Sometime ago, we published a blog suggesting that problems that we perceived with the proposed prescription medicine importation bill, based on our understanding of input from key staff and communications with other supporters of the concept of the prescription medicine importation led us to fear that key elements of the concept that have long been supported by groups and advocates might somehow not be included in the new legislation.
It was that concern that prompted us to call for increased public participation in the development of the language. Irrespective of what the outcome might have been for our appeal, we believe that such involvement is not only a right given to U.S. citizens, but an obligation for those whom we elect to serve and govern--not rule.
Our specific concerns were that we and others have long believed that it is the right of U.S. citizens to make purchases from Tier One countries, where the regulations, oversight and supervision of pharmacies meet or exceed those of the United States.
We were challenged on this by a visitor to the article who wanted our source to validate the statement. She speculated that it was likely a political reference and tht the FDA had not reached such a conclusion. Of course, she was right on the latter aspect, since the FDA would never face the wrath of pharma by stating the obvious. In the former instance, though, she was just wrong. The fact is that each of the Tier One countries have outstanding regulatory oversight, and it is well-recogized by healthcare professionals and authorities around the world that not only do those countries have standards that meet those of the U.S. and the FDA, but that we as a country are unforunately far behind the standards of those countries.
Which leads to our former concerns about the proposed importation legislation that was was introduced on March 4. We feared that the ability of U.S. citizens to purchase physician-prescribed medicines from Tier One countries was to be limited, and would allow the purchase of medicines from those countries only if they were first purchased by a U.S. importer (a pharmacy, group of pharmacies, or a wholesaler) for resale to Americans.
This seemed to be an unnecessary restriction that would only add to the costs, while doing nothing for safety or efficacy of the medicines.
Unfortunately, the latest 'wrap' explanation of the bill seems to reinforce this view.
After much discussion, and readings of the bill regarding the limitation on individual purchases we came to the mistaken conclusion that the Secretary of HHS would be able to 'designate' particular countries as having standards of oversight and regulation that met or exceeded those of the U.S. and that individuals would be allowed to make purchases from those countries.
The latest explanation of the proposed language has disabused us of our mistake. To the contrary of what we believed, it reinforces our earlier fears and limits direct purchase to mail-order or Internet pharmacies located only in Canada.
This would take effect 90 days after the passage and signing of any importation bill. At the same time, it would be a year before the 'commercial' setup that would allow American citizens to purchase those same medicines from designated countries, and then only from a wholesaler or a U.S. pharmacy.
As one who has supported the concept of importation of medicines from legal, authorized, licensed pharmacies for nearly six years, it is difficult to express my dismay at this short-sighted approach to increasing the access of Americans to safe, affordable prescription medicines--especially at a time when growing numbers of elderly are either reducing or doing without vital medicines because of the problems associated with the Doughnut Hole. And that is only the tip of the iceberg.
Millions of Americans irrespective of their age simply cannot afford their medicines, so they too do without. Ironically, this occurs at a time when there is a solution--expand the ability of Americans to have increased access to safe, affordable medicines, exercising their own good judgment by utilizing the many sources that identify legitimate, safe pharmacies in Tier One countries.
As a writer from the American Enterprise Institute (no friend of importation) noted recently, "Only an idiot would purchase 'medicine' from a bogus pharmacy" because there are many sources than can identify legitimate pharmacies.
The legislation has been referred to the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and to the House Energy and Commerce committee. Hopefully, there will be hearings at which public testimony will be solicited--and listened to--as part of the democratic process.
I have been told that I am covering old ground. Perhaps that is true. But the facts are evident: importation from licensed, registered pharmacies is a fact and even with (or perhaps because of Part D), it offers a reasoned solution to allowing Americans to have access to vital medicines; to the best of my knowledge, there have been no deaths from any medicines from these pharmacies; no controlled substances have been shipped to this country from these pharmacies.
And,whereas there was no track record when the push for importation first began, and it would have been necessary to establish safeguards to protect and reassure the American public, there is no guarantee that even with passage of the legislation in its current form that it will end or even curtail bogus pharmacies, sales of controlled substances or sales of counterfeit drugs.
The concept of importation, free choice and equitable pricing, with the goal of improved health that can be attained through a regimen of access to safe, affordable medicines remains valid. The challenge now: to establish the framework that will make it happen.
