GOOD NEWS! ... SORT OF

Today I read some very positive sounding news: The on-line journal VOX reports that "A group of hospitals is banding together to produce cheap generic drugs to fight off egregious price hikes and drug shortages. The not-for-profit venture is called Civica Rx, and the company announced itself last month. A collection of 22 hospitals in the Salt Lake City area called Intermountain Healthcare, the Mayo Clinic, the for-profit health care facilities company HCA Healthcare, and some philanthropic foundations are pulling together to form the firm."

Wonderful!  They're looking to produce drugs generic drugs that are in short supply, or whose prices have skyrocketed  -- or both. For example, IV bags, injections for sundry anemic problems, tissue numbing agents, have been reported in very short supply, not to mention drugs that treat Parkinson's disease, chemotherapy drugs, and a tablet to treat C.O.P.D.  -- chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

All this, Vox reminds us, is happening against the backdrop of the Justice Department and 45 states being  "currently in court accusing generic drug makers of price fixing and costing Americans more than $1 billion for their medicines."  Vox goes on to say that  "We spend a lot of time on new brand-name drugs, but some of the most egregious examples of price hikes have been for generic drugs."

Amazing! No less than Jeff Bezos, chief of Amazon, had tried to go up against the behemoth of Big Pharma but had to back down, lacking the infrastructure and the complex network of customer relationships that Big Pharma has built up over the years. Yet now, these folks think they can do what Bezos couldn't? 

They have a very good chance. Part of Big Pharma's network of customer relationships was with hospitals, but a good part of the new group are themselves hospitals! They're not trying to develop any new drugs, but simply to make old ones that the drug industry, doubtless for monopolistic reasons, had allowed to get very scarce. Yes, the FDA will have to give its approval, but with the collective bona fides of  the new venture, that may not be at all impossible. The new firm will start off with 14 drugs yet to be named. "Experts," says Vox, "are cautiously optimistic." 

And you thought that Big Pharma was unassailable!  But don't start dancing quite yet. Yesterday I read of a study which proved that doctors who were given free meals were much more likely to prescribe the new, branded, proprietary drug pitched by the rep who was paying for the meal!  Researchers had already established that doctors who had been set up with speaking engagements would be far friendlier to the folks who set them up -- and the drugs they were selling -- than they otherwise would have been.

Let me tell you something: For years and years, the Health Industry has been wallowing in their own private Capitalistic heaven, enjoying obscene profits untrammeled by the regulations they would face in any other country. And do you think they are going to give all that up with out a fight? Do you think they won't pull out every trick in the book, to threaten,  lie, distort, suborn, seduce -- whatever it takes for them to hold on to their cushy situation? Ladies and Gentlemen, what we're up against here is class war.  Actually, we've been it it for a long time, but not many knew it.

But now, as the Bible says, it's time for us to "gird our loins with strength," and fight for our lives -- literally. I'm not talking pitchforks; it hasn't come to that yet, thank God. What I am talking about is linking arms, for unity is our strength. Our job is to form a unified front and show our state lawmakers that if they don't pass the New York Health Act (Single Payer for New York) we'll vote them out. Period. Many of them were very happy to vote for it when they were sure that the Republicans in the Senate would shoot it down.  But since that's now far less likely to happen, these so-called progressives may remember the money that got them elected,  and where it came from. They'll have a change of heart and reconsider, UNLESS WE HOLD THEIR FEET TO THE FIRE. What fire?  Why do you think I've been sharing these tales of  rapacious capitalists whose stupendous salaries we've been paying for with our blood -- to fuel the the fire of our outrage, our determination.  There'll be more of the same, God willing, together with some sense of what Single Payer is, and why I can think of no  other cure for the sick morass that is healthcare in our country.

Dio

PS: If you'd like to comment, (and I hope you will) simply click on the number of comments  area, and share your thoughts in the comment box that appears. Don't be afraid to teach me something -- your comments have already taught me a lot, and I love it!