Tag: Insurance

Cutting Through the Fog Masking ‘a New Page in the Art of War’

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Cutting Through the Fog Masking ‘a New Page in the Art of War’

In the larger geopolitical spectrum, the non-stop war of attrition by the Empire against Russia with Ukraine as a pawn is a war against the New Silk Roads; Maidan in 2014 took place only a few months after the launching of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), then OBOR (One Belt, One Road) in Kazakhstan and Indonesia. It’s also a war on the Russian concept of Greater Eurasia Partnership. In sum: it’s an all-out war on Eurasia integration.

Koch network pushes private-sector health-care agenda to counter Biden’s public option

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Koch network pushes private-sector health-care agenda to counter Biden’s public option

Called the “personal option,” the plan is a collection of policy proposals geared toward the private sector that focuses on tax breaks, expanding health savings accounts and slashing regulations. The plan’s name and messaging are intended to contrast with Democrats’ push for a public option, which would give people a chance to buy in to a government-run health-care program that would compete with private insurers.

Trump promises seniors $200 prescription drug gift certificates, but questions abound

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Trump promises seniors $200 prescription drug gift certificates, but questions abound

The administration is getting its authority to ship the coupons from a Medicare demonstration program, a White House spokesman told STAT in a statement. The nearly $7 billion required to send the coupons, he said, would come from savings from Trump’s “most favored nations” drug pricing proposal. That regulation has also not yet been implemented — meaning the Trump administration is effectively pledging to spend $6.6 billion in savings that do not currently exist. The cards, he said, would be “actual discount cards for prescription drug copays.”

Related:

Trump’s ‘most favored nation’ executive order on drug prices is a scam for seniors

Yet none of these reference pricing proposals show how they would directly reduce out-of-pocket costs for seniors at the pharmacy counter. For example, an Avalere study found that fewer than 1% of older adults in Medicare Part B would see a reduction in out-of-pocket costs as a result of the international pricing index model. In all likelihood, the prices of drugs in other countries will be more affected by the executive order than U.S. drug prices.

Gilead’s coronavirus treatment remdesivir to cost $3,120 for U.S. insured patients

Tina Marie (Ms. Cat)

Gilead’s coronavirus treatment remdesivir to cost $3,120 per U.S. patient with private insurance

The drugmaker said it will sell remdesivir for $390 per vial to governments “of developed countries” around the world, and the price for U.S. private insurance companies will stand at $520 per vial. In the U.S., that means Gilead will charge a lower price for government programs like Medicare and a higher price for privately insured people.

Wonder how many insurance companies will approve it?!