JustCare

Tag: President Trump

  • Candidates’ position on health care costs could sway 2018 voters

    Candidates’ position on health care costs could sway 2018 voters

    A candidate’s position on health care costs could sway 2018 voters. A new Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows that voters care most about a candidate’s position on President Donald Trump. After that, health care costs, including prescription drug costs, matter a lot.

    The midterm elections will be a referendum on the President. Three in ten voters, Republicans (33 percent) and Democrats (30 percent) say a candidate’s position on President Trump will sway them most. And, more than four out of five Democratic voters (45 percent) are more interested in voting in the mid-term election than in prior years. Many of them say they want change. Republicans are less interested in voting (30 percent) than Democrats but say they will vote to show their support for President Trump.

    The vast majority of Americans believe the cost of prescription drugs is too high and that pharmaceutical companies have too much power. Not surprisingly, two out of three Republicans (66 percent), nearly eight out of ten Democrats (78 percent) and more than seven in ten Independents (72 percent) say that they are more likely to support candidates who call for lowering the price of prescription drugs.

    The three top policy issues for voters are the economy and jobs (23 percent), health care (22 percent) and gun policy (22 percent.)

    Here’s more from Just Care:

    Now available: The Ten Should-Do’s for Your Health, Purse and Peace of Mind, Chapter One of Aging, Schmaging, by Diane Archer. For $5, you can help yourself and the people you love; you can also help support Just Care.

  • Trump’s pick to head HHS drove up insulin prices at Eli Lilly

    Trump’s pick to head HHS drove up insulin prices at Eli Lilly

    Caitlyn McClure of the Other 98 reports that Alex Azar, President Trump’s pick to head the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is a Pharma executive who drove up insulin prices at Eli Lilly. If confirmed, Azar can be counted on to help Pharma and disregard the public interest in having HHS ensure Americans good affordable health care.

    Over the last 50 years, Eli Lilly has paid billions of dollar in settlements for illegal marketing of drugs, bribery, and the sale of unsafe products. Ten years ago, the FDA charged Lilly with misleading marketing of dog medicines.

    Today, Eli Lilly is embroiled in allegations around insulin price fixing. At least five states are investigating Lilly for raising insulin prices to the same level as its competitors. In addition, a federal class-action RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act) suit has been brought against Lilly.

    Azar was president of Lilly USA in 2012. During his ten-year tenure at Lilly, Lilly tripled its price for insulin and hiked up prices on other drugs to increase its revenue. It created no new drugs. James Elliott of The Nation reports that Lilly’s Humalog, an insulin medicine, costs more today than it did in 1996 when it came to market. In the last 10 years, while Azar was at Eli Lilly, its list price went from $74 to $269.

    McClure points out that Trump’s selection of Azar as HHS head is at odds with Trump’s alleged goal of keeping Pharma from “getting away with murder.”

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Most Democrats want the party to move left

    Most Democrats want the party to move left

    A new Harvard-Harris poll reveals that most Democrats want the party to move left. More than half of registered Democrats surveyed do not support its current leadership. Almost 70 percent of Democrats between the ages of 18 and 34 support Medicare for all, a $15 minimum wage, and free public college tuition.

    To be specific, when asked, “Do you support or oppose movements within the Democratic Party to take it even further to the left and oppose the current Democratic leaders?”52 percent of Democratic respondents said yes. Of the Democratic voters, female voters (55 percent), Hispanic voters (65 percent), and African-American voters (55 percent) lean more to the left than do whites (46 percent) or men (49 percent).

    The poll of 2,159 registered voters reveals other interesting findings: Only 29 percent of people surveyed believe that the country is on the right track. More than double that percentage, 60 percent said they believe that the country is on the wrong track. That said, 44 percent said they believed the economy was on the right track, and only 41 percent said they believed it was on the wrong track.

    Almost half of respondents (47 percent) saw health care as the most important issue facing the country, followed by terrorism and national security (37 percent) and the economy and jobs (29 percent). And, relative to 12 other politicians, Bernie Sanders ranked highest. More than half of respondents (53 percent) had a favorable view of Bernie Sanders; 41 percent had a favorable view of Donald Trump.

