In India, the anti-cancer (therefore life/saving) drug my mother’s insurance company (Kaiser HMO) pays $15-25,000 (😳❗️⁉️❗️) for a month … cost us $65 a month over the counter at a pharmacy. How is that legal, and how is that not brazen robbery?
Republicans offer no relief at all, while Democrats are bragging that they achieved a $35/mo cap on insulin for those over 65.
Okay, let’s break that down.
That would still be $420 a year, and half of America’s seniors live on less than $25,000 a year.
There are over 3 million insulin users over age 65, so if you multiply the 3 million by $420 that’s still a sweet profit for the pharmaceutical companies each year.
And the situation gets worse.
There are another over 5 million Americans needing insulin who are UNDER 65.
Many are rationing their insulin, choosing on any given month whether to buy their insulin or pay their rent.
This does not happen in countries where there is universal healthcare…which includes every advanced democracy except ours.
What kind of “free market”leaves millions of people living their lives imprisoned behind the invisible walls of economic hardship?
Millions of Americans have been trained to expect too little, numbed by a chronic, gnawing state of low-grade need to simply accept what they are given.
They receive so little, and deserve so much more.
#MedicareForAll
(Gee, I wonder why the DNC doesn’t want to hold debates...)
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It IS brazen robbery, but when brazen robbery is institutionalized - as in the case of pharmaceutical companies - it’s simply called “the free market.”
Free market fundamentalism justifies its frequent cruelty by claiming an action is “what the market will bear,” but Adam Smith, capitalism’s original architect, said “free market capitalism cannot exist outside an ethical context.”
Pushing back against the tyranny of unfettered capitalism is to take a stand for justice.
The tentacles of endless corporate greed now touch every aspect of our lives, having damaged our democracy, destroyed our middle class, and desecrated our environment.
It’s the task of this generation to say “Enough.”
Apr 30, 2023 · 1:32 PM UTC
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