Lemhi County Democrats    

 

 
Health Care
 
 
How Elected officials vote on health care and accept money from health care industry lobbies.

There may be no better sign of the changing debate over the nation's farm subsidies: A Midwestern governor running for president calls for cuts in a system that has steered hundreds of millions of dollars a year to his state.

        Road Less Traveled

Four Developing Countries Blaze New Trails to Better Health

 

Everybody In, Nobody Out...the essence of universal health care.

Click on Everybody In Nobody Out...  to see a website that supports state organizations working at the grassroots for universal health care (UHC).

On this website you will see:

Philosophy and History of the "Right to Health Care". 

  By history of the "Right to Health Care" we mean the history of the concept.  If you are looking for the history of this human right being formally recognized and established throughout the world and in the United States, then you might prefer starting in our section "Signed Documents".

 "Everybody In Nobody Out" is the website of Project EINO, which is an organizing effort committed to the support and advancement of state and local organizations working towards non-incremental universal health care.  Project EINO also works to advance the discussion in states where no state UHC group presently operate, with the hope that new activist groups might arise.  Interested in starting a new state UHC group?  Click Here.

 

Contributions from Health Care Industries to Congress from 1990 to 2006 is found at:

http://www.crp.org/industries/indus.asp?Ind=H04  Total contributions are $134,691,165.

Courtesy of Center for Responsive Politics.

 

 

Health Insurance Coverage


Overview

 

  • The number of people with health insurance coverage increased by 1.4 million to 247.3 million between 2004 and 2005, and the number without such coverage rose by 1.3 million to 46.6 million (from 15.6 percent in 2004 to 15.9 percent in 2005).

     
  • Between 2004 and 2005, people covered by employment-based health insurance (174.8 million) declined from 59.8 percent to 59.5 percent.

     
  • While the number of people covered by government health programs increased between 2004 and 2005, from 79.4 million to 80.2 million, the percentage of people covered by government health insurance remained at 27.3 percent. There was no statistical difference in the number or percentage of people covered by Medicaid (38.1 million and 13.0 percent, respectively) between 2004 and 2005.

     
  • The proportion and number of uninsured children increased between 2004 and 2005, from 10.8 percent to 11.2 percent and from 7.9 million to 8.3 million, respectively.

http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/007419.html

 

Americans With No Health Insurance Rises

Census figures show that a record 46.6 million Americans, including 8.3 million children, had no health insurance in 2005, up from 45.3 million in 2004. Meanwhile, premiums for those with coverage were up 7.7 percent in 2006, to $11,480 for a family of four in employer-sponsored plans

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/24/AR2006122400589.html

 

 

Off the Charts: Pay, Profits and Spending by Drug Companies.
Refuting industry claims that high drug prices are necessary to sustain research and development efforts.

LINKS HIGH DRUG PRICES TO ADVERTISING, PROFITS, AND ENORMOUS EXECUTIVE SALARIES

Washington, D.C. - A new report by the consumer health organization Families USA refutes the pharmaceutical industry's claim that high and increasing drug prices are needed to sustain research and development. The report documents that drug companies are spending more than twice as much on marketing, advertising, and administration than they do on research and development; that drug company profits, which are higher than all other industries, exceed research and development expenditures; and that drug companies provide lavish compensation packages for their top executives.

 

 Company .

 

Revenue

 

Net Sales in
millions of dollars:
.

Percent of Revenue Allocated to:
 
Profit:
(Net Income)
 
Marketing/
Advertising/
Administration 
 
Research and
Development
(R&D) 
 Merck and Co., Inc  
 $40,363 _
 
 17%
 
 15%
 
 6%
 Pfizer Inc.  
 29,574
 
 13%
 
 39%
 
 15%
 Bristol-Myers
Squibb Company
 
 18,216
 
 26%
 
 30%
 
 11%
 Pharmacia
Corporation
 
 18,144
 
 4%
 
 37%
 
 15%
 Abbott Laboratories  
 13,746
 
 20%
 
 21%
 
 10%
 American Home
Products
Corporation
 
 13,263
 
 -18%
 
38%
 
 13%
 Eli Lilly and Co.  
10,862 
 
28% 
 
30% 
 
19% 
 Schering-Plough
Corporation
 
9,815 
 
25% 
 
36% 
 
14% 
 Allergan, Inc.  
1,563 
 
14% 
 
 42%
 
 13%
 

 

Five Highest Paid Drug Company Executives Salaries
2000 Annual Compensation Exclusive of Unexercised Stock Options

Chart 2

 
 Executive
 
 Company
 
 Compensation
 William C. Steere, Jr.
Chairman
 Pfizer Inc  
 $40,191,845
 John R. Stafford
Chairman and CEO
 American Home Products
Corporation
 
 $27,008,927
 Edward M. Scolnick
Executive VP
 Merck and Co., Inc.  
 $26,454,600
 Richard Jay Kogan
Chairman and CEO
 Schering-Plough Corporation  
 $21,444,020
 David W. Anstice
President, the Americas
 Merck and Co., Inc.  
 $19,600,975
 

 

The Five Drug Company Executives Salaries
with the Largest Unexercised Stock Options in 2000

Chart 3

 
  Executive
 
  Company
 
  Compensation
 C.A. Heimbold, Jr.
Chairman and CEO
 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company  
 $227,869,513
 Raymond V. Gilmartin
Chairman, Pres., and CEO
 Merck and Co., Inc.  
 $181,252,976
 William C. Steere, Jr.
Chairman
 Pfizer Inc.  
 $130,944,439
 K.E. Weg
Vice Chairman
 Bristol-Myers Squibb Company  
 $84,282,547
 John R. Stafford
Chairman and CEO
 American Home Products
Corporation
 
 $81,847,569
 

originally posted on FAMILIES USA 

http://www.actupny.org/reports/drugcosts.html#chart_one

 

 

MAKING THE DRUG INDUSTRY PLAY FAIR
 


 

 

The following is a statement released today by Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, at a forum on Capitol Hill regarding anticompetitive practices of the prescription drug industry:

"Numerous lawsuits have been filed across the country to force the drug industry to play fair in the marketplace. These lawsuits - brought by state attorneys general, the FTC, consumers, and third-party payers of health care - are aimed at stopping anticompetitive practices that have led to skyrocketing drug costs.

"Three types of lawsuits are being litigated and they seek to vindicate three important principles. First, do not violate antitrust and other anticompetitive laws by preventing more cost-effective generic drugs from coming to market. Second, do not misrepresent information about drug products by failing to give full or truthful information to America's consumers. Third, do not manipulate drug prices in a manner that results in huge costs for the Medicare and Medicaid programs and for the beneficiaries of those programs.

"Preventing and delaying generic drugs from coming to market needlessly increases costs for consumers including Medicare beneficiaries as well as third-party payers of health care. It improperly extends drug monopolies that enable the drug companies to profiteer at the expense of everyone else.

"The lawsuits being litigated are intended to make the pharmaceutical marketplace work for everyone. It is ironic that the drug industry goes to great lengths to prevent the regulation of prices in the name of promoting a free market. But, in doing so, it undermines competition, which is the hallmark of a free market."

For copies of the materials handed out at the forum please visit our website www.familiesusa.org. A webcasts of this forum will be made available by kaisernetwork.org, a free service of the Kaiser Family Foundation, after 5:00 pm ET on Monday, April 15. The webcasts, transcripts, and related resources can be found at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/healthcast/familesusa/15apr02.

 

http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/newsroom/statements/2002-statements/press-statement-making-the-drug-industry-play-fair.html