Showing posts with label prescription medicines. Show all posts
Showing posts with label prescription medicines. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Monday, August 25, 2008
Investor validates role of prescription medicines to improved healthcare
by Daniel Hines
Publisher, TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
The potential benefit of continued access to safe, affordable prescription medicines for U.S. citizens as a part of any signficant gains to be made in the American healthcare system has been identified by contrarian investor Robert Kleinschmidt in the August issue of Kiplinger's.
Kleinschmidt has made his fortune by identifying opportunities to invest in unpopular groups of stocks. In the Kiplinger's article, Kleinschmidt identifies pharmceutical stocks as such an opportunity.
His rationale: "The consensus will change when there's widespread recognition that drugs are part of the solution for healthcare as opposed to bieng part of the problem...if you think medical costs are a high percentage of the economy now, imagine what they would be if you couldn't solve a lot medical problems with a pill and had to solve them some other way..."
He continues that using pills is a "cost-effective way" of keeping people out of hospitals and by keeping them healthy, deters the need for more expensive operations and use of medical devices.
The conclusion is obvious: Access to safe, affordabale prescription medicines--including those from licensed, safe sources outside the U.S.--can, as noted in an earlier blog entry (Prescription Meds from outside U.S. offer lifeline to Part D and Medicare), addressing the healthcare needs of the U.S. in their totality is crucial to improved health for all Americans. To segment various issues--reimportation, making Part D a part of regular Medicare Administration, SCHIP, fighting privatization of Medicare, restoring fiscal integrity to Medicare and Medicaid, or prescription medicine safety--and identify them as 'the issue' of a particular group is both short-sighted and self-defeating.
That's why it is encouraging to see some new trends beginning to take place. Kleinschmidt's observation a succinct appraisal of the very real and important benefit to be attained--and not just for investors--but for all Americans.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced legislation that would incorporate a broad base of issues into policies, including but not limited to reimportation, that could improve the administration of Medicare, provide tremendous cost-savings and ease the strain upon the Budget, and improve the health of untold numbers of Americans.
Hopefully, the pharmaceutical industry will realize that as this occurs and Americans through the reduced costs made possible by such an approach, it will sell more prescription medicines, increasing their sales volume and profitability. And, in so doing, it will help validate Kleinschmidt's contrarian philosophy.
Publisher, TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
The potential benefit of continued access to safe, affordable prescription medicines for U.S. citizens as a part of any signficant gains to be made in the American healthcare system has been identified by contrarian investor Robert Kleinschmidt in the August issue of Kiplinger's.
Kleinschmidt has made his fortune by identifying opportunities to invest in unpopular groups of stocks. In the Kiplinger's article, Kleinschmidt identifies pharmceutical stocks as such an opportunity.
His rationale: "The consensus will change when there's widespread recognition that drugs are part of the solution for healthcare as opposed to bieng part of the problem...if you think medical costs are a high percentage of the economy now, imagine what they would be if you couldn't solve a lot medical problems with a pill and had to solve them some other way..."
He continues that using pills is a "cost-effective way" of keeping people out of hospitals and by keeping them healthy, deters the need for more expensive operations and use of medical devices.
The conclusion is obvious: Access to safe, affordabale prescription medicines--including those from licensed, safe sources outside the U.S.--can, as noted in an earlier blog entry (Prescription Meds from outside U.S. offer lifeline to Part D and Medicare), addressing the healthcare needs of the U.S. in their totality is crucial to improved health for all Americans. To segment various issues--reimportation, making Part D a part of regular Medicare Administration, SCHIP, fighting privatization of Medicare, restoring fiscal integrity to Medicare and Medicaid, or prescription medicine safety--and identify them as 'the issue' of a particular group is both short-sighted and self-defeating.
That's why it is encouraging to see some new trends beginning to take place. Kleinschmidt's observation a succinct appraisal of the very real and important benefit to be attained--and not just for investors--but for all Americans.
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has introduced legislation that would incorporate a broad base of issues into policies, including but not limited to reimportation, that could improve the administration of Medicare, provide tremendous cost-savings and ease the strain upon the Budget, and improve the health of untold numbers of Americans.