    More than four in ten respondents (42 percent) either strongly or somewhat approved of the job President Trump is doing. Nearly six in ten respondents (58 percent) either strongly or somewhat disapproved of the job President Trump is doing.

    And, only 29 percent of respondents, not even three in ten, strongly or somewhat approve of the job the Republican Party is doing. More than seven in ten of them, 71 percent, strongly or somewhat disapprove of the job the Republican Party is doing. The Democratic Party only fares ten points better than the Republican Party, with just 39 percent of respondents strongly approving or somewhat approving of the job it is doing.

    If you want Congress to support Medicare for all, please sign this petition.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • President Trump blows up ACA adding $200 billion to deficit

    President Trump blows up ACA adding $200 billion to deficit

    President Trump has been saying for a long time that the ACA was going to implode. He was counting on Republicans in Congress to make sure that happened. Without their assistance, he just issued an Executive Order that blows up the ACA and  adds nearly $200 billion to the deficit.

    On October 12, 2017, Trump signed an Executive Order that ends subsidies to help people with modest incomes enrolled in state health insurance exchanges pay their deductibles and copays. These “cost-sharing reductions” cost the federal government about $7 billion a year and save the seven million people who benefit from this help about $1,000 each in out-of-pocket costs. Vox’s Sarah Kliff reports that this provision in Trump’s Executive Order means:

    • Insurers could increase premiums by 20 percent in 2018 in order to cover their increased costs. Premiums could increase by 25 percent by 2020.
    • The federal deficit will increase because the government will have to spend $194 billion more to subsidize the increased premiums of 10 million people in the health care exchanges, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
    • One million more people will be uninsured in 2018.
    • Some health insurers will lose a lot of money on 2018 premiums set before the Executive Order was signed.
    • More health insurers may decide to leave the health insurance exchanges.

    Congress could fix this problem by passing a law that specifically approves these cost-sharing reduction payments. Some believe that this is possible as part of a bi-partisan fix to avoid driving up the deficit.

    In addition, the Trump Executive Order allows insurers to sell skimpy policies that do not cover the essential benefits mandated in the ACA. Some healthy people might leave the state exchanges and buy these skimpy policies because they cost less. But, these people will put their own health at risk if they get sick, because they are likely not to have the coverage they need. And, they will drive up premiums for people in the state exchanges.

    Attorneys general from 18 states and the District of Columbia, including New York and California, filed a lawsuit on October 13 challenging Trump’s Executive Order, the Hill reports.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • If Trump undermines ACA, CBO says health insurance premiums will soar

    If Trump undermines ACA, CBO says health insurance premiums will soar

    President Trump has not succeeded on his promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Now, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says health insurance premiums will soar if Trump follows through on his vow to undermine the ACA. In fact, Trump’s plan to destroy the ACA would cost the U.S. almost $200 billion over the next ten years.

    According to the CBO, 2018 premiums would rise by 20 percent if Trump refuses to pay the ACA’s copay and deductible subsidies, called “cost-sharing reductions,” guaranteed to people with incomes under 250 percent of the federal poverty level. By 2025, premiums would rise by 25 percent. Insurers would need to raise premiums to make up for their lost copay and deductible revenue.

    Because the federal government helps pay the premiums of people with incomes under 400 percent of the federal poverty level who enroll in health plans through the state health insurance exchanges, a 20 percent premium increase would mean the government would have to pay an additional $194 billion in premium costs.

    The CBO further projects that some health plans would leave the ACA marketplace, reducing choice and competition. And, 5 percent of health care markets would not have a health plan in 2018. As of now, in 2018, one county in Wisconsin and one in Colorado will have no ACA plan options.

    Higher insurance premiums would mean that the federal deficit would increase $53 billion by 2026.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

     

  • Pharma fingerprints all over Trump drug price executive order 

    Pharma fingerprints all over Trump drug price executive order 

    Across the political spectrum, Americans support reining in prescription drug prices—Democrats, Independents and Republicans alike. But, despite claims to the contrary, President Donald Trump has no intention of reining in drug prices. A draft Trump Executive Order on drug prices obtained by the New York Times has Pharma’s fingerprints all over it and is designed to drive up drug prices further. It’s all about strengthening the power of drug companies to set prices around the world.

