Broken Health Care: As Insulin Cost Soars, Americans Drive to Canada

The myth continues that America has the best health care in the world.  To the extent this myth is true, it applies only to the very wealthy to whom cost is no obstacle. For millions of other Americans, even those with insurance, the system remains severely broken and remains a drive force in pushing individuals into bankruptcy.  Even if one does not need surgery or an extended hospital stay, prescription drug costs are sky high, often even for generic brands - I recently paid $545.00 for a generic drug that I need to deal with side effects of my proton therapy AFTER my insurance company made its co-pay.  Unlike so many others, I fortunately will not need to keep getting refills.  In the case of insulin, those who need it, need it it on a continuing basis and American pharmaceutical companies are proving to be rapacious at best.   Meanwhile, the federal government does nothing to bring down costs.  As a piece in the Washington Post reports, some Americans now travel to Canada to get insulin at one tenth (1/10th) the cost paid in the USA.  Here are highlights:

As their minivan rolled north, they felt their nerves kick in — but they kept on driving.  At the wheel: Lija Greenseid, a rule-abiding Minnesota mom steering her Mazda5 on a cross-border drug run.

Her daughter, who is 13, has Type 1 diabetes and needs insulin. In the United States, it can cost hundreds of dollars per vial. In Canada, you can buy it without a prescription for a tenth of that price.

So, Greenseid led a small caravan last month to the town of Fort Frances, Ontario, where she and five other Americans paid about $1,200 for drugs that would have cost them $12,000 in the United States.  “It felt like we were robbing the pharmacy,” said Quinn Nystrom, a Type 1 diabetic who joined the caravan that day. “It had been years since I had 10 vials in my hands.”

Like millions of Americans, Greenseid and Nystrom are stressed and outraged by the rising costs of prescription drugs in the United States — a problem Republicans and Democrats alike have promised to fix.

Insulin is a big part of the challenge. More than 30 million Americans have diabetes, according to the American Diabetes Association. About 7.5 million, including 1.5 million with Type 1 diabetes, rely on insulin.

Between 2012 and 2016, the cost of insulin for treating Type 1 diabetes nearly doubled, according to the nonprofit Health Care Cost Institute.

Some pharmaceutical companies, under pressure from U.S. lawmakers, have tried to reduce the cost for some patients. But many who rely on insulin still struggle. Large numbers resort to rationing — a dangerous and sometimes deadly practice.

Some diabetics and their families are taking matters into their own hands. They meet in coffee shops and strip mall parking lots to exchange emergency supplies. An unknown number travel outside the country to buy the lifesaving drug for less.

None of this is recommended by U.S. officials, and some of it might be illegal under Food and Drug Administration guidelines. But the organizers of the caravan — their word, a nod to the migrants traveling in groups through Mexico to the U.S. border — are speaking out about their trip because they want Americans to see how drug prices push ordinary people to extremes.

“When you have a bad health-care system, it makes good people feel like outlaws,” Greenseid said.

Barry Power, director of therapeutic content with the Canadian Pharmacists Association, said the group is tracking both U.S. drug-buying proposals and reports of cross-border trade closely but has yet to see a disruption to Canadian insulin supplies.

He said insulin prices in Canada are controlled through policy, including price caps and negotiations with manufacturers.  “This is something the U.S. could do,” he said.

Elizabeth Pfiester is founder and executive director of T1International, a British-based nonprofit that advocates for people with Type 1 diabetes around the world.

“It’s kind of a myth that America has the best health-care system in the world, because it is set up to allow Americans to go bankrupt or die because they can’t afford their medicine,” she said.

Pfiester grew up in the United States. One of the reasons her organization is based overseas, she said, is that the cost of treating her diabetes in the United States is so high.
They see buying in Canada as a short-term emergency measure and a way to call attention to U.S. pricing — not the answer.

“I don’t think that the solution is going outside the United States,” Greenseid said. “The reason they have lower prices is because they have put in regulations to make sure their citizens are not paying too much. We have not yet made that decision in the U.S.”

LaShawn McIver is senior vice president for government affairs and advocacy at the American Diabetes Association.  “Insulin is not a luxury, it is a matter of life and death,” she wrote in an emailed statement. “Action to reduce the high out-of-pocket costs that endanger the lives of the millions of Americans who depend on this medication is critical and urgently needed.”

Monday Morning Male Beauty

Tariff-Slammed Rural Communities Now Battling Climate Change Flooding

A flooded Oklahoma farm - Oklahoma went for
Trump by 65.3% of the vote.

