By Richard
Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired
Despite claims to the contrary, the system of production we call capitalism or the so-called free market system, is extremely wasteful and inefficient. That is the least of it of course as it is a system of violence and coercion. Endless wars are an integral component of capitalism. The only thing preventing an all out world war between major powers at this point is the existence of nuclear weapons and that situation lasting is not guaranteed.
As I sit here in the café writing I am being forced to listen to an endless parade of Christmas songs played over and over again, all intended to bolster the illusion that this holiday is special and we need to buy more things and eat more food. After all, we can’t let Black Friday win all the awards can we?
It’s harder for us here in the US in a way as we are in the belly of the beast. We are the front line victims of the world’s dominant bourgeois. The media lies are pervasive as the capitalist mass media wages its assault on mass consciousness presenting us with the false notion that all is well. Meanwhile, the quality of life for most Americans continues to decline and US capitalism continues to amass a mountain of debt, around $20 trillion. This will have to be paid back, indeed, is being paid back in the form of this decline in the quality of life. The impending clash between objective reality and subjective desires for basic necessities and expectations draws ever closer.
The market based US health care system, or more accurately the sickness industrial complex, is one of the most lucrative areas for capital accumulation and profits. For the average American, health care is a disaster if they have health care at all. For years it has been the major cause of bankruptcy in the US with many people doing without basic health care or using credit cards to pay for it. Even those with excellent coverage like myself, as we get older the costs become an issue. Americans get the worst bang for our buck when it comes to health care and public services. US health care absorbs more than 17% of GDP and is expected to hit 20% by 2025. France, and Germany spend less than 12% of GDP on health care and have excellent systems. Canada’s is around 10% and the UK 9% (2014 figures) https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS
Then US mass media will claim this is because the US military expenditure is high but necessary to protecting the rest of the world when in reality US military expenditure is not a defensive cost but an offensive one, the cost of plunder and defending US corporate interests abroad.
The Pharma argument for high prices and costs is research and development but a considerable amount of these costs come from the National Institutes of Health and universities through subsidized labs. Not only that, the Bio/Pharma industry rakes in the profits and spends millions of dollars bribing politicians (they call it lobbying) to ensure legislation is passed that maintains this situation. According to reports, Pharmaceutical and health companies spent $51 million on the 2012 federal elections and nearly $32 million in 2014 elections. In 2014, drug companies and their lobbying groups spent $229 million influencing lawmakers, legislation and politicians according to the Center For responsive Politics. Pfizer spent $8.5 million in 2014 alone.
Big Pharma spends hundreds of millions of dollars ensuring that the industry benefits investors rather than the people that might need these medicines and drugs, assuming that is what they actually need. It’s a very lucrative market because often, the costs are absorbed by the taxpayer through Medicare for example. Drug manufacturers like Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer or Allergan take great pains to ensure their patents stay alive so generics can’t hit the market. They might simply “tweak” a drug and extend the patent as a new product to keep prices high. Allergen recently transferred patents for one of its drugs (an eye drop called Restasis) to the “sovereign St Regis Mohawk Tribe”. “Wonderful!”, the reader might exclaim thinking the corporate world is recognizing the dire need of medical care some Native American communities are in.
Not so fast. Allergen does this in order to prevent the patent for Restasis being overturned and much cheaper generics coming on the market. “Before a generic reaches the market, it must be shown to be equivalent to the brand-name drug.”, the WSJ reports. But if a drug company refuses to provide samples that a generic manufacturer can compare to, that blocks this process. The WSJ cites a report sponsored by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association that estimates these practices have “…..delayed the approval of 40 generics, at an annual cost to the American health-care system of $5.4 billion.” The Wall Street Journal explains this and the role of REMS here.
The WSJ describes it further:
Afscme Local 444, retired
Despite claims to the contrary, the system of production we call capitalism or the so-called free market system, is extremely wasteful and inefficient. That is the least of it of course as it is a system of violence and coercion. Endless wars are an integral component of capitalism. The only thing preventing an all out world war between major powers at this point is the existence of nuclear weapons and that situation lasting is not guaranteed.
As I sit here in the café writing I am being forced to listen to an endless parade of Christmas songs played over and over again, all intended to bolster the illusion that this holiday is special and we need to buy more things and eat more food. After all, we can’t let Black Friday win all the awards can we?
It’s harder for us here in the US in a way as we are in the belly of the beast. We are the front line victims of the world’s dominant bourgeois. The media lies are pervasive as the capitalist mass media wages its assault on mass consciousness presenting us with the false notion that all is well. Meanwhile, the quality of life for most Americans continues to decline and US capitalism continues to amass a mountain of debt, around $20 trillion. This will have to be paid back, indeed, is being paid back in the form of this decline in the quality of life. The impending clash between objective reality and subjective desires for basic necessities and expectations draws ever closer.
