Kip Sullivan writes: the cost of insuring Medicare beneficiaries through Medicare Advantage was 22% to 35% higher, or somewhere between $88 billion and $140 billion more, than it would have been had those beneficiaries remained in traditional Medicare…

Patients in privatized Medicare Advantage programs are more likely to die in the month following surgery for stomach, pancreatic, or liver cancer as compared to those enrolled in Traditional Medicare.

The Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services spends 6 percent more for each Medicare Advantage enrollee as compared to spending for Traditional Medicare enrollees. In spite of spending more, private insurers managing MA plans provide consistently worse coverage.

Pharma giant Eli Lilly has spent $1,850,000 this year lobbying for its health products and pharmaceuticals. Eli wants congress to (1) allow Medicare to cover its weight-loss drugs and (2) prohibit making drugs more affordable. Eli wins the avariciousness prize.

Eli Lilly spends more to stop Medicare pricing negotiations for Jardiance, Lilly’s diabetes drug, for lobbying, and for stock buybacks than for research and development. CEO David Ricks ‘earns’ about $26,600,000 a year. That’s enough to fund 532 Texas teachers for a school year.

Medicare negotiation is a huge win for patients and taxpayers but Big Pharma is pushing back. Join us in fighting to protect patients at FightPharma.org.

@WaysMeansCmte_GOP

J&J will pay about $6,500,000,000 to approximately 50,000 women with ovarian cancer caused by asbestos in J&J’s talcum powder. And J&J knew about the asbestos. Joaquin Duato, J&J’s CEO, earns about $28,400,000 a year, about the same salary that 482 Texas teachers earn in a year.

Speaking of Medicare Advantage payments from the feds, Humana CFO Susan Diamond said the rates “will require larger benefit reductions to achieve stable margins.” healthcaredive.com/news/insurer-t… via Healthcare Dive Remove the profit-makers from our health care. #NIMA

Blood thinner Xarelto from Johnson & Johnson is one of the ten drugs for price negotiations under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. Remember J&J? That’s the company that knowingly sold talcum powder contaminated with asbestos for nearly 30 years.

Novartis too is in the courts trying to prevent Medicare negotiations from reducing its profits for Entresto, which treats heart failure and reduces heart failure hospitalizations. Novartis CEO, Vas Narasimhan, ‘earned,’ note the quotation marks, $18,000,000 in 2023.

Amgen, maker of Prolia for osteoporosis, and Blincyto for lymphoblastic leukemia, has a negative track record. Sued for tax evasion for shifting profits to a subsidiary in Puerto Rico. Violated the False Claims Act. Sued by investors for not disclosing a $10,700,000,000 tax bill.

Pharmaceutical companies spend more on advertising, lobbying and executive compensation than research and development. That includes Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Amgen, and Johnson & Johnson. Note that some of these companies are in court to end Medicare drug price negotiations.

High prescription drug costs are a burden for so many Texans, particularly our seniors. That’s why I took on Big Pharma. But Ted Cruz voted no. Texans deserve a Senator who will work to lower costs.

Social Security is built FOR US and BY US– not Wall Street.

So who is cranky about Medicare drug price negotiations? One pharmaceutical maker, AstraZeneca, is and went to court over negotiations for the diabetes medication Farxiga. Rightfully the court ruled against AstraZeneca. CEO Pascal Soriot earned about $21,500,000 last year.

Medicare drug price negotiations, under President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, are a positive step for people with a variety of diseases to include diabetes, heart failure, and rheumatoid arthritis. Rhetorical question: Can you guess who is cranky about reducing drug prices?

Americans are more likely to have a medication or medical error as compared with those living in other countries. 12.6% of patients in 2020 had a medical error compared to 11.4% in other countries. Rhetorical question: In such a wealthy country as ours, why so many errors?

If Ted Cruz has another 6 years in the Senate, he’ll try to:

❌ Repeal the ACA
❌ Cut Social Security and Medicare
❌ Pass a nationwide abortion ban

Texans can’t afford that, and in November we will send Ted Cruz packing.

😬 Yikes. Not a good look.

Maybe if you’re piling up that many cases, you should do something different?

Like investing in patient care instead of whatever illegal plan you have to make money? 🤔