    Pharma wants greater power to charge people outside the U.S. more, as reflected in the draft Executive Order. But, higher prices outside the U.S. likely means higher prices around the world. Pharma is making no promises to reduce drug prices in the U.S.

    Pharma also wants to loosen U.S. regulations so that drugs get to market faster at less cost to the drug industry. But, that policy–also in the draft Executive Order–would jeopardize patient safety further, not promote lower drug prices.

    Pharma’s support of value-based pricing, another piece of Trump’s draft Executive Order, sounds good in theory. But, it is another way for Pharma to try to justify high drug prices. Only if somehow it can be proved that the particular drug didn’t work would the price come down. And, Pharma is not proposing a full refund for drugs that don’t work, as tends to be the case with other products that do not deliver value. Moreover, how much time and money would it take to prove lack of efficacy or patient safety?

    Pharma also wants to be able to charge more for drugs to hospitals treating low-income patients under the 340B program.

    The draft Executive Order does not suggest discounting drugs for people with Medicare, nor does it recommend reducing brand-name drug prices.

    And, a proposal in the draft Executive Order to give more tax breaks to companies manufacturing generic drugs would mean more money to Pharma with no guarantees of lower generic drug prices. Yet, another proposal to permit dissemination of off-label information to insurers and PBMs pre-FDA approval also would undermine patient safety.

    Not surprisingly, the New York Times reports that many of the people involved in drafting the Executive Order have longstanding ties to the drug industry.

    Senator Franken along with several other Senate Democrats have a bill in Congress to rein in drug prices–the Improving Access to Affordable Prescription Drugs Act. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky has introduced a complementary bill in the House.

    If you believe that we need policies to rein in drug prices not give Pharma more power to drive prices up, please sign this petition.

    Here’s more from Just Care:

  • Programs for vulnerable Americans on chopping block

    Programs for vulnerable Americans on chopping block

    President Trump has released his budget, and it puts programs for vulnerable Americans on the chopping block. Along with food stamps, Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and CHIP (the Children’s Health Insurance Plan), Trump proposes to slash Social Security, expressly violating his campaign pledge not to touch Social Security. All told, Trump’s budget slashes $1.7 trillion from these programs over 10 years.

    Trumps plan would cut as much as $62 billion from Social Security Disability Insurance and $9 billion from SSI. It also ends the Community Services Block Grant, which supports the Meals on Wheels programs that provide hot meals to older adults in their homes; it cuts $193 billion in food stamps. And, it ends the low-income Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), which helps older adults pay for the cost of their heat. Under the plan, Medicaid cuts would total $610 billion, putting at risk long-term care for vulnerable older adults.

    Trump’s budget plan is in line with those of the Republican-controlled House, which is also looking to pay for massive tax cuts by stripping funding from programs for vulnerable Americans, according to Politico. People in need of help paying for food, housing, education assistance are all at risk. Republicans are even considering cuts to veterans’ benefits. The American Health Care Act (AHCA), if passed, would cut $880 billion from Medicaid.

    Bottom line, to balance the budget in ten years, President Trump and Republican leaders are willing to slash hundreds of millions of dollars currently supporting programs that protect low-income and working families. At the same time, their goal is to come up with the money needed to enhance funding for the military and cut corporate taxes. Balancing the budget will require about $8 trillion.

    Which specific programs serving vulnerable Americans get cut likely won’t be determined until the fall.

    Politico further reports that the Republicans in charge of the 2018 fiscal budget are likely also to propose privatizing Medicare, essentially adopting Speaker Ryan’s plan, though that would be symbolic this year.

    Republicans hope to get their plan through Congress without a filibuster, using the budget reconciliation process, which only requires a majority vote to pass. But, it’s not clear whether they will be able to get support for slashing low-income programs from moderate Republicans.

    Here’s more from Just Care: