Inflated drug prices are causing hospitals to cut staff and reduce services, putting patients at risk, according to a report release last week by the University of Chicago. Combined with manufacturer shortages, the steady increase in the price of drugs has had a major impact on hospitals’ ability to manage their budgets. Over 40% of hospitals over the last two years have been forced to reduce staff or services just to keep up.
And this isn’t a new trend. Drug manufacturers have been raising prices for years, and New Year’s Day is more like Halloween for the pharmaceutical industry. In fact, Reuters reported earlier this month that nearly 40 drug companies raised the prices of almost 300 drugs to start the new year.
The average increase was 6.3%, though many drugs increase by 9% or more. To put that in perspective, inflation in the United States during 2018 was about 2.2%.
Alarmingly, these inflated drug prices are relatively low for the pharmaceutical industry. Both the number of increases and the average percentage of those increases are lower than they were over the past few years. That’s likely due to pressure put on Big Pharma by the White House, instigated by a tweet from the president in July saying that drug manufacturers
should be ashamed that they have raised drug prices for no reason. They are merely taking advantage of the poor & others unable to defend themselves, while at the same time giving bargain basement prices to other countries in Europe & elsewhere.”
To be clear, the U.S. is one of the few countries that allows the free market to determine drug prices. Many other nations, including the European Union, control the cost of prescription drugs either directly or indirectly.
According to Reuters, Rx Savings Solutions Chief Executive Michael Rea believes there has to be meaningful changes to the marketplace, rather than new regulations in order for drug prices to drop. He calls the dramatically inflated drug prices “business as usual.”
From 2015-2018, there were 96 price increases for every price cut on prescription drugs, according the Associated Press. But drug prices are much more convoluted than you might think. The list prices are often high, but pharma representatives usually negotiate rebates or discounts with benefits managers.
This leads to preferential treatment by insurance providers, and more business for manufacturers. But for those without insurance (or high deductibles), the inflated drug prices make most medicine completely unaffordable.
These drugs include everything from insulin to OxyContin, which increased by 9.5% this year. Purdue Pharmaceuticals, the makers of OxyContin, have been under heavy criticism for their sketchy marketing practices and are facing several lawsuits. The drug is one of the most addictive on the market, and recent statistics show from the National safety council show that the chances of dying from an opioid overdose are higher than the chances of dying in a car wreck.
Many of these drugs have not changed over the past several years, and yet the average price increase is nearly 3 times greater than inflation.
So why are these prices continuing to go up?
One reason may be the increased spending on lobbying efforts by the pharmaceutical industry. Lobbying group Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) spent a record $27.5 million on lobbying efforts in 2018. PhRMA represents most of the country’s largest drug companies, including Merck, Sanofi, and Johnson & Johnson.
In addition to that amount, CNN reported that individual companies within the pharmaceuticals and health products sector spent $194.3 million on lobbying as of October 24, 2018. Another reason could be one as old as time: greed. While companies continue to log record profits and executives take home massive salaries and bonuses, the American people bear the cost.
From 2012 to 2016, diabetics saw the price of insulin nearly double, with the average price per person rising from $2,841 a year to $5,705 a year.
Now, hospitals are facing an increase of nearly 20% on drug spending in only three years. Some hospitals saw increases over 80% for things like anesthetics and chemotherapy drugs. Pharmaceutical companies often take advantage of drug shortages, which can be caused by their own anti-competitive behavior. Some manufacturers actually pay the creators of generic alternatives to delay entering the market simply to improve profits.
As a result, hospitals are cutting staff and delaying investment in upgrades and new equipment. This means patients receive a lower standard of care while pharma executives continue to line their pockets. Until we can find a way to curb corporate greed, the trend is likely to continue for years to come.
Politicians on both sides of the isle have introduced initiatives to help address the problem, and the Senate Finance Committee will begin a series of hearings looking for solutions beginning next week. It’s important that you let your elected officials know where you stand when it comes to Big Pharma’s price gouging.