Hopefully, the pharmaceutical industry will realize that as this occurs and Americans through the reduced costs made possible by such an approach, it will sell more prescription medicines, increasing their sales volume and profitability. And, in so doing, it will help validate Kleinschmidt's contrarian philosophy.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Prescription Meds from outside U.S. offer lifeline to Part D
Posted by Daniel Hines
Publisher, www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
(Part One of how and why safe, affordable prescription medicines from licensed, registered phamacies from outside the U.S. can benefit not only American's health, but can relieve the strained budgets of governmental services at the local, state and Federal levels. Part Two will deal with how local governments can generate vast savings for employee benefits, savings that can then be applied to other local services.)
As the U.S. economy continues to reel, the increasing cost of Medicare Part D threatens the very essence of a program that was claimed to be designed to address the prescription medicine needs of the country's aging population.
Increasingly, abuses of the system are apparent. Most recently, the Center for Medicare Services says that private plans that are woven in the fiber of Part D, have 'misinterpreted' the intent of CMS when the Part D was launched by developing a practice of 'locking in' a price structure in which PBMs charge a higher rate to insurers with whom they have contracted to administer their drug benefit than what they pay pharmacies to dispense the drugs to beneficiaries. The PBMs then keep the difference, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Ironically, a CMS administrator says that the agency thought it had a "clear policy"
prohibiting lock-in pricing when Part D launched. "We learned that there are different ways of interpreting a policy statement," she adds in a classic understatment.
Actually, since its inception, Medicare Part D has been flawed. It did not allow price negotiation to guarantee the lowest prices thereby generating savings for the Federal government and the intended beneficaries. The abomination of the 'Doughnut Hole' virtually eliminated hundreds of thousands of seniors who would receive little or no benefit unless they had staggering out-of-pocket costs which increase each year. And, the pharmaceutical industry continues to raise prices on brand name drugs, which makes Part D increasingly costly, although a "PR Spin" has been attempted to make it look as though savings have occured since the amount expended is lower than earlier estimates. The fact is that a large part of this claimed savings is due to lower than anticipated enrollment in plans.
In what can only be described as an American Tragedy, many policy-makers attack the claimed original intent of Part D, to help seniors enjoy the health benefits provided by prescription medicines, by labeling Part D (and Social Security and Medicare generally) as 'entitlement' programs that are burdensome to the country. One author even suggests that there is no alternative other than to cut Part D to 'save Medicare':
"In sum, Part D costs are soaring, and they could harm Medicare's core mission and the elderly. Because a tax increase is out of the question, one obvious solution is to amend the law and limit the drug benefit to save Medicare..." Quote from Spyros Andreopoulos is director emeritus of the Office of Communication and Public Affairs at Stanford University Medical Center.
Another approach comes from The Medicare Rights Center, on whose Citizens' Advisory Board I serve (Midwest Region). MRC advocates support of the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act, introduced by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) along with U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) and Marion Berry (AR-01). The bill creates a Medicare administered prescription drug plan to provide seniors an alternative to the privately administered prescription drug plans currently offered under Part D.
The problem is that both of the above approaches suffer from the blinders that too often are worn by policy-makers and advocacy groups, blinders that prevent them from looking at the totality of the factors that can favorably influence a solution to challenges such as the increasing costs of Medicare plans.
The fact is that access to safe, affordable prescription medicines from outside the U.S. must be included in the discussion to the complete (debate) (discussion)on healthcare reform in this country. Such access not only offers a potential benefit to improved health for all Americans, but can almost instantly create savings that will favorably impact Medicare administration by allowing access to lower-cost, but safe medications.
Unfortunately, a Washington-based staff member of MRC says that she is interested only in the passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act, on initiatives of the MRC, and has no interest in even exploring the potential contribution of providing savings and choice by allowing access to prescription medicines from outside the U.S.
Also, a highly informative source in Washington has told us that he fears that in the next Congress in 2009, there will be such a rush to enact 'comprehensive health care reform' that it will be nothing more than a 'trading bloc' for a number of individual Senators, Congressmen, pharmaceutical industry and insurance company reps, each with their own particular agenda, be it liberal, conservative, or even anti- or pro-pharmaceutical and insurance industry oriented. He said he fears that pharma particularly will offer its support for some form of 'comprehensive health care reform' in return for the role of providing continued access to safe, affordable medicines from outside this country to U.S. citizens being discarded.
