US Elections (& Politics) :)
- Thread starter sdkid
- Start date
When I read that, I thought of Band of Brothers when Captain Sobel was relieved of his command-- because he was a prick and all his NCO's hated his guts and believed Sobel would get them killed. Point being--- we don't know WTF happened, and speculating about political motivations is bullshit.
Some facts about Trump "ending" the medicare part D subsidies. It's looking like there's a full-court press going on right now in the media and on the Internet to save the program, which at its origin was intended (they say) to be temporary. The press articles and memes hardly ever, if ever at all, give any facts. They are just emotional sky-is-falling pleas with no numbers or other facts.
-Part D is run by private, for profit insurance companies under government guidelines.
-The part D subsidy program was created to counter (i.e. hide) the coming big part D increases caused by obamacare.
-The program gives a $15 monthly subsidy to all plans. Plus if a plan increases it's rate by more that $35 year-over-year, that gets fully subsidized.
-A global figure they call the base premium is limited to 6% year-over-year increase. Anything above that gets subsidized.
So thanks to this subsidy program, the insurance companies are free to make big rate increases that are fully paid for with government money, and the bad guy is Trump.
Follow the money: Insurance companies fleece the government, taking their cut. Much of what's left goes to big pharma, who takes a cut and sends much of what's left to the media for ads and commercials, some to bribe the doctors, and some to bribe politicians. Are Internet meme makers and influencers taking money from insurance and pharma? Just askin'
.
That leaves the insurance companies, pharma, media, politicians, and a lot of Internet traffic pressuring Trump to keep the temporary program alive or he'll cause great chaos and hardship. Is it only a coincidence that they all have their hand in the cookie jar? Yes, people will get hurt if the program suddenly ends. That's the way it was designed. Do we give in to even more corruption, or take some pain and cut off the head of this particular snake? If the program ends and rates go way up, we've been had. Same principle as if McConnell suddenly shows up deceased, we've been had.
Unlike with the memes and emotional pleas, here are some starter places to read for yourself:
CMS Releases 2025 Medicare Part D Bid Information and Announces Premium Stabilization Demonstration | CMS
-Part D is run by private, for profit insurance companies under government guidelines.
-The part D subsidy program was created to counter (i.e. hide) the coming big part D increases caused by obamacare.
-The program gives a $15 monthly subsidy to all plans. Plus if a plan increases it's rate by more that $35 year-over-year, that gets fully subsidized.
-A global figure they call the base premium is limited to 6% year-over-year increase. Anything above that gets subsidized.
So thanks to this subsidy program, the insurance companies are free to make big rate increases that are fully paid for with government money, and the bad guy is Trump.
Follow the money: Insurance companies fleece the government, taking their cut. Much of what's left goes to big pharma, who takes a cut and sends much of what's left to the media for ads and commercials, some to bribe the doctors, and some to bribe politicians. Are Internet meme makers and influencers taking money from insurance and pharma? Just askin'
.That leaves the insurance companies, pharma, media, politicians, and a lot of Internet traffic pressuring Trump to keep the temporary program alive or he'll cause great chaos and hardship. Is it only a coincidence that they all have their hand in the cookie jar? Yes, people will get hurt if the program suddenly ends. That's the way it was designed. Do we give in to even more corruption, or take some pain and cut off the head of this particular snake? If the program ends and rates go way up, we've been had. Same principle as if McConnell suddenly shows up deceased, we've been had.
Unlike with the memes and emotional pleas, here are some starter places to read for yourself:
CMS Releases 2025 Medicare Part D Bid Information and Announces Premium Stabilization Demonstration | CMS
With all the bullshit Trump and Hegseth are spewing, it's hard not to speculate about political motivations in the current climate.
So, I wonder...
Agreed, but this was a SSBN sub not a SSN sub. So relieving a commander of a SSBN sub does send the wrong signals. Which I admit I do not know how common it is.
I can give two first-hand examples about the medicare prescription drug mess.
A local to me orthopedic practice uses a one-time injection as part of treatment for Dupuytren's Contracture. It's an ounce or two of liquid, and the price paid by medicare had been about $6,500. The orthopedic practice was bought by the local hospital, and now the same injection vial is $10,000. The explanation I got was that hospitals can charge medicare more for drugs than other medical practices can.
I'm on a daily cancer med pill. Other than my cost complaining I'm very thankful it's available, as I would surely be long gone without it, and I totally understand that the drug company spent a fortune on developing it, clinical trials, and approvals. It's available only from a specialty pharmacy, and the cost is about $17,000 per 30 pills ($567 per pill) ! Or a couple of 541-ZEs per pill.
Yet the drug's "list price" is lower in other countries. A few prices I found from other country pharmacies, vs. $17k in USA, for 30 pills from the same drug company:
Netherlands: $9,788
Israel: $9,075
India: $268 (yes, this looks suspicious, it's what the rupee to dollar conversion math said, starting with 25,500 rupees)
Thanks to patent protection, the only substitute I've found is from Bangladesh, for about $100 per 30 pills. It's claimed to be identical, which of course I have no way of knowing.
A local to me orthopedic practice uses a one-time injection as part of treatment for Dupuytren's Contracture. It's an ounce or two of liquid, and the price paid by medicare had been about $6,500. The orthopedic practice was bought by the local hospital, and now the same injection vial is $10,000. The explanation I got was that hospitals can charge medicare more for drugs than other medical practices can.
I'm on a daily cancer med pill. Other than my cost complaining I'm very thankful it's available, as I would surely be long gone without it, and I totally understand that the drug company spent a fortune on developing it, clinical trials, and approvals. It's available only from a specialty pharmacy, and the cost is about $17,000 per 30 pills ($567 per pill) ! Or a couple of 541-ZEs per pill.
Yet the drug's "list price" is lower in other countries. A few prices I found from other country pharmacies, vs. $17k in USA, for 30 pills from the same drug company:
Netherlands: $9,788
Israel: $9,075
India: $268 (yes, this looks suspicious, it's what the rupee to dollar conversion math said, starting with 25,500 rupees)
Thanks to patent protection, the only substitute I've found is from Bangladesh, for about $100 per 30 pills. It's claimed to be identical, which of course I have no way of knowing.