Back on July 10, Trump tweeted:
"Just talked with Pfizer CEO and @SecAzar on our drug pricing blueprint. Pfizer is rolling back price hikes, so American patients don't pay more. We applaud Pfizer for this decision and hope other companies do the same. Great news for the American people!"
Good news, if that comes to fruition, but it did not.
Unfortunately, the great news last but a few months.
Politico is reporting that Pfizer is going to increase the prices for 41 medicines starting in January.
From Politico:
“'The drug price pledges made earlier this year were just for show — it was obvious at the time, and it's obvious now,” said Walid Gellad, director of the Center for Pharmaceutical Policy and Prescribing at the University of Pittsburgh. “The bully pulpit doesn't work, and even if it did, we don't want a system in which the only way to bring down drug prices is for the president to publicly berate a company — that's not a healthy market and not good policy.'”
Politico seems to be completely naive about Donald Trump, when they write; "some health policy experts said they think Trump’s tendency to lash out at drug companies will keep price hikes lower next year, even it doesn’t completely eliminate them."
Instead of lashing out, Trump could've not given Pfizer tax cuts, or he could actually come up with actual policies, like Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
"Pfizer 'promised' it wouldn't raise prices, then turned around and raised them anyway," tweeted the Sen. Warren. "We can't count on drug companies to tackle rising drug costs, so Congress must. We can start by passing my bill to put a $500 monthly cap on what families pay for out-of-pocket prescriptions."
It's not just Pfizer. Our entire healthcare system is completely corrupt.
Truthout reported a tragic story about the cost of insulin for diabetes both in payment, and in life.
Truthout writes about the truly evil ramifications thanks to the insulin manufacturer Sanofi:
Nicole Holt-Smith arrived at pharmaceutical giant Sanofi’s research facility in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday carrying a powerful testament to the consequences of price gouging essential medicines under a for-profit health system: the ashes of her son, Alec.
Alec Raeshawn Smith lived with Type 1 diabetes and lost health coverage under his parent’s insurance plan when he turned 26. He died last year after attempting to ration his insulin supply by cutting doses to make it last longer. Along with Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, Sanofi is one the three major insulin manufacturers accused of gouging diabetes patients worldwide who use the blood-sugar regulating hormone as a prescription drug in order to stay alive.
“Sanofi’s high prices are killing people like my son Alec,” Smith-Holt said in a statement before the action. “I’m sick of them listening to my story and then doing nothing. I’m not asking them to lower prices anymore, I’m demanding it.”
When are people going to realize that Pfizer is nothing but a bunch of assholes looking to make money, and nothing more?
Furthermore, when are people going to see that a for-profit healthcare system means that parents like Nicole Holt-Smith, and people like Alec Smith will be the carnage for the sake of making money?
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