That's like throwing the baby out with the washwater. It is time for Congress to take action to provide such access to all Americans, and to do so in a fashion in which the role of prescription medicines from licensed, registered pharmacies in Tier One countries not only can maintain or even enhance the quality of healthcare in the U.S., but can provide fiscal savings that can actually help pay for other initiatives that will finally get this country on the road to an improved national health care policy.
Publisher, www.TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com
(Part One of how and why safe, affordable prescription medicines from licensed, registered phamacies from outside the U.S. can benefit not only American's health, but can relieve the strained budgets of governmental services at the local, state and Federal levels. Part Two will deal with how local governments can generate vast savings for employee benefits, savings that can then be applied to other local services.)
As the U.S. economy continues to reel, the increasing cost of Medicare Part D threatens the very essence of a program that was claimed to be designed to address the prescription medicine needs of the country's aging population.
Increasingly, abuses of the system are apparent. Most recently, the Center for Medicare Services says that private plans that are woven in the fiber of Part D, have 'misinterpreted' the intent of CMS when the Part D was launched by developing a practice of 'locking in' a price structure in which PBMs charge a higher rate to insurers with whom they have contracted to administer their drug benefit than what they pay pharmacies to dispense the drugs to beneficiaries. The PBMs then keep the difference, according to an article in the Wall Street Journal.
Ironically, a CMS administrator says that the agency thought it had a "clear policy"
prohibiting lock-in pricing when Part D launched. "We learned that there are different ways of interpreting a policy statement," she adds in a classic understatment.
Actually, since its inception, Medicare Part D has been flawed. It did not allow price negotiation to guarantee the lowest prices thereby generating savings for the Federal government and the intended beneficaries. The abomination of the 'Doughnut Hole' virtually eliminated hundreds of thousands of seniors who would receive little or no benefit unless they had staggering out-of-pocket costs which increase each year. And, the pharmaceutical industry continues to raise prices on brand name drugs, which makes Part D increasingly costly, although a "PR Spin" has been attempted to make it look as though savings have occured since the amount expended is lower than earlier estimates. The fact is that a large part of this claimed savings is due to lower than anticipated enrollment in plans.
In what can only be described as an American Tragedy, many policy-makers attack the claimed original intent of Part D, to help seniors enjoy the health benefits provided by prescription medicines, by labeling Part D (and Social Security and Medicare generally) as 'entitlement' programs that are burdensome to the country. One author even suggests that there is no alternative other than to cut Part D to 'save Medicare':
"In sum, Part D costs are soaring, and they could harm Medicare's core mission and the elderly. Because a tax increase is out of the question, one obvious solution is to amend the law and limit the drug benefit to save Medicare..." Quote from Spyros Andreopoulos is director emeritus of the Office of Communication and Public Affairs at Stanford University Medical Center.
Another approach comes from The Medicare Rights Center, on whose Citizens' Advisory Board I serve (Midwest Region). MRC advocates support of the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act, introduced by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) along with U.S. Representatives Jan Schakowsky (IL-09) and Marion Berry (AR-01). The bill creates a Medicare administered prescription drug plan to provide seniors an alternative to the privately administered prescription drug plans currently offered under Part D.
The problem is that both of the above approaches suffer from the blinders that too often are worn by policy-makers and advocacy groups, blinders that prevent them from looking at the totality of the factors that can favorably influence a solution to challenges such as the increasing costs of Medicare plans.
The fact is that access to safe, affordable prescription medicines from outside the U.S. must be included in the discussion to the complete (debate) (discussion)on healthcare reform in this country. Such access not only offers a potential benefit to improved health for all Americans, but can almost instantly create savings that will favorably impact Medicare administration by allowing access to lower-cost, but safe medications.
Unfortunately, a Washington-based staff member of MRC says that she is interested only in the passage of the Medicare Prescription Drug Savings and Choice Act, on initiatives of the MRC, and has no interest in even exploring the potential contribution of providing savings and choice by allowing access to prescription medicines from outside the U.S.
Also, a highly informative source in Washington has told us that he fears that in the next Congress in 2009, there will be such a rush to enact 'comprehensive health care reform' that it will be nothing more than a 'trading bloc' for a number of individual Senators, Congressmen, pharmaceutical industry and insurance company reps, each with their own particular agenda, be it liberal, conservative, or even anti- or pro-pharmaceutical and insurance industry oriented. He said he fears that pharma particularly will offer its support for some form of 'comprehensive health care reform' in return for the role of providing continued access to safe, affordable medicines from outside this country to U.S. citizens being discarded.
That's like throwing the baby out with the washwater. It is time for Congress to take action to provide such access to all Americans, and to do so in a fashion in which the role of prescription medicines from licensed, registered pharmacies in Tier One countries not only can maintain or even enhance the quality of healthcare in the U.S., but can provide fiscal savings that can actually help pay for other initiatives that will finally get this country on the road to an improved national health care policy.
Monday, May 19, 2008
The reason for Rx for American Health
America is in a healthcare crisis. Ironically, at a time when millions upon millions of Americans lack medical insurance, when children are the targets of budgetary cuts and lack healthcare and medicines, when pharmaceutical companies make billions of dollars in profits, while the elderly are once again facing a health maintenance crisis because of the rising costs of medicines, while families lack access to medical care, and our national, state budgets and local budgets are facing the reduction and loss of the basic responsibilities of government, relief is possible with a very simple concept--allowing U.S. citizens access to prescription medicines from licensed, registered, reputable pharmacies outside the U.S.
In a unique example of 'double-speak', this relief has been labeled 'reimportation', giving the mistaken impression that the prescription medicines are somehow being manufactured in this country, exported and sent back to the United States.
Actually, the vast majority of prescription medicines are manufactured outside the United States and sold the consumers in this country at the highest prices for prescription medicines in the world.
Why should this be? Because the pharmaceutical manufacturers who spend more on advertising, marketing and lobbying than on research and development are more concerned with profits than the health of Americans.
It is time for this to change. That is why Rx for American Health will present the facts about the benefits of access to safe, affordable prescriptions, contrasting that with the tremendous cost to the public health, the public well-being, and the burden of the cost of high-priced prescription medicines to budgets at the local, state and Federal levels.
We will do this by 'calling out' the practices of the pharmaceutical industry as it makes moves on a number of fronts--misstatements, predatory business practices, undermining the democratic process with its millions of dollars of expenditures to influence policy-makers to act in its behalf at the expense of the public well-being.
Rx for American Health will reflect opinions from a number of sources, but always its goal will be to create the climate to finally bring prescription medicine price relief to beleaguered Americans who might otherwise be denied the benefits that can be provided by a regimen of access to safe, affordable prescription medicines. We will illustrate the savings as well as the health benefits that are possible--savings that can relieve the burden on strained budgets our local, state and Federal governments.
All of these illustrate the core of our conviction that such access must be considered as a part of the totality of the healthcare crisis facing the United States, and the providing of such access to safe, affordable prescription medicines must be a part of any plans for comprehensive medical reform in the United States.
Daniel Hines, Publisher, TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com and BoomersNewsOnline.com
In a unique example of 'double-speak', this relief has been labeled 'reimportation', giving the mistaken impression that the prescription medicines are somehow being manufactured in this country, exported and sent back to the United States.
Actually, the vast majority of prescription medicines are manufactured outside the United States and sold the consumers in this country at the highest prices for prescription medicines in the world.
Why should this be? Because the pharmaceutical manufacturers who spend more on advertising, marketing and lobbying than on research and development are more concerned with profits than the health of Americans.
It is time for this to change. That is why Rx for American Health will present the facts about the benefits of access to safe, affordable prescriptions, contrasting that with the tremendous cost to the public health, the public well-being, and the burden of the cost of high-priced prescription medicines to budgets at the local, state and Federal levels.
We will do this by 'calling out' the practices of the pharmaceutical industry as it makes moves on a number of fronts--misstatements, predatory business practices, undermining the democratic process with its millions of dollars of expenditures to influence policy-makers to act in its behalf at the expense of the public well-being.
Rx for American Health will reflect opinions from a number of sources, but always its goal will be to create the climate to finally bring prescription medicine price relief to beleaguered Americans who might otherwise be denied the benefits that can be provided by a regimen of access to safe, affordable prescription medicines. We will illustrate the savings as well as the health benefits that are possible--savings that can relieve the burden on strained budgets our local, state and Federal governments.
All of these illustrate the core of our conviction that such access must be considered as a part of the totality of the healthcare crisis facing the United States, and the providing of such access to safe, affordable prescription medicines must be a part of any plans for comprehensive medical reform in the United States.
Daniel Hines, Publisher, TodaysSeniorsNetwork.com and BoomersNewsOnline.com
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