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Happy New
Year!
On
behalf of CanadaDrugsOnline and all our staff we like to wish
you and your family a Happy New Year!
Did your New
Years Resolutions make the top 10 this
year?
Every year, people come up with New Years
Resolutions, however only a few of us will follow through with
them. Most of the resolutions that people come up with are
fairly common amongst everybody. The top ten New Years
Resolutions, according to Kimbery & Albrecht Powell from
Pittsburgh,
PA, are:
1)
Spend more time with Family &
Friends
2)
Fit in Fitness - ask your doctor about
Xenical, a weight loss
medication.
3)
Tame the Bulge (Weight Loss)
4)
Quit Smoking - try Nicorette Gum!!
5)
Enjoy Life More
6)
Quit Drinking
7)
Get Out of Debt
8)
Learn Something new
9)
Help Others
10)
Get Organized
For tips on making your New Years
Resolutions work visit:
http://thyroid.about.com/library/weightloss/blresolution.htm
>>back to top
Drug
Companies Firing at Medicare
Plan
Congress is certain to push legislation
next year that threatens to cut into drug company profits, but
industry executives are confident they can overcome challenges
from incoming Democratic leaders.
"There
is an assumption that the Democratic ascension will be a
disaster for the industry," Eli Lilly and Company Chief
Executive Officer Sidney Taurel told financial analysts at a
December meeting in New
York. "I believe the facts point to a
more moderate direction."
A
priority for the new Democratic majority is to repeal a clause
in the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act that prevents the
government from negotiating price discounts from drug makers
on behalf of millions of elderly and disabled Americans who
participate in the new Medicare Part D prescription drug
program.
Democrats, and some Republicans, also are
likely to move legislation to make it legal and safe for
Americans to buy cheaper prescription medicine from pharmacies
abroad, such as those in Canada.
But the pharmaceutical industry's armada
of lobbyists will do all it can to block both efforts, or at
least water them down.
"We'll
continue to oppose ill-advised legislation, such as risky
importation bills that threaten public health and safety,"
said Ken Johnson, senior vice president of the Pharmaceutical
Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
The
industry spends more than any other on federal lobbying,
campaign donations and congressional travel - more than $1
billion combined since 1998, according to the Center for
Public Integrity.
Democrats claim that by giving Medicare
negotiating power, the program could win significant discounts
from drug makers, enough to save each beneficiary, about $500
more each year.
The
estimated $61 billion in savings over 10 years could be used
to fill part of a gap in coverage - known as "the donut hole"
- facing most people participating in the Medicare Part D
prescription drug program.
"I felt
from the very beginning we could have had a better program
that covers more things, such as eliminating the donut hole,"
said Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., a New Jersey Democrat expected to
chair the subcommittee that will be instrumental in crafting
Medicare legislation. "If we negotiate prices, it's a way to
provide more."
The
drug industry says government-mandated prices would threaten
the industry's vital investments in researching and developing
new drugs, estimated at $51.3 billion in 2005. It costs an
estimated $1.2 billion to bring a new drug to market,
according to industry estimates.
The
industry spends approximately double its research budget on
marketing each year - which includes the cost of fielding a
massive sales force and advertising, which has grown steadily
in recent years.
The
House is expected to repeal the Medicare non-negotiation
clause during its first 100 hours of business in January. In
the Senate, the pace will be slower and less certain.
Senate
Democrats, who hold a 51-49 majority, need 60 votes to end
debate on any controversial bill. And there's the very real
possibility of a veto from President Bush.
Drug
industry lobbyists plan to use two additional arguments to
counter lawmaker attempts to overturn the Medicare
non-negotiation clause.
First,
the Congressional Budget Office, the entity that produces the
official cost and revenue estimates for proposed legislation,
has concluded it's unlikely Medicare would see significant
savings if government managers get authority to negotiate with
drug makers for discounts.
Second,
the year-old Medicare Part D program already is producing
significant savings for consumers, said Jim Greenwood,
president of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, which
represents more than 1,000 biotechnology companies and
organizations.
The
prices beneficiaries now pay for prescription drugs through
the Medicare program were determined by actual free-market
negotiations, Greenwood said.
"When
the federal government sets prices, it becomes a political
process and not one based on real, free-market honest
negotiations," said Greenwood, a former
Pennsylvania Republican congressman.
For
more related articles visit:
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061222/LIFESTYLE06/612220338
>>back to top
Congress vs. Big Pharma: Let the Games
Begin
With
its stranglehold on the nation's health care bills and its
record-high profits, including billions from public coffers,
no industry may be an easier target for reform than Big
Pharma. But don't hold your breath for any meaningful reforms
from the next Congress, given that even the most obvious ideas
- such as expanding the Medicare drug benefit and opening the
door to drug imports from Canada and
elsewhere - will face unrelenting pushback from the massive
drug lobby. In the end, Congressional Democrats may not
accomplish much to help patients, but they will likely launch
the first serious investigations of the industry in decades.
In
January powerful Michigan Democrat John Dingell will take the
reins of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Sources with
knowledge of the committee's plans say that by February,
Dingell aims to launch several probes of the drug industry,
including a look at fraud in Medicare and Medicaid with
particular focus on the black-market sales of expensive cancer
drugs and other pharmaceuticals. Dingell also wants to
investigate the process by which drugs get approved at the
FDA, and explore the question of imports from
Canada, where U.S. drug makers
sell many pharmaceuticals cheaper than they do here.
In
whatever configuration, the issues the new Congress will have
to confront right away include the new Medicare Plan D drug
benefit program. The benefit is administered through various
private plans run by HMOs, the AARP, and others, each of which
negotiates its own prices with drug makers. Critics argue that
as constituted, this program - the only part of Medicare that
doesn't include price controls - is a virtual handout to the
drug companies, and that the government could push for much
lower drug prices if it were to negotiate with manufacturers
directly. A number of Congressional freshmen supported this
idea on the campaign trail.
Another
likely agenda item is Plan D's so-called doughnut hole. A
senior can register for the plan and receive coverage for up
to $2400 worth of drugs. After that a senior continues to pay
premiums but gets no coverage until he or she spends about
$3800. Then the insurance picks up again.
Plan D
is a miasma - the Bush people like to refer to it as a
marketplace - of different private plans, some plugging the
doughnut, some closing it part way. According to staffers at
the Center for Medicare Advocacy in Washington, there is as of
yet no real plan in Congress for plugging the doughnut or
changing the overall plan. Edwin Park, who follows Medicare
for the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington
think tank, says he doubts there will be any quick fixes for
the doughnut hole, in part because of the cost of closing the
gap - an estimated $400 million over 10 years. Bush is dead
set against removing the marketplace feature and the
Democrats, with their narrow margins, would have a hard time
overriding a veto. Thus, some health advocates think that
while Congress won't allow the government to negotiate prices
wholesale, they might let the government enter the Plan D
market as another buyer alongside the existing private plans.
A
second confrontation may come over the import of cheaper drugs
from Canada. Democratic
Senator Byron Dorgan of South
Dakota has taken the lead on this
issue; last July, Senate Democrats voted to permit Canadian
imports. Bush has promised to veto such legislation, should it
ever pass; meanwhile, the Canadian drug industry is preparing
to press Ottawa to ban cheap exports to the United States, a
move that would leave patients turning to Latin America and
elsewhere.
"My
main hope is exposure,'' says Dr. Sidney Wolfe, who heads
Public Citizen's Health Research Group. Even if reform
legislation were to pass in this Congress, he notes, "it would
be almost guaranteed to face a presidential veto." More
likely, he says, investigations today will pave the way for
reform later.
For more information on this article
written by James Ridgeway, a journalist from Mother Jones
magazine, visit: http://www.motherjones.com/washington_dispatch/2006/12/big_pharma.html
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Your
Comments
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of my premarin on my last order. I happened to remark that
there were only 3 or 4 pills left and two days later the
prescription arrived! I send you a big smile and lots of
gratification!"
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helpful when I need help. Keep up the good
work. "
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My employer does not offer health insurance. I have
several major health problems, including lupus, COPD and
severe allergies. Without Canada Drugs Online, I could
not afford the 22 pills I take every day. You have made
the difference between struggling through each day in pain and
actually enjoying life! "Thanks" is an inadequate
word! "
SW
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