Rx Drugs Killing more than Heroin or Cocaine

This is a very good commentary I received from my colleague, Dr. Phil Bate.  Perhaps now you'll realize that your good health is not the goal in today's maintream medicine.  Get in touch with our ASK plan for more help, naturally.

Records show clearly that prescription drugs are killing more people than Heroin or Cocaine every year.  Since oxycodone came on the scene, researchers looking over 7000 records from 1991 to 2004 found that deaths from opium derived prescription drugs had doubled in this period. 

The records also show that since the FCC allowed the TV ads for prescription drugs,drug deaths in the US have doubled.  We don't allow TV ads for whiskey, so why allow these.  They are very clever, and disguise the side effect warnings of death and destruction with pretty scenes of beautiful people having fun. Listen carefully to the next Big Pharma ad with your eyes closed, and it's a different message altogether.  Money talks.  I wonder who got it at the FCC.

Why Insurance Reform Doesn't Get You Better Health

Senator Lieberman who is holding positive movement on insurance reform in limbo may have reason to be concerned, especially where women's health is concerned.

It seems as if the controversy over Hadassah Lieberman, the Senator's wife, is on the payroll of the Komen Foundation to the tune of about $300K a year.  Gary Locke's wife is on their payroll too, most likely lobbying while she's living in DC.

The problem with this is that Komen has no interest in CHANGE. For them it is PhRMA all the way, along with cancer promoting mammogram.

It might be why there is no effort to do more for prevention or more for research into the known environmental causes of cancer.

Nancy Brinkerman, CEO and sister of Susan Komen, is also suspect because she is on some PhRMA director's boards.

Do you wonder why the so-called health reform effort and the "race for the cure" keep circling the wagons and make deeper ruts?

WHO allows vaccine industry reps to advise on H1N1

Exposing WHO Influenza Advisers: They're Paid By The Pharmaceutical Industry


Exposing WHO's risk analysis process for declaring a pandemic: Who profits?
December 1, 2009
Back in June of this year the World Health Organisation (WHO), acting on the expert advice of its supposedly independent influenza advisers, declared the H1N1 Swine Flu as a world pandemic that activated a number of processes to combat the disease, obstentially to protect the world's population against the potentially deadly disease. Essentially the WHO influenza advisers conducted a risk assessment (risk analysis) which led to their recommendation to enact the pandemic classification.

Unfortunately, as with the case of the WHO risk analysis for power frequency hazards ( http://www.emfacts.com/papers/who_conflict.pdf ), again it is industry hacks who have the final say in direct violation of WHO conflict of interest policy.

Michael Repacholi, who founded both ICNIRP and the WHO's International EMF Project (IEMFP) stated in an Australian Senate inquiry in 2001 that the WHO had a firm policy against industry involvement in its processes. To quote:

"The World Health Organization does not allow industry to participate in either standard setting or in health risk assessment. The WHO takes the view that there cannot be industry representation on standard setting working groups. There cannot be someone on the working group who is having an influence on health effects for an industry when they derive benefit from that industry."

For the WHO, having a policy is one thing, following it is another thing entirely it seems.

Don Maisch
Source: http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/?p=1203

How About Political Reform over Health Reform

62% Disconnect between insured and uninsured in the US

and as you think about this Big PhARMA wants another 9% price increase as Medicare expects payment and service cuts.

WASHINGTON, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- U.S. drug manufacturers have been raising their prices at the fastest clip since 1992, industry analysts say.

Wholesale prices for brand name prescription drugs have increased by about 9 percent in the last year, even as the industry has agreed to support Obama administration healthcare reforms that would cut the nation's drug costs by $8 billion, The New York Times reported Monday.

Drug makers say they need to raise prices to plow money back into research and development to find new drugs, contending they need to replace popular drugs whose patents will soon expire. But critics say the manufacturers are trying to raise the price bar before Congress passes reform measures aimed at curbing future drug spending.

"When we have major legislation anticipated, we see a run-up in price increases," Stephen Schondelmeyer, a University of Minnesota pharmaceutical economics professor, told the newspaper.