I have written about the plight - much self-inflicted - of Mid-West farmers who, in my view, (i) stupidly voted for Donald Trump  thanks to his appeals to racism and/or religious extremism, and (ii) jumped on the climate change denial bandwagon.  This year, both moves are coming back to haunt them in spades and, but for the children and youths suffering, it's hard not to want to pull out a tiny violin and play a funeral dirge for them.  Between Trump's tariffs which have sent China to other nations for its agricultural purchases and the rains and flooding that some experts say may be the new normal for large swaths of the nation, these Trump supporters may be looking at financial ruin.  That financial ruin also extends to the larger rural communities in which these farmers live. Some are even waking to the reality that perhaps climate change is, in fact real.  Embracing ignorance and embracing hate and bigotry are choices - or stated another way, actions do have consequences - and karma seemingly is repaying these folks in spades.  A piece in Huffington Post looks at the ongoing tariff and flooding situation.  Here are highlights:

Panicked farmers throughout the Midwest are facing the increasing probability that vast tracts of fields will remain unplanted or crops will fail this year as much of their land remains under water or too sodden for farm equipment and plants.

The crushing weather conditions come on top of President Donald Trump’s trade war with China that has already triggered a record number of farm bankruptcies.

It’s been the wettest 12 months ever in the U.S., and scientists link it to the effects of climate change.  “The frequency of these disasters, I can’t say we’ve experienced anything like this since I’ve been working in agriculture,” John Newton, chief economist at the American Farm Bureau Federation, told The Washington Post. 

It’s the slowest planting time in 39 years. 

Sodden fields lie fallow, and corn and soy crops that have been planted are stunted in the mud. Hard-hit states include Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska and Michigan. Waters began to recede in some areas in recent days but there’s more rain in the forecast.

“It’s going to be a train wreck,” Illinois corn farmer James McCune, whose family has been tilling the soil since 1857, told Crain’s Chicago Business. He could only plant 950 acres this year of the 6,000 acres he operates.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine(R)  is seeking a federal disaster declaration for more government funds. Just 50% of the state’s corn crop and 32% of its soybean crop had been planted as of a few days ago because of relentless rains and flooding. There’s already a state of emergency in every single county in Oklahoma.

The Trump administration is already spending a total of $27 billion in subsidies just to help farmers survive [Trump's] the president’s trade war.

Trump hasn’t acknowledged the flood toll on the group he refers to as his “patriot farmers,” who are credited with helping put him into the White House. Meanwhile, he continues to raise doubts about climate change exists. . . . . His policy changes — including his intention to ease vehicle emission standards — will predictably worsen climate change, according to scientists.

A new Purdue University study has found that farmers are becoming increasingly pessimistic about their futures, citing losses from both Trump’s trade war and the current weather conditions.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service estimated that farmers had planted just 67% of the acreage planned for corn by June 3. This time last year, the figure was at 96%.

It’s not only the farmers, but their communities that suffer.  “Everything comes from land and feeds our small towns, our elevators, fertilizer business, seed business, machinery business, all that,” said Illinois farmer Dan Koster. “There’s that ripple effect that’ll affect all those guys.”

It may sound heartless, but if these people continue to support Trump and his trade wars and denial of cliamte change, they basically deserve whatever misfortune befalls them.   If they want to see the cause of their problems, they need to look in a mirror. 

More Sunday Male Beauty

Mark Herring: Virginia Must begin to Decriminalize Marijuana

For over a quarter century, Virginia Republicans have used Virginia's criminal justice system to aid in its effort to make voting more difficult, if not impossible, for minorities to vote in Virginia.  Along with voter ID laws disingenuously touted as being needed to prevent non-existent voter fraud, the agenda has been to minimize the minority vote.  Nowhere has this been more true than in the context of Virginia's marijuana laws that are disproportionately enforced against black Virginians who make up 20% of the population, but who are subject to 46-50% of marijuana arrests and convictions.  It's an insidious agenda and morally reprehensible, but such is the nature of today's Republican Party, both in Virginia and in Washington, D.C.  A growing number of Virginians want these laws changed.  Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring has an op-ed in the Daily Press that looks at this continuing shame on Virginia that needs to be rectified.  Here are column excerpts:

Virginia’s policy of criminalizing minor marijuana possession is not working. It is needlessly creating criminals and burdening Virginians with convictions. The human and social costs are enormous, in addition to the millions of dollars it costs Virginia taxpayers. And the negative consequences of the current approach fall disproportionately on African Americans and people of color.

That is why Virginia should decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana, address past convictions and start moving toward legal and regulated adult use.

Overall arrests for marijuana possession have increased by about 115%, from around 13,000 in 2003 to nearly 28,000 in 2017. The number of first-time marijuana convictions in Virginia has also risen dramatically, from 6,500 in 2008 to 10,000 in 2017.

Even if a Virginian avoids jail time for marijuana possession, they can still be stuck with a criminal record, lose their job, student aid, certain public benefits including housing assistance, and it can even affect custody rights.

