroots field strategy and action plans.

__________________________________________

The most disturbing issue with health care being profit-driven is there are no limits to what can be done.  Whether it is Wall Street creating bets on people's life insurance and when they die-----or whether it is the large US global health systems as we have in Baltimore with Johns Hopkins acting in HEALTH TOURISM where the goal is to attract the rich of the world to your institution------all of this making ethics and morality fly out the door as it does in finance.  Johns Hopkins Medical System has been sited once for involvement in illegal organ procurement and citizens of Baltimore for years have said that the poor suspect organ harvesting at Johns Hopkins.

RAISE YOUR HANDS IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE PROFIT-DRIVEN HEALTH TOURISM WILL BRING THESE MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE ACTIONS TO THE US------EVERYONE BELIEVES THIS!

We know this is already happening in the US and it is because public health systems are being dismantled at the Federal and state level.  Baltimore has NO PUBLIC HEALTH after O'Malley and now Rawlings-Blake allowed Sharfstein and Barbot privatize all of public health to private corporate non-profits.


CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR WILL REVERSE THIS PRIVATE HEALTH SYSTEM WITH EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL AND REBUILD PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCIES AND PROTECTIONS FOR THE PEOPLE!



Child Organ Harvesting And Trafficking-Linked Arrest Made In Mexico 

| by  OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ Posted: 03/17/2014 10:22 pm EDT Updated: 03/18/2014 8:59 am EDT
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Huffington Post

Police in Mexico's western state of Michoacan detained an alleged member of the Knights Templar cartel who is suspected of kidnapping children to harvest their organs, an official said Monday.

Michoacan state Public Safety Secretary Carlos Castellanos Becerra alleged that Manuel Plancarte Gaspar was part of the cartel's organ-trafficking ring. The ring would kidnap children and take them to rented homes with medical equipment where their organs were removed, Castellanos Becerra charged.

"We have several statements in open investigations that point to a network of several suspects who would identify people with certain characteristics, especially children, and kidnap them," he said.

Castellanos Becerra said the cases go back several years, but he said he couldn't give any specific details or discuss evidence because the investigation is still open.

Plancarte Gaspar, 34, was detained last week along with another suspect in a stolen car. The men also had some crystal meth, Castellanos Becerra said. He said Plancarte Gaspar is the nephew of Enrique Plancarte Solis, a top Knights Templar leader.

Hours before the announcement, a leader of one of the local vigilante groups that sprang up last year in Michoacan to challenge the cartel's control told a radio station that people in the area knew the Knights Templar gang was involved in organ trafficking because several children had been rescued in his town while being transported in a refrigerated container inside a van.

"They were inside a refrigerated box, tightly wrapped in blankets," Dr. Jose Manuel Mireles, leader of the civilian "self-defense" group in Tepalcatepec, said in a morning interview with MVS radio.

Mireles said the van carrying the children was headed to the port city of Lazaro Cardenas and ended up in Tepalcatepec after making a wrong turn.

"They were all children from the same Mexico City school," he said.

He said the children's parents had allowed them to go on an outing to the beach when they were likely kidnapped. He said the children were turned over to their parents who traveled to Tepalcatepec.

Mireles didn't say when the children were rescued and didn't answer his cellphone Monday.

Mexican authorities have said drug trafficking is no longer the top source of income for the Knights Templar, which was once a top producer of crystal meth. The officials say the cartel's main sources of income are illegal mining, illegal logging and extortion.



0 Comments

April 14th, 2014

4/14/2014

0 Comments

 
PLEASE CHECK MY SUNDAY POST!


THERE IS GOOD NEWS FROM THE FAILURE OF MARYLAND HEALTH SYSTEM DESIGNED TO END FEDERAL PROGRAMS MEDICARE, MEDICAID, AND PUBLIC SECTOR HEALTH PLANS.....PEOPLE HAVE TIME TO SEE THE DAMAGE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT DOES TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE AND THEY ALL NOW WANT EXPANDED AND IMPROVED MEDICARE FOR ALL!


We are listening today on corporate NPR/APM and WYPR our local politician Elijiah Cummings heap praise on departing Kathleen Sebelius of Department of Health fame.  Here is a politician from the most conservative republican state in the country-----Kansas given the job of developing and implementing a health care reform, the ACA that ends public health and hands the American people over to health institutions writing health law to maximize corporate profit.  Kathleen was a state insurance commissioner in a state where politicians work for the industries they regulate-----you know like Wall Street regulatory agencies.  Yet, this dye-in-the-wool conservative republican state pol was selected by Obama and praised by Cummings for her work in privatizing all public health and both Obama and Cummings run as democrats.

WHEN A POLITICIAN RUNS AS A PROGRESSIVE LABOR AND JUSTICE CANDIDATE AND THEN APPOINTS AND PRAISES POLS FROM THE MOST CONSERVATIVE OF STATES
-----THEY ARE NOT DEMOCRATS!


Kathleen Sebelius

Kansas House of Representatives (1987–1995)
Kansas Insurance Commissioner (1995–2003)Governor of Kansas (2003–2009)



Political Pundits: Is Kansas The Most Conservative State?

By Stephen Steigman & Steve Kraske

If there was any doubt about the hold of the political right in the Heartland then wonder no more.  A recent survey shows Kansas has the most conservative congressional delegation in the nation.


WHY IS THAT?  IT IS BECAUSE OBAMA AND CUMMINGS ARE GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS WORKING FOR WEALTH AN PROFIT JUST AS REPUBLICANS DO----THEY ARE NOT DEMOCRATS!

GANSLER, BROWN, AND MIZEUR ALL SUPPORT AND WILL CONTINUE THE DISMANTLING OF OUR PUBLIC HEALTH BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL GLOBAL CORPORATE POLS.


Remember, the Federal program Medicare has decades of health data that can easily show how much each medical procedure costs all over the nation, can assess what the best cost would be in balance of patient access and corporate profit and yet, none of this factors as corporate democrats hand this health reform to corporations to write and patient access and health care labor are of course the losers.  When you listen to corporate NPR/APM you are listening to republicans and corporate neo-liberals both working for the same goal----they represent 5% of the nation as even republican voters hate global corporate pols.




As I have said there are well-developed plans already developed for Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.  Any politician could run for Governor of Maryland and simply use existing policy and planning to implement.  Do not allow neo-liberals to tell you it can't be done because simply building oversight into Medicare health system will end 1/2 of expenditures just by ending fraud and profiteering!  These neo-liberals have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars developing this private system simply to make health care a global profit-maximizing industry and WE WILL TAKE IT BACK!!!!


How does the State of Maryland move to Expanded and Improved Medicare for All?


Still think the plan was not to end Medicare and Medicaid as Federal programs by sending them all to state health systems that dismantle all Federal protections for public health?

Private health plans have no intention of coming into these exchanges because they are well on their way to going global with the deregulation of the Affordable Care Act they will be just as unaccountable as Wall Street and just as criminal and corrupt.  What you see are private companies being created under the guise of private non-profits like EVERGREEN owned and run by Johns Hopkins under Beilenson.  So, these private non-profits will end up with all of Medicare, Medicaid, and public sector health plans ending these Federal programs and with de-regulation and no public health protections....health care for most will become charity work if these people have their way.


ALL ACROSS THE  COUNTRY THE MOST HEALTH ACCOUNTS BEING CREATED ARE FOR MEDICAID....AS IN MARYLAND.


Below you see where advocates of Medicare out Medicare Part D as the start of privatization and Affordable Care Act heavily funds Medicare Part D making it the plan seniors must go to to get medication they can afford.  Creating state health systems
sets the stage for Medicare and Medicaid programs to end at the Federal level and become what is looking like Medicaid for All.  Only, Medicaid was gutted at Federal and State level and does not exist as a Federal program.......while most people in the US are falling into this category.




The Privatization of Medicare
V I E W P O I N T


Medicare is the federal health insurance program that provides coverage to 43 million Americans who are age 65 and older or who are younger than 65 and receiving Social Security disability payments. Traditional Medicare consists of hospital insurance, Part A, and supplementary medical insurance, Part B. Every Medicare beneficiary has the same cost-sharing amounts and benefit structure under both Parts A and B. Premiums were originally uniform, but Part B premiums have been increased for higher-income beneficiaries.

The Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit, established by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), differs dramatically from traditional Medicare. The MMA allows only private companies to participate in Medicare Part D, thus privatizing prescription drug coverage for America's seniors and eroding the social insurance nature of the Medicare program. Because of this privatized structure, beneficiaries pay different premiums and must choose between a very large number of plans with varying drug coverage and cost sharing amounts.

Despite the success and popularity of the traditional fee-for-service Medicare program, and the failure of past privatization efforts such as Medicare+Choice, the MMA greatly expanded the role of the private sector in Medicare. In addition to the prescription drug benefit that is delivered only by private stand-alone prescription drug plans or private Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, the law threatens traditional Medicare by overpaying private health insurance companies, means-testing the Part B premium, imposing a completely arbitrary 45 percent cap on general revenue financing of the Medicare program, and establishing a "premium support" demonstration to compare costs between fee-for-service Medicare and subsidized private plans.

NATIONAL COMMITTEE POSITION

Create a Medicare-operated prescription drug benefit with the government required to negotiate drug prices

Seniors should have the option of a Medicare prescription drug benefit rather than having to sort through countless private plans in order to receive prescription drug coverage. Seniors face too many plan choices with various premiums, deductibles and other cost-sharing amounts. A Medicare-operated drug benefit would offer the dual benefit of simplifying and standardizing the coverage provided by the program, and it could provide a more comprehensive formulary at uniform prices. Furthermore, unlike private companies, a government plan would not need to increase prices and change formularies throughout the year to maximize profits. Overall, traditional Medicare achieves administrative efficiencies not matched by private plans. Extending this efficiency to the Part D program will save taxpayer dollars.

Require the federal government to negotiate drug prices

The federal government should be required to use leverage through negotiating in bulk to negotiate lower drugs prices for the Part D program. States currently use this leverage to negotiate lower prices for their health care programs, as does the Department of Veterans Affairs. It would be easiest to achieve effective price negotiation under a Medicare-operated drug benefit, but there are a number of alternatives by which CMS could effectively achieve lower prices for private plans as well.

Level the playing field between traditional Medicare and private Medicare Advantage plans

Private plans should be paid at the same rate that the traditional Medicare program is paid for covering beneficiaries. However, due to provisions of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA), private Medicare Advantage plans are now paid an average of 14 percent more than traditional Medicare. Inflated payments to Medicare Advantage plans, which amount to $15 billion a year, are funded by all taxpayers and all Medicare beneficiaries, not just the 20 percent of Medicare beneficiaries enrolled in private plans. Equalizing Medicare payments would save about $169 billion over ten years, reduce Medicare Part B premiums by $3.00 a month per beneficiary and bring an additional 18 months of solvency to the Medicare hospital trust fund. Better uses of the money would be to improve the Part D benefit by reducing costs to seniors, including filling-in the so-called "donut hole" that requires beneficiaries to pay 100% of the cost of their prescription drugs while continuing to pay full premiums to private plans; and enhancing benefits in traditional Medicare.

Repeal the means-testing of Part B premiums


Medicare beneficiaries with incomes above certain levels are paying higher Part B premiums due to passage of the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA). Prior to 2007, all Medicare beneficiaries paid premiums equal to about 25 percent of the Part B program's average cost per beneficiary. Today, higher-income seniors are paying premiums ranging from 35 to 80 percent of the average per beneficiary cost which translates into premiums that are double or triple the standard premium amount.

Means-testing undermines the social insurance nature of the Medicare program and could lead to increased costs for middle- and lower-income seniors if higher-income seniors, who are often younger and healthier, are driven away by increased cost-sharing. It also raises premiums for those who have paid the most into the program through Medicare payroll taxes, harms seniors and their families regardless of their financial obligations, and puts the burden on seniors to demonstrate that their premiums should not be increased if their income is reduced.

Repeal the 45 percent cap on general revenue funding for Medicare

The Medicare Modernization Act imposed a completely arbitrary cap of 45 percent on general revenue financing of the Medicare program. When the Medicare Trustees project, for two consecutive years, that 45 percent of Medicare funding will come from general revenues at a set future date, the President is required to present a plan to Congress to reduce general revenue funding. This approach would prevent consideration of all potential solutions to the program's long-term shortfall. Further, it ignores Medicare's financing structure, which is designed to include substantial contributions from general revenues to fund Medicare Parts B and D, as well as the need to address Medicare's future in the context of U. S. health policy as a whole. The National Committee supports the House of Representatives' decision to suspend the 45 percent rule for the 111th Congress and urges its permanent repeal.

Prevent implementation of the 2010 comparative cost adjustment demonstration

The "comparative cost adjustment demonstration project" - also known as "premium support" - established in the Medicare Modernization Act requires traditional fee-for-service Medicare to compete with private Medicare Advantage plans in selected regions beginning in 2010. Seniors will receive the equivalent of a voucher in an amount reflecting the average per beneficiary cost of private plans and traditional Medicare for their region. If they enroll in a less expensive plan, either a private plan or traditional Medicare, they can keep a portion of the savings; if their plans' premiums or the traditional Medicare Part B costs are higher, they will pay the difference out-of-pocket.

Proponents of the comparative costs adjustment demonstration project claim that this competition will result in better benefits to seniors at lower cost. Healthier seniors who enroll in subsidized Medicare Advantage plans, which are overpaid compared to the traditional Medicare program, may do better in such a system for a time. Older, sicker seniors are more likely to remain in traditional Medicare where they are certain of the benefits it provides and they can continue seeing the doctors they know. However, because the risk of insuring these seniors would be spread among many fewer people, it is inevitable that they will end up paying higher Part B premiums than beneficiaries who are not in comparative cost adjustment areas. At the same time, they are subsidizing the private companies that drain healthier retirees from their risk pool and further increase their costs. This privatization experiment would likely move Medicare beneficiaries out of traditional Medicare and into private health plans thus further eroding the social insurance nature of Medicare.

CONCLUSION

Forty years after its enactment, Medicare, along with Social Security, remain our most popular and essential federal social insurance programs. Any changes in Medicare must not alter the fundamental social insurance principle that has made Medicare such a popular and effective program.

The National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare will continue to advocate for expanding traditional fee-for-service Medicare to include a prescription drug benefit with the government negotiating drug prices. The National Committee is also dedicated to leveling the playing field between traditional fee-for-service Medicare and private Medicare Advantage plans in order to enhance benefits for all Medicare beneficiaries and to make the best use of all Medicare expenditures. In addition, the National Committee will continue to oppose initiatives such as means-testing premiums and the "premium support demonstration" that likely could result in a two-tiered Medicare program based on income and health status.


 

Government Relations and Policy, March 2009



_______________________________________________


We are hearing all across the country that most people are being pushed into Medicaid level plans that will only offer preventative care.  As corporations shed their health plans and as Medicare and public sector pensions are ended and thrown into these private health systems, most people will fall into these Medicaid/Bronze level health plans with only preventative access.

If this is allowed to continue life expectancy in the US will drop dramatically in just one generation.  IT IS A CATASTROPHE FOR A DEVELOPED WORLD TO PUSH 80% OF ITS CITIZENS INTO THIRD WORLD LEVELS OF HEALTH CARE AS THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT PLANS TO DO!






Tue, Jan 14, 2014, 8:28 AM EST -

63 percent of RI insurance sign-ups for Medicaid 63 percent of insurance sign-ups during first 3 months of HealthSource RI were for Medicaid

By Erika Niedowski, Associated Press

16 hours ago

HealthSource RI said that 11,770 individuals enrolled in commercial plans between Oct. 1, when the marketplace opened, and Jan. 4. The state Health and Human Services office said 19,941 enrolled in Medicaid during the same period.

Of those who enrolled for private coverage, 9,902 have paid and had coverage begin this month, according to HealthSource RI.

The marketplace, sometimes known as an exchange, also released new demographic data that show who is using it and what type of coverage they are choosing.

One-third of individual private-plan enrollees are 55 and older; 23 percent are 18 to 34. The overwhelming majority of those who signed up chose a Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island plan. Fifty-six percent chose a "silver" plan over bronze, gold and platinum.

Eighty-seven percent are receiving some kind of subsidies for the coverage.

It's not clear how many of those who enrolled in private plans were previously uninsured.

Most Americans are now required to have health insurance under the federal Affordable Care Act, or pay a penalty. There are more than 120,000 uninsured in Rhode Island in a population of just over 1 million.

The state has not publicly released enrollment targets for the first sign-up period, but the U.S. Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services set a goal of 5,640 enrollments in Rhode Island by Dec. 31 and 12,000 by March 31.

HealthSource RI also reported Monday that 75 small businesses have enrolled, representing 530 employees. The state is putting a lot of emphasis on getting small businesses to sign up.

The marketplace is offering 12 individual plans and 16 small-group plans in 2014.

The deadline to pay for coverage beginning Jan. 1 already passed, but open enrollment is continuing through March 31. The next deadline to select and pay for a plan is Jan. 23.

________________________________________

Did you know that HUMANA is a private health plan that seeks to draw seniors out of the public Medicare by front-loading these plans with perks but in the longer term will undermine this strong Federal program and it is deliberate?

If people understand what Maryland's Medicare exemption from Federal oversight means you will see why Hopkins is tied with a private senior health care corporation.  Hopkins' goal in health policy is to maximize health profits and when they requests these exemptions from Medicare they are telling us they are making Medicare more cost effective.  What they are doing is creating the tiered system of payments to Medicare patients and procedures that has systematically made Maryland's hospitals the worst in the nation as far as quality care and performance.  Just finished surgery on you leg under anesthesia and still haven't fully woken from this procedure after a few hours?


TOO BAD BECAUSE YOUR TIME IS UP AND YOU ARE OUT THE DOOR.  WHAT???  NO ONE AT HOME TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE NO ILL EFFECTS FROM THE SURGERY?  HIRE A HOME HEALTH PERSON TO COME SIT WITH YOU ---YOUR TIME IS UP HERE IN MEDSTAR!!!!


We had surgery and implanted a steel plate for your broken bone that once simply had a cast placed on it because the bone had a fracture that needed support.  The patient asks to see the X-RAY and straining his eyes looking for a fracture because there is none is told by the doctor-----IT'S THERE!

Need a doctor that handles Medicare?????  There is a compound for senior care on the outskirts of the city with national health chains.....GO THERE! 

This is how Hopkins has made Maryland's health businesses the most profitable in the nation and these new approaches are what the Affordable Care Act is based upon.  It is diabolical!!!!

I DO NOT HAVE TO TELL BALTIMORE CITIZENS THAT PEOPLE ARE FEARFUL OF ENTERING JOHNS HOPKINS AND CALL MEDSTAR A DEATH TRAP BECAUSE OF WHAT THESE LONG-TERM HEALTH POLICIES HAVE DONE TO MARYLAND'S HEALTH SYSTEM....SO, AS HOPKINS TOUTS ITSELF OVER AND AGAIN AS THE BEST IN THE WORLD IN EVERYTHING....KNOW THAT THEY ARE NO DOUBT BUYING THEIR RANKING FROM THE LIKES OF US NEWS AND WOLD REPORT!




HUMANA AND JOHNS HOPKINS TEAM UP WITH MANAGED-CARE NETWORK



BALTIMORE, Dec. 1 /PRNewswire/ --


Humana Inc., one of the nation's largest health maintenance organizations, and Johns Hopkins, one of the premier medical centers in the country, are teaming up to form physician networks throughout the state of Maryland.

Humana members also will be able to use Johns Hopkins hospitals and facilities in the state.

"This strategic affiliation is the first of its kind for Johns Hopkins," Health System President and CEO James A. Block, M.D., said. "We are tremendously pleased to be able to work with Humana, not least because of its experience nationwide in serving a managed-care population covered by Medicare."

The affiliation is between Johns Hopkins HealthCare LLC, led by John D. Stobo, M.D., which represents The Johns Hopkins Health System and The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and Human Group Health Plan, Inc. of Washington, D.C., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Humana Inc.

Humana will use primary and specialty physician networks being formed by Johns Hopkins, such as the Wilmer Eye Network and networks in cardiology and pediatrics, and work with Johns Hopkins to develop a full complement of other networks in the state.

"This relationship with a medical center that has an international reputation for quality and innovation is terrific news for Humana and its members," said Humana Senior Vice President Phil Garmon, who also noted that Johns Hopkins Hospital has been rated best in the country for five consecutive years by "U.S. News & World Report" and more faculty physicians from its school of medicine than any other have been listed in the book, "Best Doctors in America." "It should be a mutually beneficial relationship for both parties. Humana obtains access to networks of quality physicians and high caliber medical facilities in Maryland and Johns Hopkins can utilize our many years of experience in managed care to develop and expand its networks."

Michael E. Johns, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine, added that, "As Humana's enrollment grows in central Maryland, this agreement will serve to heighten access to the faculty practice at Hopkins. This is another vote of confidence from a leading managed-care organization for the way in which we are responding to the changing health-care marketplace."

Humana Inc., headquartered in Louisville, Ky., is one of the nation's largest publicly-owned HMO companies with more than 3.8 million members in 22 states and the District of Columbia. Humana offers quality and affordable coordinated care in the form of HMOs, preferred provider organizations, point-of-service organizations, along with administrative-only services. In addition, Humana is one of the nation's largest providers of "HMO-style" health care to seniors through its federally approved Medicare products. -0- 12/1/95

____________________________________________

As I have said there are well-developed plans already developed for Expanded and Improved Medicare for All.  Any politician could run for Governor of Maryland and simply use existing policy and planning to implement.  Do not allow neo-liberals to tell you it can't be done because simply building oversight into Medicare health system will end 1/2 of expenditures just by ending fraud and profiteering!  These neo-liberals have wasted hundreds of billions of dollars developing this private system simply to make health care a global profit-maximizing industry and WE WILL TAKE IT BACK!!!!

National Physicians has a well-researched plan that will reverse this Wall Street takeover.  I want to acknowledge that while I believe these physicians are working for all of us....I do want to make sure that this is universal and equal and addresses massive health industry fraud and profiteering and is not only funded by more taxes on the public!  When I read that Vermont's will include Tort reform as a way to lower cost I know that the reasons Doctor's Malpractice insurance is so high is that the American Medical Association does not police or hold accountable the doctors repeatedly performing badly....it is just like these other white collar crimes that get hidden and moved around. 


TORT REFORM SHOULD NOT HAPPEN UNTIL THE AMA HAS PROVEN THAT IT IS POLICING THE MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS AND ARE TRANSPARENT TO THE PUBLIC!!!!!

Please take time to read the entire article below!


A National Health Program for the United States: A Physicians' Proposal
Reprinted from the New England Journal of Medicine 320:102-108 (January 12), 1989

Abstract:

Our health care system is failing. Tens of millions of people are uninsured, costs are skyrocketing, and the bureaucracy is expanding. Patchwork reforms succeed only in exchanging old problems for new ones. It is time for basic change in American medicine. We propose a national health program that would (1) fully cover everyone under a single, comprehensive public insurance program; (2) pay hospitals and nursing homes a total (global) annual amount to cover all operating expenses; (3) fund capital costs through separate appropriations; (4) pay for physicians' services and ambulatory services in any of three ways: through fee-for-service payments with a simplified fee schedule and mandatory acceptance of the national health program payment as the total payment for a service or procedure (assignment), through global budgets for hospitals and clinics employing salaried physicians, or on a per capital basis (capitation); (5) be funded, at least initially, from the same sources as at present, but with payments disbursed from a single pool; and (6) contain costs through savings on billing and bureaucracy, improved health planning, and the ability of the national health program, as the single payer for services to establish overall spending limits. Through this proposal, we hope to provide a pragmatic framework for public debate of fundamental health-policy reform. (N Engl J Med 1989; 320: 102-8.)

_____________________________________________

KEEP IN MIND MARYLAND'S PRIVATE HEALTH EXCHANGE IS THE MOST CORPORATE AND PROFIT-DRIVEN IN THE NATION AND THIS IS WHY OBAMA FRONT-LOADED CORPORATE DEMOCRATS IN MARYLAND WITH MONEY TO DEVELOP THE 'MODEL' FOR THE COUNTRY----JOHNS HOPKINS WROTE MUCH OF THE STATE'S POLICY.


The problems with MD's health exchange are not isolated,......all of MD public policy is a disaster because none of it is written by public advocates.....it is entirely written by the corporate 1% that make policy simply to move profit to the top....ergo, people are not placed in charge because of talent but because of having the 3 monkey syndrome.....SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NOT EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL....public policy in policing, education, development are all failures and hundreds of billions of the state's revenue have been lost just during O'Malley's tenure as Mayor of Baltimore and now Governor of Maryland.

Remember, the goal with these state health systems is to end Medicare and Medicaid as Federal programs and dismantle them through state policy!  We want to be shouting for Expanded and Improved Medicare for All!!

