Thursday, February 10, 2005

Silly things in the news

Got snowed it today ... Surprised they called school this early ... There is not much snow on the ground ... but it is a little sleety ....Was reading the Portland Press-Herald today and two things disturbed me..... One is that President Bush's prescription drug bill does not allow the government to bargain for drug prices (totally insane because absolutely every medical insurance company does). ...The other is that there is a school in Central California that is putting RFID tags on all their children (like big pallets have) so that they can track them and see if they are late to class. Sometimes there should be when "safety goes wrong" ...I hope all you warm weather "flatlanders", "from away" ... are enjoying a nice calm February day.From Snowy Maine ... I wish you good day ... Edmund Quinn

It sounds like the US govt is paying retail for prescription drugs which nearly NOONE does .... http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6941445/Imports from Canada At a press conference Wednesday at which a bipartisan group of senators announced a new bill to allow the re-importation of pharmaceuticals from Canada and other countries, none of the senators would comment when asked about King’s legislation. Instead, their focus was on forcing U.S. drug-makers to lower their prices by allowing re-import of drugs shipped to Canada and other nations where governments impose price controls. One of those senators, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass., said “a huge portion” of the new drug entitlement “is a windfall profit for the drug companies and the HMO’s.”The $720 billion Bush administration cost estimate “will add new pressure for us to pass this legislation” to allow drug re-imports, said Sen. John McCain, R- Ariz. He denounced what he called “the egregious and outrageous provision” in the 2003 bill that bars Medicare from negotiating price discounts with pharmaceutical manufacturers. He called it “a disgraceful example of the power of the drug companies.” One senator who was willing to express support for the idea of not having Medicare pay for Viagra was Sen. Tom Coburn, R- Okla. King’s provision “will fly through” Congress, Coburn predicted.



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