While we’ve talked a lot about the dangers of drugs, from side effects to a lack of safety testing, there are undoubtedly some medicines that save lives. There are natural remedies and lifestyle choices that can help prevent or combat most illness, but medicines like insulin, anesthesia, and epinephrine have continued to play an important role in keeping many people alive.
These industries are corrupt. Vaccines are rushed into production with almost no safety studies. Opioid manufacturers lie and bribe doctors to push their products to millions, despite heavy addiction and a staggering death toll. Drug manufacturers spend far more money on advertising and lobbying than they do on research. Family health companies hide information about toxic chemicals in their most popular products. Major corporations soak our food supply in cancer-causing chemicals, hiding evidence that their products are literally killing people.
Money runs this country, and now inflated drug prices are running our community hospitals into the ground. Cash over consumers; profits over patients.
Leaders like Ty who are prepared to walk the walk csn make a significant impact whike most today are taking a politically correct stand in basically accepting lies of big pharma.
Thank you for being willing to show solutions that go back to natural traditional healing.
Christians willing to show their faith in addition to the stand of showing alternative healing methods should be commended.
In our Lord
David Brown
The increase is to pay for the ever increasing TV commercial time the pharma companies are buying. Prohibit those ads like they used to be, and are in just about every other country in the world, and they have no excuse to ask for raises over the inflation rate.
I so agree!!
Thank you for everything you are doing! I think this is bigger than us, but I am in awe of you for putting in all this hard work and effort to make a difference. I do worry about your safety, take care of yourself and your family.
Shari
I have learned more about living a healthy life from your truth about cancer series than my brother the doctor learned during his decade studying medicine. Interestingly the family that owns Perdue Pharma is the name adopted by the Sackler family dating back to 1492 when the Grand Sanhedrin in Constantinople instructed the chief rabbi of Spain to have the Sackler’s and other Jewish families in Spain to learn to become doctors and the apothecary business in order to poison the non Jew goyim. Listen to the David Duke show with Andrew Carrington Hitchcock radio show broadcast January 22 for more details. At the bottom of this rabbit hole you’ll find the tunnels all combine in one place under the workings of one group now sending the hordes of “refugees” to flood the nations found in Revelation 15 explained in chapter 17 to be a flood of nations overtaking true Israel. This is intentional, wake up everyone…please.
ty, do you have time to review and endorse my new book, THE FUTURE OF MEDICINE AND HEALTH CARE: THE INTEGRATIVE HOLISTIC TEAM PREVENTION DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT
by dr walter j urban, research psychoanalyst, medical board of california, registration No. 7. i am the author of 3 other books, and the originator of LIFESTYLE PSYCHOTHERAPY in the early 90ies
and wrote the first book in the world on integrative therapy in 1978 called INTEGRATIVE THERAPY:FOUNDATION FOR HOLISTIC AND SELF HEALING. i will be 87 in this april.
Where can I get your new book – Amazon does not know of it?
I too have lost my mum.dad,sister,brother,mother in law & sons in laws to cancer where chemo & radiation failed them.I have cured my skin cancers & bowel cancer,throat cancer with natural remedies including black salve,dandelion dried roots,bicarb soda,paw paw leaf,&other herbs .Some of my friends too.We are all Christians love God .
He said ,”I give you the herbs of the fields for healing” .Plus lots of prayers too, Thanks for your boldness Ty. Its’a dangerous world of drugs and challenges of the intelectualls who want only drugs to heal.
A new one you haven’t heard off research Salvestrol amazing stull especially prostate and breast .
How can I communicate directly with Ty and Charlene about their impact on my life?
Hi Katherine,
Please send our customer success team a message and they will pass it on to Ty and Charlene. Here is a link to contact them: https://support.thetruthaboutcancer.com/submit_ticket
I own the first Cancer series that you made and have listened to the series. Charts and graphs work best for me. Is there any way that there could be a list of Naturopathic doctors, their specialty, location and contact information in the United States and the world? It is bewildering where to start looking. I currently see an intuitive for cancer. My health restoration is progressing.
Hi Gretchen,
Here is our list of experts: https://thetruthaboutcancer.com/experts-info-sheet/
Hopefully this will help you on your quest. Best wishes!
Look at the Epi pen fiasco. The simple injector made of cheap plastic is simply a simplified delivery syringe. For under $3.00 you can purchase a vile of epinephrine and an syringe separately.
Diabetics carry kits that contain all that is required.
Most drugs are worthless and should be avoided anyway. Stop going to medical doctors they are no longer healers and have become dealers all to the detriment to their victims. Use them for testing and then learn how to cure yourself. I cleaned up my pre-diabetes and my osteoarthritis. It’s easy. Diet is the key to health period! Doctors know little to nothing about health. 100 years ago doctors knew what they were doing, today they are virtually clueless.
Amen!!
I have absolutely no faith in my doctor/GP. Like Carmi says, they have become dealers not healers. They know nothing about health and diet, and even worse, look down their noses at those who do use these things. The phrase ‘evidence based medicine ‘ is all they spout, knowing that big pharma pays for research into their products (or pretend to), then interpets the results to suit themselves, whereas there is little money able to be invested in natural medicine research. In the UK it was reported that 70% of GPs don’t like to tell their patients to exercise to improve their health and wellbeing!! What?? The number one answer to help avoid/reduce diabetes, heart disease, depression, obesity and they won’t mention it!! The world has gone mad. I tell my friends and family the best thing you can do for your health (after good diet and exercise) is avoid your doctor and his drugs, and aim to stay drug free for the rest of your life. Why those of us who are passionate about this aren’t screaming it en masse from the rooftops puzzles me…
Amen!!!
I second that. Amen!!
Yes I totally agree!!
Wish you were wrong, but you’re not !!!
Right on!
You got it, Carmi. MOST drugs and doctors should be avoided like the plague. But at least some doctors are becoming aware that they are in an industry that does nothing for our health but propagates illness. Diet is the answer. I grow my own food and cannabis, eat at home, drink hydrogen water (thanks, Ty), get acupuncture and Synergy massage for the lymph system, and use a infrared sauna. Doctors? As little as possible and check everything they are telling you. One young doctor recently recommended antibiotics for a bacterial overgrowth in my gut. I immediately changed doctors and told them why.
Doctors didn’t know what they were doing 100 years ago.. The medical establishment has always been 100 years behind. But herbalists and homeopaths, midwives and backyard medicinal herb gardens were more prevalent, jused and more accepted back then. But life saving trauma doctors and surgeons are far more advanced but a lot of unnecessary ‘planned surgeries such as hysterectomies. Gallbladder removal, etc. bring about subsequent problems due to anesthesia, antibiotics, pain drugs such as dementia, permeable gut, heart. It’s a very schizophrenic system. They only know part of the picture—hence why we need ‘wholistic medicine’
Carmi – Well said. Absolutely spot on correct.
Amen!!
Did you know that the cure of cancer is in the Bible!!!!!!! Genesis chapter 1 verse 29 , this verse talk about the fruit tree and the seed of the fruit trees, it ends the verse by say the “the seed shall be meat to you” or “ the seed shall be food to you” depends on which Bible version NKJV , ASV or AMP. Notice that this verse talks about fruit trees, when I tell people about Genesis , they say oh I eat sunflower seeds, NO it’s the seed of the fruit tree, And I leave with this, if God “says the seed shall be meat to you” then we should eat it and not listen to what men say to do or eat!!!!!!! There is a lot of good information in Genesis, also talks about herbs , we can live a healthy life , if we would live by the Bible and read it
Happy to hear all of this…The blessing in disguise is that it might force hospitals out of the business of killing people..and eventually the same fate for Big pharma.
Now wouldn’t that be wonderful…
Correction to typo in previous email- the end times hordes are spoken of in Revelation 12:15 and explained in Revelation 17:15.
If our “brave” politicians would make direct to consumer advertising illegal again, it would be a huge first step towards reducing the power of the pharma sydicate.
I agree!!
I watched the mediocre often dangerous patient care my husband received in the hospital last year. He was hospitalized for 4 1/2 months, had three surgeries and finally passed away in August. All this from a reaction to Eliquis and the follow up bungled care. I am devastated and angry. I had no idea that the cost of medications were contributing to the poor care I saw but this does not surprise me. The cold greed of nearly every facet of our medical system is frightening and we are powerless to do anything about it..
Fourty years ago people found that CDCA (chenodeoxycholic acid) worked against CTX (cerebrotendinous xanthomatosis). Till that time a registered medicine for gall stones costing 500 euro per patient per year. It disappeared from the Dutch market, but was bought through Germany as Xenilox made by Sigma-tau, Italy. Price raised over the years to 40.000 euro per year. In 2017 Sigma-tau became Leadiant and the price raised further to 153.500 euro per patient per year.
Sooooo TRUE……………
Excatly!!!
Thanks for the informative article and the opportunity to join your mission. The following is slightly off topic, but I have some contentions in regard to the so-called opioid drug crisis.
I was prescribed Oxycodone for extreme chronic pain circa November 2007. It was the only medication that even ‘touched’ my pain issue. There were two points in time when doctor office politics forced me to go without the medication “cold-turkey” for thirty days. The only issue I had were that the pain was non-stop horrible. During this seven year period I was full time care giving for my mother as my second tour of dying parent duty. Nearly two decades of this exercise wrecked me physically. Circa November 2015 – about eight years on oxycodone – I reasoned my chronic insomnia may at least be in part due to a side effect from oxycodone. I weighed in the balance pain relief versus the critical need of healthy sleep for bodily repair and chose sleep. Over a three day period, I tapered off the (self-set and physician approved) maximum 25mg total daily dose to nothing. No withdraw syndrome and after the 30 day mark my mind did seem clearer. My sleep, however, did not improve at the time; and since doctors don’t like the DEA letters and the annoying scrutiny over prescribing opioids threatening their professional practice I was left without any hope of being re-prescribed workable pain mitigation. This is just personal history to provide some perspective on the subject.
The point is, I was responsible, disciplined and respected the nature of my needed medicine. People who have an urge to get ‘high’ are the ones driving the opioid crisis along with greed driven prescribers. The real victims are not the addicted and over-dosed (well, OK, they are victims,) but those who suffer constant pain are. Knowing there is – or at least was – relief; some may get so desperate they start thinking about ways to end it. Call them the “genuine victims.”
The myth that once you are hooked you can’t stop is a disservice to both the illicit addicted user and the legitimate patient who cannot find relief anywhere else. Addiction and avarice are in my studied opinion diseases primarily of the spirit rather than that of the symptomatic body. Once posing, ignorant politicians along with self-preserving white coated cowards get involved all bets are off. Pain patients count for less than nothing in the debate.
These facts needed to be entered into the one-sided debate over opioids, prescription price hikes, AND the demonization of natural alternatives like kratom, CBD oil and even whole plant cannabis. We have waited too long, with the proverbial hands of mendicants out stretched for freedom of medical choice, only to be denied, ignored, abandoned or in some cases imprisoned by the government for cultivating a healing plant for personal use. Its been suggested that our pain can drive our motivation. This may be true, but I am growing very tired from carrying all this motivation 24/7/365. Each decade becomes harder than the last and winter months are killer.
My husband is a type 2 diabetic. I read in a book about natural remedy’ s that Aloe Vera juice would help lower his A1C. He took about an ounce per day and after 6 months his A1C went down to 6.3 and his triglycerides went down from 137 – 113. His good cholesterol went up and his bad cholesterol went down. You can buy the juice in most health food stores and it’s not expensive. Be sure to get the juice not the gel.
A big problem with hospitals is immigration, especially illegal immigration. People come here and have pregnancy care and c-sections or prolonged treatment for cancer and then walk away and don’t have to pay. Medicaid does not pay if they are not citizens. There is also the problem of homeless people using hospitals as a place to hang out and get a free meal. Drug addiction is also a huge problem and drain on hospitals. These problems are bankrupting hospitals. We need to stop all immigration of people who cannot meaningfully contribute to our society and need public funds to live their American dream. We also need free clinics and other services for the homeless and mentally ill so they don’t need to use the hospital.