Also, please know it is not the democratic party bringing these republican policies forward.....it is neo-liberals that have control of the democratic party.  We simply need to rebuild the democratic party by running labor and justice to reverse all of this attack on public health!


Also note that it is Beilenson  leading with a so-called private non-profit EVERGREEN that is designed to catch all of what was public sector Medicare, Medicaid, and public sector health plans.....AND HE IS JOHNS HOPKINS.

Below is what is happening with all of Maryland policy----the connected are throwing together businesses to capture all the wealth from taxpayer money building something we do not even need as Medicare already has a system!


'Both had expanded rapidly to build the Maryland site, expecting it could give them a foothold in the potentially lucrative health-exchange market'.

Maryland officials were warned for a year of problems with online health-insurance site


By Aaron C. Davis and Mary Pat Flaherty, Published: January 11   Washington Post

More than a year before Maryland launched its health insurance exchange, senior state officials failed to heed warnings that no one was ultimately accountable for the $170 million project and that the state lacked a plausible plan for how it would be ready by Oct. 1.

Over the following months, as political leaders continued to proclaim that the state’s exchange would be a national model, the system went through three different project managers, the feuding between contractors hired to build the online exchange devolved into lawsuits, and key people quit, including a top information technology official because, as he would later say, the project “was a disaster waiting to happen.”

The repeated warnings culminated days before the launch, with one from contractors testing the Web site that said it was “extremely unstable” and another from an outside consultant that urged state officials not to let residents enroll in health plans because there was “no clear picture” of what would happen when the exchange would turn on.

Within moments of its launch at noon Oct. 1, the Web site crashed in a calamitous debut that was supposed to be a crowning moment for Maryland officials who had embraced President Obama’s Affordable Care Act and pledged to build a state-run exchange that would be unparalleled.

Instead, by the next morning only four people had signed up using the Web site — and amazed that anyone had gotten through the system successfully, state officials contacted each of them to make sure they were real. The site’s problems continue to prevent Marylanders from signing up for health insurance. As of Friday, 20,358 people had selected private plans, and state officials have said they do not expect to come close to their initial goal of 150,000 by the end of March.

This report is based on a Washington Post review of thousands of pages of previously undisclosed documents, including e-mails, internal reports, audits and court records, along with interviews with dozens of current and former contractors, state officials and others. The review shows that the creation of the exchange was dysfunctional from the start and that there were repeated missteps at almost every level.

On the morning of Oct. 1, shortly after Obama had proclaimed that Maryland would lead the charge in signing up residents for new health-care plans, the director of the state’s health exchange was repeatedly rejected by the network before she became the first to log on, with the help of her IT staff.

Since then, an unknown number of Marylanders have experienced the same frustration with the Web site and have been prevented from signing up for health insurance.

As the state continues to try to fix the site, Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) and state lawmakers are working to enact emergency legislation to spend millions to help insure those who could not sign up and had to begin the year with no coverage.

With many Marylanders still facing frozen computer screens and error codes when they attempt to select insurance, O’Malley is expected this coming week to decline an offer by the Obama administration to temporarily take over parts of the troubled site, despite the urging of some state Democrats to embrace the move. This past week, O’Malley acknowledged that the rollout “did not meet our expectations” but said that many things have been fixed and the state’s site is improving.

It’s a situation far different than what O’Malley predicted on a sunny morning in March 2010, less than 24 hours after Obama signed the Affordable Care Act. O’Malley called reporters to the entrance of an Anne Arundel County emergency room to announce that Maryland would begin drafting plans to “immediately begin the work to ensure our state leads the nation.”

‘There is a risk . . .’

Of the 14 states that opted to build and run their own health-insurance marketplaces, Maryland was among the earliest and most enthusiastic supporters of what became known as “Obamacare.” And it became the second state, trailing California, to enact legislation creating an exchange.

Lt. Gov. Anthony G. Brown (D), the highest-ranking elected official charged with implementing the law, was invited to speak across the country about the state’s early success. The Obama administration began depositing tens of millions of dollars in state accounts to pay for development, thinking Maryland’s exchange might be built so early that other states could copy it.

But out of public view, reports of trouble started arriving.

The first came in the fall of 2012, just over a year before the exchange was to launch. Auditors from the Portland, Maine-based firm of BerryDunn found that exchange officials were missing early deadlines to begin building the IT backbone for the public Web site, known as the Maryland Health Connection. The exchange was supposed to have signed agreements with state agencies that would allow them to link data from sources such as Medicaid and the Department of Motor Vehicles to the nascent site. But most agencies had not heard from the exchange or were unaware that the work was even overdue. The findings were summarized in a Nov. 1, 2012, letter to the president of the Maryland Senate and the speaker of the House of Delegates.

Almost $9 million in federal money was set aside to pay BerryDunn to be the watchdog for the high-profile project, with the expectation that Maryland officials would use the assessments to correct course as needed. The Post obtained copies of the confidential documents.

At the exchange’s temporary offices in north Baltimore during the fall of 2012, no one could produce for BerryDunn standard project plans showing a timeline and checklist for how the main IT contractor, from Fargo, N.D., would get the job done. The exchange’s staff, then just seven full-time state employees and borrowed ones from other agencies, “may not be sufficient to complete the work,” BerryDunn said in a PowerPoint presentation delivered to senior state officials in December. Five of the presentation’s slides began with: “There is a risk . . .”

One proved particularly prescient: Maryland might build all of the components of its health-insurance exchange and then put them together and find out they do not work, the presenters said. It was a serious risk, because the state also did not appear to be leaving itself with enough time to “complete, verify and test all system components before go-live.”

The 10 months that remained before the launch would go by quickly, the consultant warned, but corrective action could get the project back on track.

Two of O’Malley’s Cabinet members, his senior IT advisers and leaders of the exchange received copies of the confidential monthly reports, according to distribution lists. The first was also summarized in the technically worded letter to lawmakers. Aides to the legislative leaders said that the significance of the warning was not clear at the time and that they never knew the outside audits continued.

Late in 2012, the consultant’s reports focused increasingly on warnings that no one seemed to be in charge. Maryland Health Secretary Joshua Sharfstein; Human Resources Secretary Ted Dallas, the Cabinet member in charge of Medicaid; and Rebecca Pearce, the exchange leader, tried to make decisions together. It was a “three-headed-monster. . . . The next meeting could overrule the last. It was classic, you know, nothing was moving,” said one official who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.

Within the exchange, Pearce, who had been lured away from a top job at Kaiser Permanente to run the system, was jostling with her own project manager for day-to-day control. Sunny Raheja was a state contractor who preceded Pearce on the exchange and would go to Sharfstein for decisions, according to documents as well as exchange officials who witnessed the dysfunction.

Ultimately, Raheja, who declined to comment, was replaced, and Pearce brought in a Medicaid IT specialist to run the technical side.

As Pearce’s new project manager began, the outside auditor said there was still no dis­cern­ible plan for building the exchange, no oversight by the state and poor communication among the contractors hired to build the online site.

“There is also no overall Master Project Plan and schedule that is being utilized to manage the milestones and activities necessary for the entire program effort,” BerryDunn warned in a Feb. 25 report.

The consultant broke the project into 11 categories and began labeling them as red, yellow or green — seven were in red, four were in yellow.

“From our perspective, agreement on a consolidated work plan will need input from all . . . so that there is a common understanding of what needs to occur between now and Oct. 1, 2013.”

In e-mails, Pearce’s new project manager said the situation appeared untenable. He resigned after a month, and the third project manager in three months took over in April — with six months to go before the site would launch.

“I think the wheels came off very early on,” said Amir Segev, who was deputy IT director for the exchange from February to May.

Segev said he left after only a few months “because it was a disaster waiting to happen.”

Contractors at odds

By May, the Obama administration was deciding which states would be allowed to proceed with building their own exchanges and which ones it would force to use the federal exchange. The team gave Maryland a deadline of June 1 to prove a core task: Its rudimentary software would have to communicate with a data hub the federal government was building to let states check whether health-care enrollees were eligible for subsidies.

The month of May became a sprint to make the deadline.

On one of the last days before the deadline, a federal team arrived at the Maryland IT contractor’s office in Linthicum, south of Baltimore, and sat in the front row of the briefing room with computers at each desk and a projection screen on the wall.

One part of the screen showed a fake enrollee’s information being sent from Maryland; the other showed the response from the federal hub. The two connected, and Maryland passed. Despite the internal turmoil and negative audits, the state seemed to finally be on the right path.

