Analysis, Health care 02.19.2019
Here’s how the drug industry funds ‘experts’ to discredit efforts to lower prices

Big Pharma dresses wolves in sheep’s clothing to keep drug prices high. Don’t be deceived. Learn how to sniff them out.
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Big Pharma dresses wolves in sheep’s clothing to keep drug prices high. Don’t be deceived. Learn how to sniff them out.
“The crooks already know these tricks; honest men must learn them in self-defense.”
My former colleagues undoubtedly were cheering when they heard Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) come to the defense of private health insurers and trash the idea of improving and expanding Medicare to cover all Americans.
“Open enrollment is over and the flood of advertisements for Medicare Advantage plans has ended for another year. I’m happy to report that, once again, I’ve managed to avoid signing up for one of those plans.”
On this episode, Wendell and Joey introduce listeners to the propaganda shop that is fighting back against Medicare For All legislation. They’ve named the group the Partnership For America’s Health Care Future, and it comprises the biggest health care special interests and trade associations in the country — not patients and other regular folks.
Veteran government and corporate watchdog will lead Tarbell.org reporting.
Without the protections in the Affordable Care Act, many would find themselves back in the “bad old days.”
What we learned: Addressing the problem will require the private and public sectors to agree on solutions.
What you can do: Call Congress, the FDA and the White House.
With Congress set to debate “Medicare-for-all,” Tarbell examines efforts by health insurers to take over past health care reforms.
Let us see if the Devos family has the heart to chip in on a woman’s transplant.
A cheaper premium or no premium sounds good when you’re well, but what happens when you’re sick?
Tarbell Founder Wendell Potter explains why the 2018 midterm elections point to a renewed need for investigative and solutions journalism.
“They don’t even know who the candidates are that they vote for, and even if they don’t just vote party line, they don’t know that the Republicans want to cut Medicaid.”
In the 1960s, with no funding for long-term, chronic dialysis, hospital committees decided who would live and die. It was the federal government that put an end to this practice.
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Many Medicare Advantage plans have small networks and high deductibles. If you go out of network, even unknowingly, you will be on the hook for a lot of money out of your own pocket.
You have no guarantee that the doctors and hospitals that the insurance companies say are in your network will still be there in the future. And you, not the insurer, get stuck with the bill.
“Even I was dismayed when I learned I’d have to go into an NHS hospital.”
The new Martin Shkreli is Nostrum Laboratories’ Nirmal Mulye – who raised the price of a bladder infection antibiotic from $475 a bottle to nearly $2,400 a bottle.
“You can’t see everybody. That’s unfortunately the reality.”
America’s biggest corporations—prescription drug distributors in particular—are profiting off the growing opioid epidemic.
AmerisourceBergen has made billions of dollars overselling opioids. Now, to protect profits, it’s waging a PR campaign to make you forget that.