Obama’s America – Episode # 227 – More Obama Care .. Less

Vulture High Above Looking For New Victims – Portrait Of Medical Insurance & Drug Companies.

By Arthur Piccolo

News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 5, 2015: If Obamacare is Barack Obama’s BIG achievement as President …

Then he should be very, very worried about his Presidential non-legacy.

As I have been writing in many different ways about Obamacare as far more scam than substance time for another dose of Truth make that two. Both the news that medical insurance companies are substantially raising their rates and more about how drug companies are financially raping Americans.

Two important health issues Obamacare does nothing about. And it can’t possibly because the real name of this Rube Goldberg contraption is the Obama Medical Industry CARE Act.

Obama’s complete lack of intellectual integrity is exposed by ObamaCare. The only reason he sponsored this legislation which is in complete contradiction to the BS image he sold us to become President is the confidence it gave him to continue Con-ing the American people again.

Once it became obvious to the medical industry that Obama would ONLY push a program they would approve the game was over. We lost.  As one of so many examples Obama agreed it would remain illegal for Americans to buy the same drugs far cheaper in Canada. Canada by the way which has national health insure for all and a far better system than ours.

But of course of all Obamacare’s sins the worst of all is a law that forces Americans to buy a private for profit product simply because they are alive and live in America. Obama could at latest have held the line allowing anyone who wished to get their health insurance from the government. NO.

As for today’s lesson in Obamacare for the medical and insurance industry we have two points to make anew rising insurance rates and obscenely priced drugs whose sticker prices have no possible justification.

Today I will work with two of my media partners both The New York Times and the Financial Times. Let’s look at those insurance rates first. This Times article from June 1st titled “Many Health Insurers Go Big With Initial 2016 Rate Requests.” Read all about it …

“The proposed double-digit hikes would apply to plans sold on the health insurance exchanges created under President Barack Obama’s law, as well as individual coverage sold through brokers and agents.”

“Dozens of health insurers say higher-than-expected care costs and other expenses blindsided them this year, and they’re going to have to hike premiums for individual policies well-beyond 10 percent for 2016.”

SURPRISE the insurers claim they don’t want to jack up their rates but they “must.” Why? The higher-than-expected care costs and other expenses blindsided them.” REALLY and we are expected to believe them?

Here is the REAL explanation … because they can! And Obamacare-LESS does nothing to stop them. In fact it provides them more victims to exploit.

What kind of rate increases? Take a look …

“Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina is seeking a roughly 26 percent premium increase, while plans in Illinois and Florida, among other states, are asking for hikes of 20 percent or more.”

But don’t worry … “Individual health insurance policies are a relatively small slice of the overall market. Many more people are insured through an employer.” THAT IS THE POINT … who is forced to buy Obamacare. Those who don’t have jobs with insurance coverage. An ever growing portion of the American population. Not to forget that even those who have company plans are being squeezed more and more too.

What do the insurers have to say to The Times …

“Higher-than-expected costs were the main reason behind the hike sought by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina, which was allowed to impose a 13.5 percent increase for this year. The insurer cited the costs of emergency room use, heart and cancer treatments and the cost of specialty drugs treating hepatitis C in its rate justification filed with federal regulators.” More of the same BS as above!

But yes now let’s turn to the cost of drugs under Obamacare. This is even more disgusting than steeply rising insurance rates. Here we call on another cherished if less often used media partner The Financial Times.

Their article from June 4th titled “The Unhealthy High Price of Cancer Drugs” take a look at just one sliver of drug company abuse that if left unchecked will either bankrupt individuals and governments and/or leave many sick people dead unable to get life saving drugs is they aren’t rich.

Here we go …

“A flow of encouraging medical news emerged this week from an annual gathering of US oncology researchers and doctors: not only is a new generation of drugs working but they are attacking a broad range of tumors. Immunotherapy — using the body’s immune system to destroy cancer — is showing signs of improving the life expectancy of many patients.”

Now the very BAD news…

“The problem is the high price of drugs such as Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo and Merck’s Keytruda, each of which costs $150,000 for a full course of treatment in the US. Even if a patient qualifies for Medicare, the US health system for over-65s, he or she could be charged $30,000 in co-payments for a few months more life. Some drugs work better together, multiplying the bill.”

“Rebellion is breaking out among oncology doctors in the US, led by a small group at Memorial Sloan Kettering hospital in New York. “The last step of the innovation cycle — getting the drugs to patients — is completely broken,” says Peter Bach, director of the centre for health policy at the hospital, which refused to prescribe one cancer drug because of the price.”

REBELLION??? If only it were true because that is what we need.

“It is clear that companies cannot continue to ratchet up prices of new drugs, or health systems will be crippled as every patient with advanced cancer demands treatment. The science is too effective; drugs that looked as if they would work only on rare tumors, keeping the bill down, are starting to have an impact on common conditions.”

ENCORE … “It is clear that companies cannot continue to ratchet up prices of new drugs, or health systems will be crippled as every patient with advanced cancer demands treatment.”

NOW the “best” part of all the Horrible Truth …

“It is far less clear how the prices are being set in the first place. Drug companies tacitly admit that they are taking advantage of highly inflexible consumer demand, whereby they can raise prices and people still buy the product, to try to recoup as much as they can of research and development costs — and the billions they pay to buy biopharmaceutical companies with one or two wonder drugs. Cancer drug pricing is one big unscientific trial.”

ENCORE … “It is far less clear how the prices are being set in the first place. Drug companies tacitly admit that they are taking advantage of highly inflexible consumer demand, whereby they can raise prices and people still buy the product ”

DOUBLE ENCORE … “It is far less clear how the prices are being set in the first place. Drug companies tacitly admit that they are taking advantage of highly inflexible consumer demand, whereby they can raise prices and people still buy the product ”

More from FT …

“In the US Dr Bach argues prices should relate directly to the value of drugs to patients rather than being fixed artificially at just above the level of earlier rivals. And, rather than a single immunotherapy drug costing the same whether prescribed for rare skin melanomas or common lung cancers, they should also vary according to the condition that the drug is used to treat.”

“This sounds more like the way a market ought to work, as long as such flexibility also lowers the average cost of cancer drugs. The new generation of remedies is a scientific marvel and the bill for innovation is bound to be high. But if the patient was bankrupted, the treatment was not a success.”

Dear Readers allow me to be more BLUNT than The Financial Times.

There is absolutely no logic to the price of many drugs and the more crucial they are the less so. Here is what I believe executives at these drug companies price life saving drugs by sitting down in secret and deciding how high a price can they get away with and the sky is the limit. Once they agree on a price then they tell staff to come up with some BS to justify it.

Legal DRUG companies are the worst kind of example of Capitalism out of control. Capitalism used as reason to rape patients here and everywhere.

What does Obamacare do about this nothing except allow it.

SHAME on Barack Obama yet again. It never ends!

About The Writer: Arthur Piccolo is a professional writer and commentator and often writes about Latin America for New Americas.