Tell Me It’s Not Class Warfare: Pharma Ups Cost Of Preemie-Preventative Treatment–From $30 to $1,500!
April 10, 2011 No CommentAfter having a painful miscarriage some years earlier, I spent a long period of time in my next pregnancy on pins and needles, worried that I might lose another pregnancy. And as it turned out, I did go into labor early. I stayed on bedrest for the last six weeks of the pregnancy and delivered my eldest about 3 weeks earlier than her due date. She was healthy, thank the deity of your choice. But I also had the luxury of having decent insurance, so I knew that I had options in the event that we could not stop the labor from progressive past the point of no return. So how can you look at this story and not see it as the so-called “free market” deciding that poor people don’t deserve those same options ? For years, a drug given to high-risk pregnant women to prevent premature births has cost $10 to $20 per injection. Next week, the price shoots up to $1,500, meaning the total cost during a pregnancy could be as much as $30,000. The drug, a form of progesterone given as a weekly shot, has been made cheaply for years, mixed in special pharmacies that custom-compound treatments that are not federally approved. But KV Pharmaceutical recently won government approval to exclusively sell the drug, known as Makena (Mah-KEE’-Nah). The March of Dimes and many obstetricians supported that because it means quality will be more consistent and it will be easier to get. It seems no one anticipated the dramatic price hike. “That’s a huge increase for something that can’t be costing them that much to make. For crying out loud, this is about making money,” said Dr. Roger Snow, deputy medical director for Massachusetts’ Medicaid program. Doctors say the price hike may deter low-income women from getting the drug, leading to more premature births. And it will certainly be a financial burden for health insurance companies and government programs. Children born very prematurely may require extensive and expensive hospitalizations, and ongoing therapy and medical assistance, expenses that can drain and/or bankrupt even a well-off family. Will we really be the kind of society that tells people–on the basis of their bank account–that their unborn child doesn’t deserve every fighting chance? There was no substantive need to raise the price of Makena so high. Thankfully, the FDA is going to allow generic versions of the drug KV Pharmaceuticals recently won FDA approval of its brand-name Makena (hydroxyprogesterone caproate), a synthetic form of the hormone progesterone. The drug is approved to lower the risk of some preterm births in women who have already had at least one previous preterm birth. The approval seemed to be good news — until KV announced that Makena would cost $1,500 a shot — up from the $10 to $15 that compounding pharmacies charge. After getting the approval, KV sent a letter to compounding pharmacies telling them that the FDA would enforce the company’s exclusive right to make the drug. “This is not correct,” the FDA said today. “In order to support access to this important drug, at this time and under this unique situation, FDA does not intend to take enforcement action against pharmacies that compound hydroxyprogesterone caproate based on a valid prescription for an individually identified patient unless the compounded products are unsafe, of substandard quality, or are not being compounded in accordance with appropriate standards for compounding sterile products,” the FDA announced.
Continue reading …Chris Matthews: Republicans Are ‘Going for the Kill! Want to Fight to the Death!’
