More odds and ends

I’m back from visiting the evil physical therapist; whose ‘therapy’ tends to make me cranky and sore. And then I read the papers and I’m angrier than ever. Plus, I read a newsletter from Jim Hightower. Is there no end to the Bush idiocy?

Some highlights from the Hightower newsletter; Pharmaceutical company profits in 2001 were $30 billion. In 2008, they are forecast to be $80 billion. Cost of family health insurance in 2001 was $6,230. In 2008, the cost is $12,106. The newsletter goes on and on, comparing 2001 with 2008. The Republican years. All depressing. By the way, your annual earnings have gone down during this period. Bright side of that is that if you’re paid less, you will pay less in taxes, right? Just like the rich folks! Yes, they pay less in taxes. $546 billion less for the top 1%.

And I was reading the guest commentary from the Chico News & Review and found it most refreshing. It reminded me that, yes; we once did think that medical care was a basic human right. It was never even debated. So how did we get from there to here? Where did the greed come from?

And of course that made me think about the pharmaceutical companies. Back in the day; the days when I was much younger, we expected pharmaceutical companies to do their research and, while working with doctors and patients, come up with drugs that might help us to defeat a disease, cure an infection or even save our lives in the process. We thought that the drug companies and the doctors were working hand in hand to make this a better world. OK, I was young and naive. As it turns out, doing business that way was not as profitable as it could be when you eliminated the middleman; the doctor. Take your ads right to the consumer. Tell the consumer what is wrong with them and push a lovely vision of coming good health by simply asking them to urge their doctor to prescribe this medicine for them. All will be well; the little tiny print was for the possible side effects. (Don't worry!) I guess none of us realized that the doctors were running interference for us in the old day; making sure that the drug actually was appropriate for you, the patient. And a lot of doctors weren’t ready to argue with each and every patient that came to them with demands for certain drugs. It was quicker and easier to give them what they wanted and then they were out of the office and out of their hair.

I haven’t been commenting on the governor very much these days, but it’s certainly not because I approve of him in any way. He is still an actor and a fool. His insistence that the budget must be cut ‘across the board’ reveals his lack of intelligence. Sad. And there is no one among the legislators that can come up with a plan that all can endorse so that the budget mess will move forward. They’re all playing politics with our future.