This punitive approach costs Virginia taxpayers an estimated $81 million every year, in addition to the staggering human and social costs. And it cannot be ignored that the burden of the current system falls disproportionately on African Americans and people of color.

The Virginia Crime Commission found that African Americans comprised 46% of all first offense possession arrests from 2007 to 2016, despite comprising just 20% of Virginia’s population and despite studies consistently showing that marijuana usage rates are comparable between African Americans and white Americans.

A study by the Daily Press similarly found that African Americans received half of all charges of first-time marijuana possession in Virginia and that African Americans are more likely to be convicted of marijuana charges and sentenced to jail.

So what does a more rational, just, and equitable cannabis policy look like in Virginia? It’s a question that will require thought, consideration, and input from a wide range of stakeholders, but the time is right to begin working toward legal and regulated adult use.

That process should begin as soon as possible with decriminalizing simple possession of small amounts of marijuana and taking action to release from jail, pardon and expunge the records of those whose convictions would not have occurred under more rational standards.

[W]e can’t avoid the conversation any longer, especially when our current system continues to saddle Virginians with convictions and even jail time, and black Virginians at a strikingly disproportionate rate. It is time for Virginia to embrace a better, smarter, and fairer approach to cannabis.

Marijuana reform will be yet another much needed legislative issue that can move forward if Democrats win control of the General Assembly in November, 2019.  So much reform is needed in so many areas of Virginia's laws that will only happen when the GOP is sent into a minority position (hopefully, permanently). 

Blue Commonwealth Gala - Reflections

Last night's political gathering was quite impressive - and much larger than I had expected.  A friend who is a regular at such things said about 1,400 - 1,500 people typically attend.  But, as the conservative (and typically anti-Democrat) Richmond Times Dispatch reports, 1,800 Democrats from all across Virginia gathered at the fundraiser featuring two presidential candidates -  Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar  - which party officials said brought in more than $425,000.  The event was designed to kick off the fall state legislative elections, but the desire to defeat Donald Trump in 2020 was palpable throughout the evening. 

Many people that we spoke with had never attended before and all seemed committed to seeing Virginia send another message to Trump and the Republican Party.  In 2017, Virginia saw control of the Virginia General Assembly flip from GOP control, with the GOP losing 15 seats in the House of Delegates.  That turned out to be a precursor for the flipping of the House of Representatives in 2018.   The goal in 2019 is to finish what 2017 started and to see Democrats win control of both chambers of the General Assembly which will set the stage for passage of a large number pieces of progressive legislation, not the least of which will be con control measures long thwarted by the Virginia GOP.  The other hope is that 2019 will be the beginning of the defeat of Trump and Trumpism which is nothing less than a cancer on America.

There were plenty of speakers, some of whom I have heard numerous times before (e.g.,Mark Warner, Terry McAuliffe and Tim Kaine), but the true headliner of the evening was Pete Buttigieg - who many first time attendees cited as their reason for attending.   Amy Klobuchar gave a fine speech, but Buttigieg's delivery was stellar.  If his debate performance on June 27th is as good as what we saw last night,it could shake things up and certainly make other candidates look tongue tied in comparison.

Naturally, Virginia Republicans put down the gala and were as arrogant as ever and described Buttigieg and Klobuchar as candidates have "zero chance" and tried to revive the February debacle when some Virginia Democrats allowed themselves to be played by far right operatives and engaged in a circular firing squad.   Similar arrogance and nastiness were on display in 2017 as well and, with luck, a similar humbling will hit the GOP in November, 2019. 

Sunday Morning Male Beauty

2019 Blue Commonwealth Gala

Over the years I have contributed to individual candidates - more recently Democrats - but have not gone to a political party fundraiser in over 20 years since I left the GOP after that party was taken over by Christofascists who turned that party into the equivalent of a rabid dog.  That was until now.  With all 140 seats in the Virginia General Assembly up for election in November, 2019, the husband and I will be traveling to Richmond today to attend the Blue Commonwealth Gala - a Democrat Party fundraiser - in Richmond (thanks to our friend Jenny who will be house/dog sitting for us).  Headlining the event is presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg who will now be joined by rival candidate Amy Klobuchar.  Other speakers include a who's who of Virginia's Democrat congressional officeholders.

For years now, the Virginia GOP's strangle hold on the General Assembly has held Virginia back and blocked an array of legislation that would benefit Virginians ranging from commonsense gun control, to LGBT non-discrimination protections, to ending medical care disparities for minorities and poor Virginians (Governor Northam is currently pushing to end the disparity in maternal deaths for minority mothers).  Indeed, winning Democrat control of the House of Delegates and the Virginia Senate in November, 2019, will be decisive in determining whether Virginia will continue to emerge as a leading modern state or remain part of the southern states backwater that want to turn the clock back to the 1950's or earlier. 