Joseph Newhouse, a Harvard University health economist, told the Times a similar pattern of unusual price increases happened in 2006 just before Congress added drug benefits to Medicare, when prices shot up by their widest margin in the six previous years.

"Price adjustments for our products have no connection to healthcare reform," said Merck spokesman Ron Rogers.

At the same time, Michelle Obama calls for healthcare reform but you have to ask what her definition is.  Mrs. Obama is a former hospital executive and this discussion hasn't even begun to go past drugs and insurance.  We aren't even close to discussing health care except some hairbrained idea to change doctor pay as a best bet to curb costs when the number of primary care doctors is decreasing over income.

Following on this I am distressed to learn that so many people with chronic health problems have to cut drugs because of cost or no insurance, but no one in mainstream medicine is there to educated them about what natural remedies can replace the drugs and help them get well. (This is why we designed our services and educational programs.)

See NYT article on this topic

Health Care Debate?

UPDATE: 13 August - If you've missed it because mainstream media dis little to report it, Obama mad a deal with Big PhRMA some weeks back that basically let them off the hook regarding Plan D in Medicare and price negotiating.

Thanks to Huffington Post we have a story that confirms what Natural Health News knew when the "deal" was briefly reported.

Internal Memo Confirms Big Giveaways In White House Deal With Big PharmaA memo obtained by the Huffington Post confirms that the White House and the pharmaceutical lobby secretly agreed to precisely the sort of wide-ranging deal that both parties have been denying over the past week.

The memo, which according to a knowledgeable health care lobbyist was prepared by a person directly involved in the negotiations, lists exactly what the White House gave up, and what it got in return.

It says the White House agreed to oppose any congressional efforts to use the government's leverage to bargain for lower drug prices or import drugs from Canada -- and also agreed not to pursue Medicare rebates or shift some drugs from Medicare Part B to Medicare Part D, which would cost Big Pharma billions in reduced reimbursements.

In exchange, the Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers Association (PhRMA) agreed to cut $80 billion in projected costs to taxpayers and senior citizens over ten years. Or, as the memo says: "Commitment of up to $80 billion, but not more than $80 billion."
complete article

First of all, Listen up! The US does not have health care, The US has sickness care and every effort to make you think otherwise is just smoke and mirrors.

Sickness drives profit and for a minute don't believe that insurers or drug companies have one altruistic cell in their high rolling enterprises.

I've got plenty of examples collected over 3+ decades as I found myself in various positions in the medical industry. I'm just a very good observer with a photographic memory.

So here's the latest in the "debate" (more like forced pablum) that caught my eye this morning. And I am trying not to post on weekends...or so I tell myself, and really trying not to be cynical.

Drug industry backing Obama's health care plan

Consumer protections lost in health care debate

I happened to see news coverage of a meeting WA Rep Rick Larsen held in the district. I watch this district because I used to live in it. I'm also not a Larsen fan because he is, like Gary Locke and Maria Cantwell, one of those penultimate politicians who's in it for lining his pockets. He's also skilled in the art of the slippery and fork-ed tongue, the best any politician can hope for, eh?

If you see this news video, the look on Larsen's face was most telling when a fellow in the audience stated that he wanted the same health care as members of Congress enjoyed. There was a dead pan face and dead silence from Rick.

Now of course we did hear from Obama that the constituents would get the same care as members of Congress, but then you've probably noticed that's dropped off the radar of late.

What you do read and hear on every radio or TV channel is that Big Insurance and Big PhRMA are rolling out the big PR campaigns to reign in any substantive change in the way people get care from the medical establishment in the US.

Big PhRMA's already conned the Seniors by their pitiful deal with the Obama insiders to drop costs in Medicare D's "doughnut hole" by 50 percent. I'd personally rather see Obama scrap the Bush corporate welfare handout to PhRMA and re-create it with required price negotiation. I'm sure unsuspecting Seniors who've been made drug dependent via the medical industry would like this too!

However, the biggest jolt to getting reform off dead center would be required use of the universal claim form.