The market based US health care system, or more accurately the sickness industrial complex, is one of the most lucrative areas for capital accumulation and profits. For the average American, health care is a disaster if they have health care at all. For years it has been the major cause of bankruptcy in the US with many people doing without basic health care or using credit cards to pay for it. Even those with excellent coverage like myself, as we get older the costs become an issue. Americans get the worst bang for our buck when it comes to health care and public services. US health care absorbs more than 17% of GDP and is expected to hit 20% by 2025. France, and Germany spend less than 12% of GDP on health care and have excellent systems. Canada’s is around 10% and the UK 9% (2014 figures) https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.TOTL.ZS
Then US mass media will claim this is because the US military expenditure is high but necessary to protecting the rest of the world when in reality US military expenditure is not a defensive cost but an offensive one, the cost of plunder and defending US corporate interests abroad.
The Pharma argument for high prices and costs is research and development but a considerable amount of these costs come from the National Institutes of Health and universities through subsidized labs. Not only that, the Bio/Pharma industry rakes in the profits and spends millions of dollars bribing politicians (they call it lobbying) to ensure legislation is passed that maintains this situation. According to reports, Pharmaceutical and health companies spent $51 million on the 2012 federal elections and nearly $32 million in 2014 elections. In 2014, drug companies and their lobbying groups spent $229 million influencing lawmakers, legislation and politicians according to the Center For responsive Politics. Pfizer spent $8.5 million in 2014 alone.
Big Pharma spends hundreds of millions of dollars ensuring that the industry benefits investors rather than the people that might need these medicines and drugs, assuming that is what they actually need. It’s a very lucrative market because often, the costs are absorbed by the taxpayer through Medicare for example. Drug manufacturers like Johnson and Johnson, Pfizer or Allergan take great pains to ensure their patents stay alive so generics can’t hit the market. They might simply “tweak” a drug and extend the patent as a new product to keep prices high. Allergen recently transferred patents for one of its drugs (an eye drop called Restasis) to the “sovereign St Regis Mohawk Tribe”. “Wonderful!”, the reader might exclaim thinking the corporate world is recognizing the dire need of medical care some Native American communities are in.
Not so fast. Allergen does this in order to prevent the patent for Restasis being overturned and much cheaper generics coming on the market. “Before a generic reaches the market, it must be shown to be equivalent to the brand-name drug.”, the WSJ reports. But if a drug company refuses to provide samples that a generic manufacturer can compare to, that blocks this process. The WSJ cites a report sponsored by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association that estimates these practices have “…..delayed the approval of 40 generics, at an annual cost to the American health-care system of $5.4 billion.” The Wall Street Journal explains this and the role of REMS here.
The WSJ describes it further:
“As a way of
encouraging generic manufacturers to challenge invalid brand-name patents, the
Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984 gives the first generics to file such a challenge a
valuable 180-day period of market exclusivity. Other generics cannot enter the
market until the first-filers do.
Brands have twisted this provision beyond recognition by paying off the first-filers. To protect its sleep-disorder drug Provigil, Cephalon paid four generic manufacturers (all of which filed on the same day) $300 million to delay their entry into the market by six years. A 2010 report by the Federal Trade Commission estimated that “pay-for-delay agreements” cost consumers $3.5 billion a year.”
Brands have twisted this provision beyond recognition by paying off the first-filers. To protect its sleep-disorder drug Provigil, Cephalon paid four generic manufacturers (all of which filed on the same day) $300 million to delay their entry into the market by six years. A 2010 report by the Federal Trade Commission estimated that “pay-for-delay agreements” cost consumers $3.5 billion a year.”
It’s not as if the Journal, arguably the most influential
Journal of US capitalism, cares about those people that need health care and
that includes medication. The US ruling class is concerned about the rising
inequality and the poverty associated with it. The whistleblowing, the Paradise
and Panama papers, these all give credibility to what is already on people’s
minds and increases the potential for social unrest. The excesses are best kept
under wraps.
Readers may recall the big fuss when Martin Shkreli, an investor and all round parasite, raised the price of the drug Daraprim (pyrimethamine), a medication approved by the FDA in 1953, from $13.50 to $750 per pill, overnight. The patent for Daraprim had expired, but no generic version was available at the time. I remember it well. The response from the public was swift. In many ways, millions have not recovered from the Great Recession when 5 million lost their homes and many their jobs, this is still in the memory. People are acutely aware of the obscene wealth that has been accumulated by those at the top and the population is not entirely brainwashed. We see on TV ads begging for money for injured veterans who commit suicide at the rate of 22 a day as the trillion dollars costs of US wars can be seen on social media with the click of a mouse.