How did “profit before people” ever get into the health care industry? It’s a rhetorical question. The truth is that it is possible to value both –profit and people. However that is not how the health care industry is governed. I have met wonderful, caring and good doctors who are stuck in this medical web of profit. This is probably why more and more doctors are moving towards functional medicine. The problem is that health insurance doesn’t cover what is really needed. The old “profit before people” medical system model is failing, and consequently that affects everyone.
That started in the early 70’s. With Nixon
He allowed for profit hospitals. Which ran cheaply and forced all not for profit or of business.
Greed Greed Greed
It’s not that simple. It goes back over 20 or 40 years When antibiotics began to be given out without testing to everyone for everything. Previously the infection would be tested to see if the antibiotic would be effective. cultures would be done. That stopped and everything was pretty much treated with a broad spectrum antibiotic. It was decided that hand washing should be replaced with chemical ” hand sanitizers” and actual cleaning got reduced or eliminated. Hospitals went back to the time where to go there was to risk major infection and death, Back to the 1800s perhaps.
Oh yes, drugs are a factor, but it is much more than that, its a shift in culture and attitude.
Thank you Ty and your team. I am a cancer survivor-2012. 6 of my friends & aquaintances all were diagnosed with breast cancer. surgery. I refused radiation, chemo and their pills. The others all had radiation and I am the only one alive and healthy.
I have a problem with arthritis, esp. in my right shoulder. I reluctantly booked an appointment to have a cortisone shot. I decided I should join weight watchers as I am overweight and was feeling unwell. By the time I got to the doctor a couple of weeks later I did not need cortisone and feel really great. I am 82.
Trump just said yesterday that the prices of drugs went down 40% in the US
Monopolies are illegal in a capitalist society. I believe this is in the constitution. Yet the government has granted monopolies to the lobbying rich people and now we see why they are illegal with these outrageous drug prices as drug companies happily abuse their monopoly.
Have you seen this 60 minutes video where government met during off hours to avoid press coverage and passed the drug company biased legislation to keep Medicare drug prices high?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RikKAelRX1w
John
That is incorrect John. Monopolies are completely legal in a capitalist society so long as there are no laws prohibiting them. There is nothing in the US Constitution prohibiting monopolies. Corporate mergers which lead to monopolies happen all the time with the government’s approval by regulatory agencies. Corporations maximizing profits is required by law in a capitalist society. Corporations could be sued by shareholders if they didn’t attempt to maximize their profits. Collusion between government and industry is the consequence of allowing corporate personhood under the 14th amendment to the US Constitution used to grant corporations citizenship, giving them the “equal protection of the law” and preventing states from revoking privileges and immunities granted by the federal government. The 14th amendment also made it illegal to question the validity of the public debt.
Unfortunately this is true. The best example is doctors at cancer centres in where they use what they call Hail Mary drugs, using a sport metaphor of a desperate maneuver that normally does not change the outcome. I am a Psycho-oncologist practicing in Edmonton, AB. In my last five years of practice in working with cancer patients/clients, all to the ones that went for extensive chemotherapy did not survive, our daughter included, which forces me to believe that chemo and radiation are useless and dangerous.
In a dream, I somehow got into the room. In the middle of the room was a very large conference table. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder around the table were very big men in black suits. As tall as I am, I only came up to the back of their shoulders as I seemed to run around the table, looking for an opening. There was none. There was no way to get to – get near – the table.
On the table was the MACHINE. Spinning wheels, flashing lights, interlocking gears turning, all the moving parts were interconnected and in sequence. It was not a complicated machine. People were the input and money was the output. The MACHINE eats people and churns out money. Simple input and output device.
One of black-suited Giants finally had to use the Men’s room and as he left his place at the table, I slipped into his spot.
“We’ve got to fix this!” I shouted. “It’s broken. You’re killing people!”
As I leaned forward to reach for one of the control dials, I never saw the boot coming at me. My face flashed in the sky. As they carried me out, I heard someone say: “It aint broken. It’s perfect. Best health care machine in history.” I wish I could wake up.