I urge fellow Virginians to get politically involved, make sure you are registered to vote, and go out and vote in both November, 2017, in the Virginia elections, and in November, 2020.  We need to turn Virginia blue and send a message to Donald Trump.  Then, in November, 2020, we need to take back America in 2020 from the Trumpists and extremists who now control the GOP. 

More Saturday Morning Male Beauty

Tennessee Preacher-Cop calls for Execution of LGBT People

Being gay in America remains dangerous - a reality lost on gay Republicans, many of whom falsely believe their white skin and social status will protect them from the raging homophobia being fanned by the Republican Party (the 2016 GOP platform opposes same sex marriage) and the Trump/Pence regime in particular.   The unleashing, indeed encouragement, of homophobia by the current White House regime is emboldening "Christian" extremists.  Just days after the 3rd anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre, a group of anti-gay extremist pastors, some exhorting the execution of LGBT individuals, gathered in Orlando, Florida.  Now, media reports have revealed that one Tennessee police officer who doubles as a pastor of an extremist church, likewise wants gays executed.  One can only imagine the fate a gay stooped by this officer might suffer.  Thankfully, the local District Attorney is reviewing all cases involving this hate monger.   Here are excerpts from a CNN article:

Authorities in Tennessee are reviewing all pending cases involving a Knox County Sheriff's Office detective after he gave a sermon at his church that called for the government to execute members of the LGBTQ community.

"They are worthy of death," Grayson Fritts said in a June 2 sermon at All Scripture Baptist Church, a small church in Knoxville that he leads.

The church posted the sermon online and then removed it, according to The Washington Post. The video was picked up by the Tennessee Holler, an independent liberal news outlet, and edited into a six-minute clip.

"God has instilled the power of civil government to send the police in 2019 out to the LGBT freaks and arrest them and have a trial for them, and if they are convicted, then they are to be put to death," he said in the clip.

Fritts said it would be easy to find people to arrest at events such as gay pride parades."We have a bunch of them we're going to get convicted because they have all their pride junk on, and they're professing what they are, that they're a filthy animal," he said.

Speaking to journalists before giving a sermon last Wednesday, Fritts said his anti-LGBTQ beliefs have not interfered with his work as a law enforcement officer.

Charme Allen, the Knox County district attorney general, issued a statement calling Fritts' comments "personally offensive and reprehensible. Allen said she would review all of Fritts' pending cases and an assistant district attorney will review any complaints about closed cases involving Fritts.

"When any potential witness in a criminal proceeding expresses an opinion of hatred and/or bias towards a class of citizens, I am ethically bound to explore that witness' credibility," Allen said. "Accordingly, I am reviewing all pending cases involving Mr. Fritts to scrutinize them for any potential bias. Although my office has never received a complaint regarding Mr. Fritts prior to this incident, I have assigned an assistant district attorney to receive complaints regarding closed cases, and I will act on those complaints as justice dictates." Knox County Sheriff Tom Spangler said . . . . "I want to be very clear that it is my responsibility to ensure equal protection to ALL citizens of Knox County, Tennessee under the law, my oath and the United States Constitution without discrimination or hesitation. Rest assured that I have and will continue to do so," Spangler said in a statement, according to WATE.

The All Scripture Baptist Church website says it is "an independent, fundamental, King James Bible only, soul-winning church. Don't expect anything liberal, watered down, or contemporary here." The website is clear about the church's stance on the gay community:

"We believe that sodomy (homosexuality) is a sin that is against nature. A person will only burn in their lust toward the same gender if they have been given over to a reprobate or rejected mind. God said homosexuality should be punished with the death penalty, as set forth in Leviticus 20:13. No homosexual will be allowed to attend or join All Scripture Baptist Church." Two Knoxville public officials criticized Fritts' comments.

"I am outraged at the statements by Knox County Sheriff's Detective Grayson Fritts," Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero said in a statement posted on the city's website. "Fritts' statements raise concerns locally and nationally about protecting LGBTQ+ rights and equality. Fritts' statements have cast a negative light on our community making it imperative to share my personal position and the position of the City of Knoxville."

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs also criticized Fritts, according to the Knoxville News Sentinel.

"Mr. Fritts is not my employee so I can only give my personal thoughts on the issue," Jacobs said. "I find his comments to be extremely vile and reprehensible and I strongly condemn threats of or calls for violence."

Some would argue that Fritts is an outlier, yet the Republicans in the Tennessee legislature have continued to push extreme anti-gay legislation. If your are LGBT, Tennessee is likely NOT a place to live.  Just as disturbing is the reality that leaders of extreme "Christian" groups have Trump's ear and are pushing him to implement their agenda, including the appointment of anti-gay judges.