As far as I can gather, Shkreli sits in prison at this moment. He was initially convicted of securities fraud, "As alleged, Martin Shkreli engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit". This is a crime with which no worker would be charged as it’s the crime of cheating investors, capitalists ripping off each other. Shkreli got bail for the securities charges but then went and offered people cash if they would get a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair. “Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton.”, he wrote. A judge interpreted this as “solicitation to assault” which is not protected by the first amendment apparently unless the serial sexual abuser Trump does it, and that got Shkreli’s bail revoked and he was thrown in the slammer. As I read about that the fear was that one of his readers might take what he claimed as “satire” seriously and harm Ms Clinton, Trump again came to mind, think of Trump's racism and sexual violence and pull your hair out over the insanity of the society in which we live. Just don’t pull out anyone else’s.
The most important aspect of this is that changing the price of a drug the way he did wasn’t a crime. Hell, this is the free market stupid. That wasn’t a popular move his peers thought because it went a little too far. Health care is a delicate issue, people are suffering, don’t throw it in their face they won’t take this crap forever.
Even the former Clinton Administration operative Robert Reich was forced to admit that Shkreli was simply "play[ing] the same game many others are playing on Wall Street and in corporate suites"
Well said Reich even though you offer no solution to the problem and did nothing to defend the Mexican or the US workers against NAFTA. And neither does the author who wrote the article in this weekend’s WSJ, well intentioned as he may be. He suggests changing laws and statutes intended to place curbs on the brand manufacturers excesses while protecting generics and making it easier for them to sue.
So his solution, and naturally I expect no less from the WSJ, is some legislative and legal fixes to ease disputes between private institutions and maybe ease the pain just a little for the consumer.
There is no capitalist or market based solution to the crisis in the US health care system. Those who genuinely want a health care system that can provide proper care for any person that needs it must demand that medical care and all aspects of it from the visit to the GP to major (or minor) surgery to medicines required must be free at the point of need. Universal health care must be guaranteed for all and that can only be achieved through a publicly owned and run system.
The entire industry, hospitals, research, Pharma, should be taken of private hands and run by those who work in it, the doctors, nurses, the workers that maintain and care for the facilities and the patients that use it and those in the communities they serve.
There is no other way.
Readers may recall the big fuss when Martin Shkreli, an investor and all round parasite, raised the price of the drug Daraprim (pyrimethamine), a medication approved by the FDA in 1953, from $13.50 to $750 per pill, overnight. The patent for Daraprim had expired, but no generic version was available at the time. I remember it well. The response from the public was swift. In many ways, millions have not recovered from the Great Recession when 5 million lost their homes and many their jobs, this is still in the memory. People are acutely aware of the obscene wealth that has been accumulated by those at the top and the population is not entirely brainwashed. We see on TV ads begging for money for injured veterans who commit suicide at the rate of 22 a day as the trillion dollars costs of US wars can be seen on social media with the click of a mouse.
As far as I can gather, Shkreli sits in prison at this moment. He was initially convicted of securities fraud, "As alleged, Martin Shkreli engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit". This is a crime with which no worker would be charged as it’s the crime of cheating investors, capitalists ripping off each other. Shkreli got bail for the securities charges but then went and offered people cash if they would get a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair. “Will pay $5,000 per hair obtained from Hillary Clinton.”, he wrote. A judge interpreted this as “solicitation to assault” which is not protected by the first amendment apparently unless the serial sexual abuser Trump does it, and that got Shkreli’s bail revoked and he was thrown in the slammer. As I read about that the fear was that one of his readers might take what he claimed as “satire” seriously and harm Ms Clinton, Trump again came to mind, think of Trump's racism and sexual violence and pull your hair out over the insanity of the society in which we live. Just don’t pull out anyone else’s.
The most important aspect of this is that changing the price of a drug the way he did wasn’t a crime. Hell, this is the free market stupid. That wasn’t a popular move his peers thought because it went a little too far. Health care is a delicate issue, people are suffering, don’t throw it in their face they won’t take this crap forever.
Even the former Clinton Administration operative Robert Reich was forced to admit that Shkreli was simply "play[ing] the same game many others are playing on Wall Street and in corporate suites"
Well said Reich even though you offer no solution to the problem and did nothing to defend the Mexican or the US workers against NAFTA. And neither does the author who wrote the article in this weekend’s WSJ, well intentioned as he may be. He suggests changing laws and statutes intended to place curbs on the brand manufacturers excesses while protecting generics and making it easier for them to sue.
So his solution, and naturally I expect no less from the WSJ, is some legislative and legal fixes to ease disputes between private institutions and maybe ease the pain just a little for the consumer.
There is no capitalist or market based solution to the crisis in the US health care system. Those who genuinely want a health care system that can provide proper care for any person that needs it must demand that medical care and all aspects of it from the visit to the GP to major (or minor) surgery to medicines required must be free at the point of need. Universal health care must be guaranteed for all and that can only be achieved through a publicly owned and run system.
The entire industry, hospitals, research, Pharma, should be taken of private hands and run by those who work in it, the doctors, nurses, the workers that maintain and care for the facilities and the patients that use it and those in the communities they serve.
There is no other way.
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