Sharfstein, the state health secretary, and Pearce called together the production team. Pearce put her foot on a chair and thanked everyone with a deep sense of relief evident in her voice.

News of the success also passed quickly to Brown and O’Malley, who began touting it in public appearances.

But as they celebrated, feuding between the two contractors in charge of doing much of the technical work to get the Web site running was getting worse.

Shortly after it had won Maryland’s initial $50 million contract, Noridian Healthcare Solutions, a company that grew out of Medicare claims processing, hired a Florida company — run by a former executive of Noridian’s parent firm — that renamed itself EngagePoint.

Noridian and EngagePoint agreed to share profits for development of the exchange, according to court documents filed by the companies — a move that state officials said they were made aware of only much later.

But within months of joining forces, the two were fighting over costs.

By July, according to court documents, infighting had brought work to a near-standstill.

Meanwhile, the software used successfully to pass the June test had to be replaced with newer and untested versions needed to meet federal security requirements.

In an interview, Sharfstein said the dispute had become a major distraction by then.

“For a while, we tried to play marriage counselor, but it was clear these were two companies that couldn’t work together well,” he said.

And another federal test was looming.

On Aug. 26, five weeks before the launch date, Maryland faced its final major test with federal overseers, a more thorough demonstration of how each part of its system would work.

This one did not go as well.

When the test got to the part of having a fictitious person choose a health plan, the Web site crashed. It also could not fully send enrollment data to insurers or e-mail Marylanders when they successfully selected a plan — something it still cannot do.

BerryDunn, the consultant, said the state must “hold Noridian to scheduled” deadlines and make 65 other changes. The state, it warned, also needed to start focusing on contingencies, knowing some parts of the site were bound to fail.

On a weekend in early September, Sharfstein logged on to measure the problems for himself. “You don’t want to know what he thought,” Pearce relayed in a message to her team, according to a testing report.

Pearce would soon send an e-mail titled “12 days out,” pleading with contractors to finish the job after she visited their Linthicum office on the evening of Sept. 18 and found it nearly empty.

“There’s a management methodology that has 4 aspects: pamper/pull/push/pummel. I think I have tried all of them at some point during this process,” she wrote at 11:24 p.m. “Tonight I am begging . . . we have got to make this reality.”

The success of the exchange was also becoming freighted with political implications as Brown launched his campaign for governor. In an early-morning e-mail on Sept. 23, Sharfstein wrote to Pearce, under a subject line “from today’s [Baltimore] Sun.”

He pasted in a line from U.S. Sen. Barbara Mikulski’s endorsement of the lieutenant governor the day before: “While we’re fighting to save Obamacare, we know that in Maryland we have a health exchange that’s ready to go because of Anthony Brown,” the Maryland Democrat said.

Pearce forwarded the e-mail to the heads of Noridian and EngagePoint, adding one line: “It’s time to get this right. Now. Period.”

Noridian chief executive Tom McGraw responded with military sparseness: “Understood.”

Testers filed their final report on Sept. 13, calling the last version of the software they could review “extremely unstable.” Internal testing of one aspect of the site found 449 defects, almost half of which would probably trouble the final release.

‘What’s wrong?’

On a conference call at the start of the final week of September, senior aides gave O’Malley a high-level summary of expected troubles with the exchange.

The Web site would not allow some people to check for subsidies or to select plans, but everyone should at least be able to log on, he was told, according to several aides.

The governor ended the call, said John Griffin, his chief of staff, saying the state should “move forward.”

But two days later, Griffin requested that a roomful of aides to the governor and Brown vote on whether to proceed. Most gave the Oct. 1 launch a green light. The next day, O’Malley smiled as Obama visited Prince George’s County and praised state leaders for being ready to roll.

Just after midnight on Oct. 1, programmers in the Linthicum office listened through a speaker phone to the anxiety growing in Pearce’s voice as she tried to log on, according to several people on the call. The site was not yet viewable publicly, but it should have allowed her to sign on. If there was one part of the site everyone agreed would work, it was this.

They waited for a second try and then a third as she reentered her name and address. Everything was correct. “What’s wrong?” she demanded.

No one was sure. Someone noticed that Pearce had left blank a box for the four-digit extension of her Zip code. Maybe the computer code required every single data field to be filled in to proceed. Try adding that, one manager said.

Pearce did not know the extension to her Zip code. They listened as she Googled it and attempted a fourth sign-on.

Click. She was in.

At 8 a.m., the exchange was supposed to launch simultaneously with other states, but it froze. The exchange posted a message online asking residents to come back in four hours.

Finally, at noon, officials watched from a command center in Baltimore as about 10,000 people logged on to the site, pinging servers in Fargo.

Screens showed blank graphs that should fill with enrollees moving through each phase of the system: creating accounts, checking for subsidies, shopping for plans, purchasing.

The stroke of noon came and went. No one logged on. No one bought health care.

The next morning was scarcely better. In the subject line of an e-mail to fellow contractors at 6:53 a.m., Noridian’s McGraw typed “Maryland is Down,” and wrote,“We cannot get through.”

More than 24 hours after the launch, there were just four people who had selected plans and eight more who appeared to have logged on.

An IT contractor wrote to state officials on Oct. 2 wondering if the four were “legitimate,” since contractors could not even access the site. She questioned if they might be fictitious accounts from prior phases of testing.

But later that day, the exchange’s chief information officer responded with good news: “The team has researched the 4 records and have determined these are for real customers. 3 applicants and 1 dependent. Applications have been processed albeit very slowly and sporadically.”

Pearce, who resigned under pressure in December, declined to comment on many aspects of the exchange’s development but said the wholesale failure on Oct. 1 “was a complete surprise to all of us.”

“We didn’t know it would be broken when we turned it on,” she said.

The day after the failed launch, Pearce sent an e-mail to the heads of Noridian and EngagePoint demanding answers.

“Gentlemen,” she wrote. “As the executives in charge of this program I would like to understand from you exactly what is happening with the project, and what you are doing to address our issues.”

But by the end of the first week of October, relations between the two companies were so strained that Pearce and Sharfstein acted as go-betweens. After more weeks of fighting, EngagePoint, the subcontractor, made a bold proposal to state officials, urging them to allow it to take over the project entirely. Days later, Noridian instead fired EngagePoint, whose programmers packed up their laptops and left, leaving some of the software in Ukraine, where EngagePoint had hired programmers.

It was now up to Noridian to fix the site — with few employees certain of where to begin. It began making offers to hire back fired EngagePoint workers it said were key to fixing the site.

EngagePoint chief executive Pradeep Goel was aghast. “We are not going to respond to ridiculous emails from Noridian demanding our team members show up for work after being escorted out of the office,” Goel wrote to McGraw and Noridian’s attorneys on Oct. 26. “Are you people on crack cocaine?”

EngagePoint persuaded a judge to sign a restraining order that blocked Noridian from hiring back workers to fix the site. Noridian countersued, and the state entered the fray, siding with Noridian for the sake of Marylanders who needed a functioning site.

Through its attorney, Daniel Graham, Noridian declined to discuss its work with EngagePoint, citing the ongoing litigation. In a statement, the company said that “the complexity of this project has led to a number of major issues beyond what was anticipated.” But the company believes that recent improvements have made the system easier to use and said it “will continue to work with the State” to improve it further.

Karen See, a spokeswoman for EngagePoint, said the firm would not discuss its work, also citing the lawsuits.

The full effect of the failed project on the two companies remains unclear. Both had expanded rapidly to build the Maryland site, expecting it could give them a foothold in the potentially lucrative health-exchange market.

Before the launch, the state had allocated about $100 million in federal money for the construction of its exchange, and, according to one estimate, it has spent tens of millions more since Oct. 1. It is unclear how much of the added costs federal officials will agree to cover. But the bigger question is how many people the state can sign up. 
IT'S THE MARYLAND APPROACH TO PUBLIC WORKS.....


Maryland’s next deadline is March 31, the date by which it expected 150,000 people to have used the site to select health insurance, excluding Medicaid. Officials have said the state will not meet that goal.

“It’s a problem for the people of Maryland, a problem for the people that Obamacare was supposed to help,” said Peter Beilenson, chief executive of the Evergreen Health Co-Op, a new Maryland insurer that launched its business on a bet that it could compete with the state’s bigger insurers on a smooth-running Maryland exchange.

The company had a waiting list of more than 1,000 people who were expected to sign up with it when the exchange turned on.

For months, however, it could barely sign up one. On its best day in recent weeks, its staff helped 10 people navigate Maryland’s site. Evergreen still has more than 1,000 people waiting to buy insurance.

0 Comments

April 09th, 2014

4/9/2014

0 Comments

 

Raise your hands if you think giving the government authority to force American citizens to take PHARMA under the guise of mental illness is a good idea-------NO ONE!!!!!!  Remember, your incumbent in Maryland voted for the NDAA national security law that allows the government to hold American citizens without charge for as long as they want.

  This is what they do in Iran and China to dissidents. 


What we are seeing is yet another money vehicle to build corporate infrastructure with taxpayer money that will end up helping almost none of the people it is directed to help.  Longevity in the US will drop in one generation from lack of access to health care for 80% of Americans.


Today, I'd like to speak to Medicare and health industry fraud that is already soaring with deregulated/consolidated health markets.  There will be no controlling global health industry just as our government says it cannot control banks.


Remember when we were told the idea of state health exchanges were to give consumers more access to information and that would increase competition? SURPRISE----THAT WAS NOT THE GOAL AT ALL.

MANDATING INSURANCE AND CONSOLIDATION AND DEREGULATION ARE THE GOALS OF ACA-----THAT'S A CORPORATE POL FOR YOU-----ALWAYS WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.

As we watch Dr. Sharfstein of Maryland's health exchange debacle testify to Congress about the mess that is Maryland's health exchange please remember that throughout this process Sharfstein was arrogant in making the process behind closed doors......NO TRANSPARENCY ....and came out of public meetings conducted behind closed doors to tell those gathered that the details of how health institutions would be monitored for meeting Federal requirements and for oversight of the entire process would be developed at a later time.  He did not look to care about the descriptions of the tiered plans.  As the article below shows, Maryland is ranked again at the bottom in transparency in its health exchange.  Sharfstein told me-----THERE IS NO FRAUD IN HEALTH CARE.

With Medicare being folded into this Maryland private health system
as if this Federal program did not exist-------THIS IS CRITICAL FOR SENIORS.  We have lost 1/2 of Medicare/Medicaid spending for these few decades and this pace will soar under these Affordable Care Act conditions.

MARYLAND DOES NOT RECOGNIZE MEDICARE AS A PROGRAM....IT HAS INTEGRATED IT INTO THE TIERED ACCESS GIVEN ALL MARYLAND CITIZENS.





Below you see a good report on the state of transparency in health system exchanges.  Please Google it.  Remember, we were told the point of these exchanges was transparency for the consumer......MARYLAND AS ALWAYS IS SHOWN WITH AN 'F'.

States Fail the Grade on Health Care Price

Transparencywww.governing.com

Despite the growing number of laws that require publicly available health care pricing for consumers, most states fail the test of transparency, according to a new report from the Health Care..


______________________________________________

Seniors know the most expensive costs to health care can be PHARMA and as I showed in my last blog neo-liberals and Obama are pushing hard to make sure PHARMA maximizes profits all over the world, so you can bet here in America citizens will not be able to access ordinary drugs with the Affordable Care Act.  Medicare Part D was created by George Bush to end the Federal program  Medicare by making Americans have to leave the Federal program in order to afford PHARMA.  Policies like Medicare Advantage are private health plans designed to end Medicare.  You can bet once they get most people onto these private PHARMA plans----these plans will disappear.

MEDICARE ADVANTAGE AND MEDICARE PART D ARE ONLY MEANT TO END THE FEDERAL PROGRAM MEDICARE.

This is why neo-liberals doubled-down on funding Medicare Part D as they work hard to make PHARMA as expensive as possible.  This is bad for you and me, not good.


Don't worry that Maryland politicians and the people they appoint to manage Maryland Department of Health cannot see entitlement fraud -----CHINA IS DOING THIS FOR THE WORLD.

T
HIS IS HOW RIDICULOUS THE LEVEL OF FRAUD AND CORRUPTION IN AMERICAN CORPORATIONS HAS GOTTEN.  THE CITIZENS OF AMERICA ARE REDUCED TO BEING PROTECTED BY ONE NATION WANTING TO CORNER PROFIT OVER ANOTHER.



All of the candidates for Governor of Maryland will continue to work for this global corporate mess except CINDY WALSH FOR GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND.

I WILL REBUILD ALL WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL AGENCIES IN MARYLAND AND SHOUT FOR THE FEDERAL JUSTICE AGENCIES TO DO THE SAME!

You know if US corporations are acting this fraudulently overseas.....and importing their products from overseas.....WE THE PEOPLE IN THE US ARE VICTIMS OF ABSOLUTELY NO OVERSIGHT!



Investing 7/29/2013 @ 4:13PM   Forbes

Is Big Pharma Addicted To Fraud?


Recent news out of China raises the question once again of whether any aspect of the pharmaceutical business can be trusted.

First, Chinese authorities announced they were investigating GlaxoSmithKline GSK +1.24% and other pharma companies for bribing doctors, hospitals and government officials to buy and prescribe their drugs. Glaxo is accused of using a Shanghai travel agency to funnel at least $489 million in bribes.

Then the New York Times revealed last week the alarming news that an internal Glaxo audit found serious problems with the way research was conducted at the company’s Shanghai research and development center.

Last year Glaxo paid $3 billion to resolve civil and criminal allegations of, among other things, marketing widely used prescription drugs for unapproved treatments and using kickbacks to promote sales.

And in 2009, Glaxo paid $750 million to resolve civil and criminal charges that quality failures led to serious contamination of drug products at its manufacturing operations in Puerto Rico.

Glaxo is a leader in pharma fraud and wrongdoing, with other industry heavyweights close behind. Over the past decade, whistleblowers and government investigations in the US have exposed a never-ending series of problems by numerous pharma companies in all facets of the industry, starting with fraudulent “research” papers used to bolster marketing and continuing through to the manufacture of contaminated and defective products, the marketing of drugs for unapproved and life-threatening uses and the mispricing of prescription drugs.

But the combination of pharma’s noncompliant corporate culture and the prevalence of corrupt business practices in China and other emerging economies could have a lethal impact on many more consumers as pharma shifts more research and development functions, manufacturing operations and marketing efforts to those growing markets.

In China, Glaxo allegedly used the travel agency to hand out inducements by claiming the payments were for travel and meeting expenses. Glaxo issued a statement by Abbas Hussain, Glaxo’s president international, that acknowledged some of its executives may have “acted outside of our processes and controls which breaches Chinese law.”

Chinese officials say they are investigating other foreign companies for similar charges. Merck & Co MRK -0.27%., Roche Holding and Sanofi SNY +1.31% SA confirm they used the same travel agency as Glaxo, but they haven’t been accused of wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, AstraZeneca AZN -0.86% — which previously reported that it is under investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department — said last week that police in Shanghai questioned two company sales managers, but “we have no reason to believe it is related to the other investigations.”

If the bribery accusations are true, the pharma companies could face charges in the US for violating the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, an anti-bribery law, as well as charges by Chinese authorities. Last year, Pfizer paid $60.2 million and Eli Lilly & Co. paid $29.4 million to the US to settle allegations they had bribed government officials, including hospital administrators and government doctors, in China and other countries to approve and prescribe their products.

But having to deal with a new cop on the bribery beat – China – should scare all pharma companies and their employees who have engaged in bribery. Four Chinese-born senior executives in China were originally detained, and last week Chinese media reported that police have detained 18 more Glaxo employees and some medical personnel. A British consultant to Glaxo in China also reportedly is being held. Chinese authorities may hold all of them in custody as long as the police feels it’s necessary – putting additional pressure on Glaxo and other pharma companies to resolve this matter.

Though Big Pharma’s practices in China are grabbing headlines, not much about them is truly new. Those tactics – the use of payments disguised as speaking and consulting fees, luxury travel, sex and numerous other inducements to expand sales of prescription drugs — are marketing techniques homegrown in the U.S.  They simply have been exported to emerging markets.

Now it’s China’s turn to express the same outrage that U.S. prosecutors did when faced with a recalcitrant industry that uses illegal inducements as a core business strategy for selling its prescription drugs.

“I need to remind foreign pharmaceutical companies that, because they occupy a leading position in the industry and reap huge amounts of commercial profits, they should also bear a great responsibility to society and the public,” Gao Feng, a Public Security Ministry official said at a July 15 briefing. “While we don’t expect them to set a moral example, we expect them to obey the law.”

That may be too much to expect from pharma, which has paid more than $30.2 billion in civil and criminal penalties to the US and state governments and continues to face more allegations of wrongdoing.

Big pharma’s woes in China underscore that the industry – despite huge penalties and a long string of public mea culpas – has a fraud habit that is just too profitable to kick. Finding a cure should be a top priority of regulators worldwide.

___________________________________


As corporate NPR/APM was proud to state, no worries about fraud and penalties because these fines are so low that fraud settlements are simply worked into operational costs for US corporations now.  They are so low because neo-liberals in Congress and Maryland pass laws that cap awards and eliminate damage awards.  Remember, this is your Medicare Trust being eaten with fraud and then they tell you there are not enough funds in these Trusts.

NEO-LIBERALS IN CONGRESS AND MARYLAND WORK TO PASS LAWS THAT PROTECT CORPORATIONS FROM PUBLIC JUSTICE.


If you wonder why Maryland is never in the news for the same problems I describe across the country it is because Maryland does not have a public sector health department -----all has been privatized to non-profits like Johns Hopkins which in turn are the source of much of the malfeasance.  Add to that a captured media that does no investigations to hold power accountable and you have no news in Maryland.  Autocratic societies do not allow bad press to escape, only propaganda.

MARYLAND IS RANKED AT THE BOTTOM IN THE NATION FOR FRAUD, CORRUPTION, AND LACK OF TRANSPARENCY SO YOU KNOW THAT WHAT HAPPENS ACROSS AMERICA IS SOARING IN MARYLAND.


Below is just an isolated picture of what happens in specialties throughout health care.  It happens because there is no oversight and no public justice so all these health institutions assume they will get away with it.  It is fraud and profiteering that creates high costs in US health care and the Affordable Care Act does nothing for this.  Simply rebuilding oversight structures in Medicare and Medicaid cuts costs in half.  Why is Maryland not doing this??????

IF YOUR CANDIDATE IS NOT SHOUTING TO REBUILD RULE OF LAW IN YOUR STATE AND IN AMERICA----THEY ARE A NEO-LIBERAL WORKING FOR WEALTH AND PROFIT.


If you watch TV you are seeing more and more advertizing of trial lawyers and class action lawsuits for medical procedures, PHARMA, and devices placed onto market without proper clinical study using you and I as test subjects.  WHOOPS, THAT DIDN'T WORK THEY SAY.
  Neo-liberal answer to this increasing legal environment------END CLASS ACTION LAWSUITS.


'Even the most jaded experts in fraud enforcement see a new level of callousness as some in the healthcare industry forget basic right and wrong in their quest for profits at any cost, including human suffering'.

Investing 9/12/2013 @ 4:36PM

Medicare Blood Money: The Healthcare Industry's Misalignment of Profits and Humane Medical Treatment Recent stories out of Chicago and Detroit give an unusually cruel meaning to “for-profit” medicine.

Authorities say a doctor at Sacred Heart Hospital in Chicago directed that his patients be heavily sedated, so that it was difficult for them to breathe. Then he would perform tracheotomies, cutting holes in their necks and windpipes, so they could breathe more easily.

The cost to Medicare for each tracheotomy: $160,000.


The cost to the patients – needless suffering. In some cases, death.

A Detroit oncologist is said to have administered unnecessary chemotherapy to patients who were in remission and ordered chemotherapy for end-of-life patients, rather than let the patients die in peace. The government said he even gave chemotherapy to people who didn’t have cancer. He allegedly made those treatment decisions simply to increase his Medicare payments.

Chemotherapy drugs are among the most toxic. Side effects from chemotherapy include nausea and vomiting, hair loss, diarrhea, extreme fatigue, swelling and pain.

Payments by Medicare to Michigan Hematology Oncology Clinics, the chain of clinics owned by the oncologist: $35 million over two years, $25 million of which was attributable to the oncologist, Dr. Farid Fata, according to the US Department of Justice.

The price patients paid: needless and extensive suffering up to their deaths.

In April, the government arrested the owner of Sacred Heart Hospital – where the tracheotomies were performed – as well as a senior executive at the hospital and four physicians affiliated with the hospital and charged them with conspiring to pay and receive illegal kickbacks in return for referring Medicare and Medicaid patients to the hospital. The Justice Department also said it was investigating alleged Medicare and Medicaid fraud schemes involving unnecessary sedation, intubation and tracheotomy procedures.

Meanwhile, the Detroit doctor, who entered a not guilty plea, is being held on $9 million bond.

These appalling allegations, if proven, remind us that Medicare fraud is not just about money; it often is about human life and dignity.
It is blindingly obvious that no one should have to endure a tracheotomy, unnecessary intubation or chemotherapy unless it is absolutely necessary. Unfortunately, horrifying conduct by medical providers is not limited to individual physicians.

Big hospital chains (such as Tenet Healthcare ) have been accused of padding their bottom lines with money made from subjecting patients to unnecessary cardiology procedures.
Big pharma has been known to sell vulnerable patients drugs contaminated with impurities, such as bacteria, glass and other substances (as happened with some GlaxoSmithKline and Ranbaxy Pharmaceuticals drugs). Medical device companies (most recently Johnson & Johnson ) continued to sell hip implant devices despite thousands of complaints about pain, metal debris from the devices and the need for additional surgery.

Even the most jaded experts in fraud enforcement see a new level of callousness as some in the healthcare industry forget basic right and wrong in their quest for profits at any cost, including human suffering.

An oncologist who worked for Dr. Fata told the FBI that he had been “living with this hell” by working for the Detroit doctor, according to the criminal complaint.

At least the doctor lived through his hell.  Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for many of these patients.

____________________________________________
Citizens of Maryland know neo-liberals are using Maryland as a model for opting out of the Federal Medicare program.  Johns Hopkins has partnered with Humana in their consolidation scheme and if you want to go to Hopkins for treatment you must join this insurer.  Humana is Medicare Advantage....a private Medicare insurer.  So, the system is being built such that a hospital can partner with insurers that will force you off of Federal programs and into private.  Do you really think the next step will not be to have these private Medicare plans in these state health systems?

THE ENTIRE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT CAME FROM THE SAME CONSERVATIVE THINK TANKS AS PAUL RYAN USES TO CREATE THE POLICY BELOW!!!!  THIS IS THE PLAN FOR ENDING MEDICARE.


As you see below Ryan's plan is what Maryland is moving to do now.  Neo-liberals and neo-cons will not leave any public asset or service in this race to send all wealth to the top.
 

Do you really think Medicare and Medicaid Trusts are really going bust if trillions of dollars in entitlement fraud is recovered and future fraud and profiteering is stopped?  SHOUT OUT FOR NEO-LIBERALS TO STOP THE FRAUD.


Aug 2012 •


Paul Ryan's "Medicare Exchange"  

Paul Ryan is Romney's choice. Conservatives remember with glee how Ryan shredded Obamacare at the President's health care summit. Ryan said the bill was "full of smoke and mirrors." He looked right into the President's eyes. Six minutes later, Obama could barely respond.   Ryan's Medicare proposal now takes center stage. In March, Paul Ryan created shock waves with the Medicare reform proposed in his 2013 budget called "The Path to Prosperity."  His bold step changed the debate forever. Mr. Ryan's Medicare proposal "begins with a commitment to keep the promises made to those who now are in or near retirement. Consequently, for those 55 and older, the Medicare program and its benefits will remain as they are, without change." Thus he acknowledges the dependent situation of some of the elderly.    I'd like to report that Mr. Ryan, who brings all his Midwestern niceness into seemingly every encounter, proposes to completely obliterate Obamacare-like policies and give Americans a non-Medicare option in their sunset years. However, here are a few details:   First, I'm pleased to tell you that Ryan's plan repeals Obamacare (p. 94). But then his plan "would set up a carefully monitored exchange for Medicare plans" (p. 97), which would act much like the ACA's federal Exchange, with the government deciding which plans are available to seniors. He would also extend it to "non-retirees by giving certain employers the option to offer their employees a free choice option, smoothing the transition from their working years to when seniors become Medicare-eligible" (p. 97). This portends the possibility of the Medicare Exchange becoming a National Exchange.   Mr. Ryan's plan does move Medicare to a defined contribution program which he calls "premium support" (p. 96). However, it's not a voucher given to the individual, and just like the ACA, these government subsidies would be directly distributed to health plans through the Exchange (p. 97).    Also, like the ACA, a cap on the growth rate of spending would be implemented (p. 53). And finally, like the ACA, his plan includes "risk adjustment," which is done through profiling of patients. Higher payments go to health plans that enroll high-risk recipients (p. 219). Means-testing of seniors would also be required (p. 98), the age of eligibility would increase in 2023 (p. 97), and medical liability lawsuits would be limited (p. 98). Thus, Medicare would stay in place with various government intrusions and controls on choice, access and price.   Will Ryan's plan end Medicare as we know it? Medicare-as-we-know-it is already ending. The $38 trillion unfunded liability is three times the national debt, with bankruptcy possible as early as 2016. Medicare can't be saved in its present form. This is what scares politicians of all stripes who could soon be in the line of fire from 77 million babyboomers whose "retirement security" program is going bust.

  While Paul Ryan's current plan contains some troubling provisions and does not create a needed escape hatch for seniors, it does recognize the crisis ahead and begin the critical "What next?" discussion.

0 Comments
<<Previous

    Author

    Cindy Walsh is a lifelong political activist and academic living in Baltimore, Maryland.

    Archives

    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    June 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012

    Categories

    All
    2014 Economic Crash
    21st Century Economy
    Affordable Care Act
    Affordable Care Act
    Alec
    Americorp/VISTA
    Anthony Brown
    Anthony Brown
    Anti Incumbant
    Anti-incumbant
    Anti Incumbent
    Anti Incumbent
    Attacking The Post Office Union
    Baltimore And Cronyism
    Baltimore Board Of Estimates
    Baltimore Board Of Estimates
    Baltimore Development Corp
    Baltimore Development Corp
    Baltimore Recall/Retroactive Term Limits
    Bank Fraud
    Bank Fraud
    Bank Of America
    Bank Settlement
    Bank-settlement
    B Corporations
    Bgeexelon Mergerf59060c411
    Brookings Institution
    Business Tax Credits
    California Charter Expansion
    Cardin
    Career Colleges
    Career Colleges Replacing Union Apprenticeships
    Charters
    Charter School
    Collection Agencies
    Common Core
    Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
    Consumer-financial-protection-bureau
    Corporate Media
    Corporate-media
    Corporate Oversight
    Corporate-oversight
    Corporate Politicians
    Corporate-politicians
    Corporate Rule
    Corporate-rule
    Corporate Taxes
    Corporate-taxes
    Corporate Tax Reform
    Corporatizing Us Universities
    Cost-benefit-analysis
    Credit Crisis
    Credit-crisis
    Cummings
    Department Of Education
    Department Of Justice
    Department-of-justice
    Derivatives Reform
    Development
    Dismantling Public Justice
    Dodd Frank
    Doddfrankbba4ff090a
    Doug Gansler
    Doug-gansler
    Ebdi
    Education Funding
    Education Reform
    Edwards
    Election Reform
    Election-reform
    Elections
    Emigration
    Energy-sector-consolidation-in-maryland
    Enterprise Zones
    Equal Access
    Estate Taxes
    European Crisis
    Expanded And Improved Medicare For All
    Expanded-and-improved-medicare-for-all
    Failure To Prosecute
    Failure-to-prosecute
    Fair
    Fair And Balanced Elections
    Fair-and-balanced-elections
    Farm Bill
    Federal Election Commissionelection Violationsmaryland
    Federal Election Commissionelection Violationsmarylandd20a348918
    Federal-emergency-management-agency-fema
    Federal Reserve
    Financial Reform Bill
    Food Safety Not In Tpp
    For Profit Education
    Forprofit-education
    Fracking
    Fraud
    Freedom Of Press And Speech
    Frosh
    Gambling In Marylandbaltimore8dbce1f7d2
    Granting Agencies
    Greening Fraud
    Gun Control Policy
    Healthcare For All
    Healthcare-for-all
    Health Enterprise Zones
    High Speed Rail
    Hoyer
    Imf
    Immigration
    Incarceration Bubble
    Incumbent
    Incumbents
    Innovation Centers
    Insurance Industry Leverage And Fraud
    International Criminal Court
    International Trade Deals
    International-trade-deals
    Jack Young
    Jack-young
    Johns Hopkins
    Johns-hopkins
    Johns Hopkins Medical Systems
    Johns-hopkins-medical-systems
    Kaliope Parthemos
    Labor And Justice Law Under Attack
    Labor And Wages
    Lehmann Brothers
    Living Wageunionspolitical Action0e39f5c885
    Maggie McIntosh
    Maggie-mcintosh
    Martin O'Malley
    Martin O'Malley
    Martin-omalley
    Martin-omalley8ecd6b6eb0
    Maryland Health Co Ops
    Maryland-health-co-ops
    Maryland-health-co-ops1f77692967
    Maryland Health Coopsccd73554da
    Maryland Judiciary
    Marylandnonprofits
    Maryland Non Profits
    Maryland Nonprofits2509c2ca2c
    Maryland Public Service Commission
    Maryland State Bar Association
    Md Credit Bondleverage Debt441d7f3605
    Media
    Media Bias
    Media-bias
    Medicaremedicaid
    Medicaremedicaid8416fd8754
    Mental Health Issues
    Mental-health-issues
    Mers Fraud
    Mikulski
    Military Privatization
    Minority Unemploymentunion And Labor Wagebaltimore Board Of Estimates4acb15e7fa
    Municipal Debt Fraud
    Ndaa-indefinite-detention
    Ndaaindefinite Detentiond65cc4283d
    Net Neutrality
    New Economy
    New-economy
    Ngo
    Non Profit To Profit
    Nonprofit To Profitb2d6cb4b41
    Nsa
    O'Malley
    Odette Ramos
    Omalley
    O'Malley
    Open Meetings
    Osha
    Patronage
    Pension-benefit-guaranty-corp
    Pension Funds
    Pension-funds
    Police Abuse
    Private-and-public-pension-fraud
    Private Health Systemsentitlementsprofits Over People
    Private Health Systemsentitlementsprofits Over People6541f468ae
    Private Non Profits
    Private-non-profits
    Private Nonprofits50b33fd8c2
    Privatizing Education
    Privatizing Government Assets
    Privatizing-the-veterans-admin-va
    Privitizing Public Education
    Progressive Policy
    Progressive Taxes Replace Regressive Policy
    Protections Of The People
    Protections-of-the-people
    Public Education
    Public Funding Of Private Universities
    Public Housing Privatization
    Public-libraries-privatized-or-closed
    Public Private Partnerships
    Public-private-partnerships
    Public Transportation Privatization
    Public Utilities
    Rapid Bus Network
    Rawlings Blake
    Rawlings-blake
    Rawlingsblake1640055471
    Real Progressives
    Reit-real-estate-investment-trusts
    Reitreal Estate Investment Trustsa1a18ad402
    Repatriation Taxes
    Rule Of Law
    Rule-of-law
    Ruppersberger
    SAIC AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
    Sarbanes
    S Corp Taxes
    Selling Public Datapersonal Privacy
    Smart Meters
    Snowden
    Social Security
    Sovereign Debt Fraudsubprime Mortgage Fraudmortgage Fraud Settlement
    Sovereign Debt Fraudsubprime Mortgage Fraudmortgage Fraud Settlement0d62c56e69
    Statistics As Spin
    Statistics-as-spin
    Student-corps
    Subprime Mortgage Fraud
    Subprime-mortgage-fraud
    Surveillance And Security
    Sustainability
    Teachers
    Teachers Unions2bc448afc8
    Teach For America
    Teach For America
    Technology Parks
    Third Way Democrats/new Economy/public Union Employees/public Private Patnerships/government Fraud And Corruption
    Third Way Democratsnew Economypublic Union Employeespublic Private Patnershipsgovernment Fraud And Corruption
    Third-way-democratsnew-economypublic-union-employeespublic-private-patnershipsgovernment-fraud-and-corruptionc10a007aee
    Third Way/neo Liberals
    Third-wayneo-liberals
    Third-wayneo-liberals5e1e6d4716
    Third Wayneoliberals7286dda6aa
    Tifcorporate Tax Breaks2d87bba974
    Tpp
    Transportation Inequity In Maryland
    Union Busting
    Unionbusting0858fddb8b
    Unions
    Unionsthird Waypost Officealec3c887e7815
    Universities
    Unreliable Polling
    Unreliable-polling
    Van Hollen
    Van-hollen
    VEOLA Environment -privatization Of Public Water
    Veterans
    War Against Women And Children
    War-against-women-and-children
    Youth Works

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.