tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post2151165273400235105..comments2024-01-17T00:45:37.075-08:00Comments on Bud Meyers: Bernie Sanders' War on Big Pharma, Hillary gives Lip ServiceBud Meyershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-61377248730351415282016-01-12T11:21:05.696-08:002016-01-12T11:21:05.696-08:00Bernie Sanders was asked in a live appearance on F...Bernie Sanders was asked in a live appearance on Fusion for the 2016 Brown & Black Democratic Presidential Forum:<br /><br />"How much do you have to earn to be rich?" <br /> <br />It took Sanders only a few seconds to answer the question:<br /><br />"I would say that people who make $250,000 a year are doing pretty well."<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt3n7ugOj80&feature=youtu.be&t=657Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-83140703903436489642015-12-30T13:55:10.106-08:002015-12-30T13:55:10.106-08:00UPDATE:
After firing Martin Shkreli, pharmaceuti...UPDATE: <br /><br />After firing Martin Shkreli, pharmaceutical company officially files for bankruptcy<br /><br />http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/12/30/1464749/-After-firing-Martin-Shkreli-pharmaceutical-company-officially-files-for-bankruptcyBud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-43359205543527642572015-12-30T11:53:14.524-08:002015-12-30T11:53:14.524-08:00UPDATE
Center for Economic Policy and Research (b...UPDATE<br /><br />Center for Economic Policy and Research (by Dean Baker December 28, 2015) If Patent Monopolies Bias Cancer Research, Why Not Have Publicly Funded Trials?<br /><br />http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/if-patent-monopolies-bias-cancer-research-why-not-have-publicly-funded-trials<br />Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-37027784700792842952015-12-29T22:39:05.614-08:002015-12-29T22:39:05.614-08:00Why Preventing Cancer Is Not the Priority in Drug ...Why Preventing Cancer Is Not the Priority in Drug Development (DEC. 28, 2015)<br /><br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/29/upshot/why-preventing-cancer-is-not-the-priority-in-drug-development.htmlBud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-35027198831710559222015-12-29T12:44:30.406-08:002015-12-29T12:44:30.406-08:00UPDATE: A must read for all who are interested...
...UPDATE: A must read for all who are interested...<br /><br />The Sanders-Clinton Spat Over Middle-Class Taxes Is About A Lot More Than Money ... Just ask FDR (12/28/2015 by Daniel Marans)<br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-middle-class-taxes_567dacc7e4b06fa6888029d7Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-13079448785978142732015-12-29T12:32:23.622-08:002015-12-29T12:32:23.622-08:00Bernie Sanders has an ad that features a nurse who...Bernie Sanders has an ad that features a nurse who is talking about the high cost of health care and what she says is Sanders’ understanding of the problem. “Bernie Sanders understands how pharmaceutical companies and major medical companies are ripping us off,” she says. “Bernie tells the truth and he’s been consistent.” Sanders supports moving to a single-payer system.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94yoGhVuOUc<br /><br />Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-5432964710949260762015-12-29T09:25:39.191-08:002015-12-29T09:25:39.191-08:00Dean Baker, Center for Economic Research and Polic...Dean Baker, Center for Economic Research and Policy (December 28, 2015) If Patent Monopolies Bias Cancer Research, Why Not Have Publicly Funded Trials?<br /><br />http://cepr.net/blogs/beat-the-press/if-patent-monopolies-bias-cancer-research-why-not-have-publicly-funded-trialsBud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-78590864261115972392015-12-24T13:32:32.954-08:002015-12-24T13:32:32.954-08:00(December 6, 2013) It's Time to Ask: Why not M...(December 6, 2013) It's Time to Ask: Why not Medicare for All? <br /><br />http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2013/12/its-time-to-ask-why-not-medicare-for-all.htmlBud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-24494333912148103362015-12-24T13:29:19.493-08:002015-12-24T13:29:19.493-08:00Huffington Post:
The monthly survey conducted by ...Huffington Post:<br /><br />The monthly survey conducted by the Kaiser Family Foundation finds 43 percent of Americans reporting a favorable opinion on the "health reform bill signed into law in 2010." Forty-two percent reported having an unfavorable opinion, and 14 percent said they were unsure. <br /><br />http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/21/obamacare-polls_n_7111834.htmlBud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-41421340904529869232015-12-24T13:26:10.140-08:002015-12-24T13:26:10.140-08:00Poll (December 2015)
A new Kaiser Poll shows 58 p...Poll (December 2015)<br /><br />A new Kaiser Poll shows 58 percent of the public are in favor of Medicare for All, including 81 percent of Democrats” — showing that it's even more popular than Obamacare.<br /><br />http://pnhp.org/blog/2015/12/17/kaiser-poll-58-of-americans-support-medicare-for-all/<br />Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-40700210187931300102015-12-24T13:23:24.277-08:002015-12-24T13:23:24.277-08:00TIME:
Hillary Clinton has already promised not to...TIME:<br /><br />Hillary Clinton has already promised not to raise taxes on families earning under $250,000 a year. She and her aides have slammed Sanders for not making the same pledge. In the debate on Saturday night, Sanders lashed back with a defense of certain taxes increases. <br /><br />"When Secretary Clinton says, ‘I’m not going raise taxes on the middle class,’ let me tell you what she is saying,” Sanders said. “She is disagreeing with FDR on Social Security, LBJ on Medicare and with the vast majority of progressive Democrats in the House and the Senate, who today are fighting to end the disgrace of the United States being the only major country on Earth that doesn’t provide paid family and medical leave.”<br /><br />Campaign manager Jeff Weaver called Clinton’s no-tax pledge and proposed tax credits a Republican approach. “Why do you have a candidate who claims to be a progressive that is essentially laying out an approach to problems that is a Republican approach? It’s an instinctive move back to the corporate centrism that the Democratic rank and file has disavowed.”<br /><br />And Sanders has long favored a middle-class income tax hike to pay for his most ambitious program, Medicare-for-all, which he introduced as a bill in the Senate in 2013. The plan, which his campaign has been touting for months, was to be paid for by a 2.2% tax increase, as well as a 6.7% tax on wages paid by employers — that Clinton aides say would result in a total 9% tax increase, because employers pass taxes on to their workers in the form of wage cuts. [A wild claim, since many employers would no longer feel obligated to provide thier own healthcare polices, maybe allowing for higher wages.]<br /><br />And Bernie's aides now say that Sanders’ Medicare-for-all can be paid for without the 2.2% tax increase on employees. His policy team is working out a new plan. “We are still developing a Medicare-for-all plan,” said Sanders senior policy advisor Warren Gunnels. “This plan will save middle class families thousands of dollars a year because they will no longer be paying premiums or deductibles to private health insurance companies.”<br /><br /><br />http://time.com/4156619/bernie-sanders-middle-class-tax-pledge/<br />Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-49238710915860697022015-12-24T13:15:47.685-08:002015-12-24T13:15:47.685-08:00Letter to the Editor:
Medicare would establish co...Letter to the Editor:<br /><br />Medicare would establish comprehensive coverage that is non-profit, but insurance companies would still be allowed to sell additional riders for extra services and expanded benefits. It would set fixed cost for the Medicare program (global budgeting) by assigning set amount of payment per patient and eliminating cost overruns through the fee for service system in traditional Medicare. Cost adjustments between advantage programs for basic coverage would eliminate adverse selection (one company having too many sick people). <br /><br />http://www.reporterherald.com/opinion/letters/ci_29259435/medicare-all-system-can-work-americaBud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-65057543048905887142015-12-24T13:13:26.436-08:002015-12-24T13:13:26.436-08:00Wall Street Journal (December 20, 2015)
A skirmis...Wall Street Journal (December 20, 2015)<br /><br />A skirmish broke out recently between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders about the merits of single-payer health care, an idea that Mr. Sanders has long advocated. The candidates jousted about the financing of single-payer health care during the Democratic debate Saturday night. The differences between the two candidates on single-payer health care paint Mrs. Clinton as more moderate and Mr. Sanders as more liberal (no surprise there) ... Single-payer health care and the Medicare-for-all variant of the idea has generally been popular among the left ... Most Democrats either strongly favor (52%) or somewhat favor (24%) the general idea of Medicare for all.<br /><br />http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2015/12/20/bernie-sanders-hillary-clinton-and-medicare-for-all/Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-75535028938632669322015-12-24T13:09:41.559-08:002015-12-24T13:09:41.559-08:00When Congress was debating Obamacare in 2009, Sand...When Congress was debating Obamacare in 2009, Sanders proposed an amendment to create what he called a Medicare-for-all-type-single-payer system.<br /><br />Two years later (Tuesday, May 10, 2011) Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) announced that he introduced legislation to provide health care for every American through a Medicare-for-all type single-payer system.<br />http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/release-single-payer-medicare-for-all-legislation-introduced<br /><br />Sanders re-introduced his single-payer bill again in 2013. It never went to a vote. Warren Gunnels, Sanders’s senior policy adviser, said “The 2013 plan would expand on current Medicare coverage, fully covering such expenses as prescription drugs, eyeglasses and hearing aids, and eliminating the need for supplemental coverage such as Medigap plans.”<br /><br />In his major speech on democratic socialism, Sanders described his Medicare-for-all proposal: “Health care should be a right of all people, not a privilege. This is not a radical idea. That is why I believe in a Medicare-for-all, single-payer health-care system. Yes. The Affordable Care Act, which I helped write and voted for, is a step forward for this country. But we must build on it and go further. Medicare for all would not only guarantee health care for all people, not only save middle-class families and our entire nation significant sums of money, it would radically improve the lives of all Americans and bring about significant improvements in our economy. People who get sick will not have to worry about paying a deductible or making a co-payment. They could go to the doctor when they should, and not end up in the emergency room. Business owners will not have to spend enormous amounts of time worrying about how they are going to provide health care for their employees. Workers will not have to be trapped in jobs they do not like simply because their employers are offering them decent health insurance plans. Instead, they will be able to pursue the jobs and work they love, which could be an enormous boon for the economy. And, by the way, moving to a Medicare-for-all program will end the disgrace of Americans paying, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.”<br /><br />https://berniesanders.com/democratic-socialism-in-the-united-states/<br />Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7895164153505105997.post-58097539816476284842015-12-24T12:56:45.521-08:002015-12-24T12:56:45.521-08:00Robert Reich:
Medicare faces financial problems i...Robert Reich:<br /><br />Medicare faces financial problems in future years because of two underlying trends that will affect all health care in coming years, regardless of what happens to Medicare: <br /><br />The first is that healthcare costs are rising overall - not as fast as they were rising before the Affordable Care Act went into effect, but still rising too quickly.<br /><br />The second is that the giant postwar baby boom is heading toward retirement and older age. Which means more elderly people will need more health care, adding to the rising costs.<br /><br />So how should we deal with these two costly trends? By making Medicare available to all Americans, not just the elderly.<br /><br />Remember, Medicare is more efficient than private health insurers whose administrative costs and advertising and marketing expenses are eating up billions of dollars each year.<br /><br />If more Americans were allowed to join Medicare, it could become more efficient by using its growing bargaining power to get lower drug prices, lower hospital bills, and healthier people.<br /><br />http://robertreich.org/post/122118187155<br /><br />Bud Meyershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02065020063363023395noreply@blogger.com