DOCTORS ' LOUNGE
DOCTORS ' LOUNGE
SPEAK YOUR MIND If you would like to respond to an article in this issue , please submit an article or letter to the editor . Contributions may be sent to editor @ glms . org . The GLMS Editorial Board reserves the right to choose what will be published . Please note that the views expressed in Doctors ’ Lounge or any other article in this publication are not those of the Greater Louisville Medical Society or Louisville Medicine .
REALITY CHECKS OUT AUTHOR Mary Barry , MD
Living in a made-up world has been the norm for way too many Americans since the former guy vulcanized seemingly normal people . Lying ? Fine , we got alternative facts . Cheating ? Sure , God intended us to win . Assault ? Heavens , they were tourists ! Vaccination ? Hell no , we ’ ll get magnetized .
Black Americans live with a way different sort of reality , the actual day-to-day kind of being endlessly judged , second-guessed , misunderstood and mistrusted , devalued , threatened , or simply ignored until an armed cop catches them jaywalking . These lifelong experiences foster the rejection of regulations handed down by bossy experts , and can lead to dread , fear and anger about the effects that COVID-19 vaccines might have on them and their loved ones . The result of suffering racism one ’ s whole life is thus having that life shortened or injured by COVID-19 , in huge , horrible numbers across this nation : a condemnation of racism if ever I heard one . In a self-aware country , that alone should toll the knell for racist acts . Instead , they are increasing .
Sick or well , most working Americans live with the reality of sort-of health insurance . Their out-of-pocket costs go up every single year ; parents skip meds to buy their kids food and skip meals to let their children eat first . The obscene cost of insulin drives people into DKA or death , but mostly into despair . No matter how hard they try to regulate their illness , buying the materials and the meds has been impossible when insulin cost $ 1,000 a month at the counter - but less than $ 7 a vial to make . Thanks to our lawmakers , the cost of insulin in Kentucky will be capped at $ 30 a month as of Jan . 1 , 2022 . This law only applies , however , to state-regulated employer-sponsored health plans , or plans that are part of the Affordable Care Act : this means only 30 % of Kentuckians will benefit . Employers who use self-insured plans with or without a stop-loss provision are thus not subject to this rule since federal law forbids the state to regulate such plans ( some lobbyists are more equal than others ).
Recently , President Biden signed an executive order directing his administration to help states obtain drugs at much lower prices from Canadian sources . He asked the Federal Trade Commission to help lower costs by prohibiting brand-name drug manufacturers from paying generic companies not to make bioequivalent drugs : truly a cartel sort of practice . The Senate is looking at legislation which includes this idea as well , but as we have seen since 2008 , the hand of Senator McConnell can block many a shot .
The constant greed of price-gouging argues strongly for a single national health insurance plan , and also for federal competitive bidding and out of country sourcing for the drugs that are bankrupting us . In April , three House Democrats introduced the Elijah E . Cummings Lower Drug Cost Now Act . In May , the Congressional Budget Office estimated that its provisions would save the US around $ 445 billion by 2029 , although eight fewer new drugs might be introduced to the market . However , the bill ’ s inclusion of Medicare coverage for dental , vision and hearing plans ( in other words , actually addressing what people need ) would raise spending by $ 358 billion , still a net savings over the current disaster of drug costs . Gallup polls have shown that 90 % of respondents favor federal intervention - soon - to lower the cost of medication and to import drugs from Canada .
Getting the feds involved is very healthy for truth-telling in the drug marketplace . In May , Rep . Katie Porter and her inestimable whiteboard decimated Mr . Richard Gonzalez , CEO of AbbVie , with actual , not alternative , facts . The company is the only supplier of Humira , a drug essential to the treatment of multiple autoimmune
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