This is true, but just one tip of the iceberg, & it’s purposeful steering & crisis-creation to get people to accept what the globalist tyrants behind the scenes want to do next. Wherever socialist centralization & monopolization takes root you are going to have corruption & abuse of power. Corporate fascism & communism are twin sisters, & we have proponents of both guarding the chicken house & refusing to limit their meddling to their lawful sphere of separated powers….or to any law. Even truth is ‘offensive’ to the lawless. When put in that position without clear & plain limitations, in a situation without enforced distributed & balanced powers…..the ‘exploited’ simply becomes the ‘exploiter’ due to human nature & sin. Denying that problem & truth is the REAL root of the problem, and there are no exceptions.
Excellent article!
Are we really not going to blame the hospitals themselves? They are just as bad and an integral component of the Medical Mafia. Like all factions of the Cartel, they care about profits, not patients. In fact, its more fitting to refer to the people as customers, not patients.
thank you for a more balanced and fair comment. There are many good doctors and hospitals savings millions of lives. Part of the system is broken, that’s for sure. But throwing everything and everyone around medicine under the bus is very ignorant.
Lack of true health care freedom is the problem. These unaccountable federal and state agencies like the FDA, CDC, NIH are the problem. Corporations are not evil in themselves. If they and hospitals had to truly compete in the free market of ideas, instead of being PROTECTED by government agencies, true solutions would come fast and furiously. And prices would come down. Too many people believe that government, and especially UNACCOUNTABLE govt, are the answer to everything. Nothing could be further from the truth. Research Milton Friedman and his lectures on Healthcare freedom.
Thank You to All who have placed your comments+replies here;bcos it allows everyone ,who I know personally to be channelled and referred to all the sites that TY+CHARLENE have sent out to the world via ALL the Social Media websites.
My heartfelt gratitude and deep appreciation goes to TY+CHARLENE and their team for EVERYTHING they are doing to date;to help all of us around The World. I personally feel that TY;CHARLENE;MIKE ADAMS;JASON VALE; PERS BRISTOW;DAVID STEWART; & several other people;that I will place up later on; are on an absolutely GRAND WORLDWIDE SPECIAL MISSION; as Great;Down to Earth; PIONEER AMBASSADORS ;to admonish and channell US back to finding;gathering and using ;ALL THE PURE GIFTS OF THE EARTH FROM OUR GR8T CREATORS”(GODHEAD’S)DIVINE PHARMACY. To+For ME personally; I cannot find words adequate enough to express my GRATITUDE ;DEEP APPRECIATION+THANKS to these wonderful people mentioned above; for their own personal financial;sacrifices and time to HELP ALL OF US;who have been blessed by their RESEARCHING+GUIDANCE TO CARE FOR OUR VERY OWN HEALTHCARE+WELLBEING.
THEY;ALL can do with our help;by keeping each one of them in our DAILY PRAYERS AT ALL TIMES.!! As we are aware that there are many out there;that will do anything to STOP THEM from reaching and touching the lives of many of us; who have healed and been cured from many debilitating diseases; that have ravaged and totally destroyed our Healthy Immune Systems+whole Anatomy; bcos of The Big Pharmaceutical Companies Devious+Evil Profit Making Medicines; that NONE OF THEM would personal use or prescribe to themselves; or any of their very own children and all their immediate Family Members. I will write my personal story later on and give some personal experiences of my very own journey with STAGE V TERMINAL CANCER; back in 2010. Im still around to tell the tale. After being told I only have six weeks MAXIMUM.
I also lost my daughter in cancer on 1990, believing back then about chemo and radiation, but now praise the Lord, I know now with the help of my son who is a Naturopath doctor, I have no more high blood pressure using just natural supplements, exercise and careful on my diet. We cannot stop these companies but we can do something for a change. Teaching people in natural way, changing their lifestyle that they will not depend on these drugs that doesn’t help them anyway. May God bless us all.
Thank you for your commitment to stating your experience. I’m so sorry about your daughter, My brother as well. Brutally treated with chemo and radiation, for inoperable glioblastoma, and the story of suffering is inhuman. God bless the resurgence of holistic Medicine.