April 10, 2011 No Comment
Chris Matthews has clearly forgotten all the concern over violent rhetoric he and his colleagues expressed in January after the tragic shootings in Tucson. On this week's syndicated program bearing his name, Matthews began the show saying, “Going for the kill! This week's shutdown fight is just the beginning. The young Republican turks want to fight to the death!” (video follows with transcript and commentary): CHRIS MATTHEWS: Going for the kill! This week's shutdown fight is just the beginning. The young Republican turks want to fight to the death! They just don't want cuts in programs like Medicare, birth control, the environment, but the end of them. It isn't about reform, it's about repeal. It isn’t about 2011, it’s about 2012. It appears Matthews forgot what he and his “Hardball” guests said on January 10 of this year, just two days after Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and other innocent Americans were shot in Tucson: CHRIS MATTHEWS, HOST: Good evening. I’m Chris Matthews in Washington, with this special edition of HARDBALL. This country has a history of political violence. Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley shot and killed in office, Teddy Roosevelt shot in the chest in 1912 while campaigning for the presidency, Franklin Roosevelt shot at a month before his inauguration. The bullet killed the mayor of Chicago. In 1950, assassins carried out a plot to kill Harry Truman, killing one of the president’s bodyguards, Jack Kennedy killed by an assassin, Gerald Ford shot at twice in separate assassination attempts, Ronald Reagan nearly killed by an assassin, saved only by the quick thinking of a Secret Service agent who gets him to the hospital in three minutes. Huey Long, George Lincoln Rockwell, Martin Luther King, Robert Kennedy, Allard Lowenstein, Malcolm X all killed by gunmen. We’ve grown up with this stuff, knowing this stuff. We’re not like other countries, not in Europe, not in Africa, not in Asia, not in South America, not in Canada or in Mexico. It’s only here that political assassination has worked its way into the history books and won’t get out. Given this, why would anyone bring a gun to a political event in this country? Why would anyone want to? Why would any political leader think it’s just fine to do so? For one reason, I can only suppose, to say that guns can be a solution to a political difference. What does it mean when a possible presidential candidate paints targets, crosshairs over members of Congress she disagrees with, or when a Senate candidate says she supports “2nd Amendment remedies” to political differences with the Congress? How can a person who has any sense of our country’s history talk like that? John Wilkes Booth didn’t like which way the Civil War went. Lee Harvey Oswald was infatuated politically with Fidel Castro and didn’t like what Kennedy had said about him. Sirhan Sirhan didn’t like Bobby Kennedy’s strong support for Israel. Assassins often have recognized political motives, left and right, to go out and kill a politician. They don’t like what a leader says, they go kill them. The matter here is what you believe about gun violence and politics. Do we think guns are a proper reference point in political debate? If not, why are guns even mentioned in our political discussions? Why are they carried to political events? Is there any other interpretation than this, that some people believe guns, the threat of using them, are a political solution to this country’s debate? Can we, out of this horror in Arizona, simply agree on this one thing? Don’t bring guns to political events. Don’t talk about guns in a political argument. Let’s stop it right here. Gun violence against politicians is not a metaphor. It’s not about the Old West. It’s not cowboy talk. It’s not about the Founding Fathers and the British army. When you talk about using guns or threatening to use them against policies or politicians you don’t like, it’s for real. When you bring a gun to a political event, you are the problem. And leaders who refuse to say just this are themselves part of the problem. Let’s begin with three members of Congress who are all close friends with Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords — U.S. Congressman Raul Grijalva of Arizona. He represents another part of Tucson. Also with us, U.S. Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida and Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine. Thank you all for joining us. I want to start with my friend, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, and talk about this development tonight, and that is that Michael Bennet, the senator from Colorado, has just had someone threaten his life. That person has been arrested. This goes on. Your thoughts. REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: Well, my thoughts, just to follow up on your introduction to the show or that — you’re absolutely right, Chris. We have to tone down the rhetoric. We have to really look inside ourselves. I think members of Congress need to lead by example. And then, hopefully, by removing and checking ourselves on the violent rhetoric that far too many people sometimes use in the political arena, that we’ll be able to lead by example and push the outside world, the shock jocks and the — and other political leaders, to take a page from our book. It’s absolutely critical because there’s fragile people who are mentally unstable that, you know, we just don’t know when they’re going to take those — that language literally. MATTHEWS: Congressman Grijalva, your thoughts about this, coming so close to where you live and your friend? REP. RAUL GRIJALVA (D), ARIZONA: Yes, it’s been devastating for all of us. We’re happy with some of the prognostics that’s happening about Gabby, but generally, it’s a level of shock. That’s all I can say. And you know, this whole political discourse that we’ve had for the last four or five years in this country, we’re not — I’m not saying that this has led to this, but there is a contributing factor that all of us in political life that use rhetoric that is incendiary, that creates demons out of other people — we need to be very careful and we need to tone that whole thing down. MATTHEWS: And Congresswoman Pingree from Maine. Thank you for joining us, as well. REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D), MAINE: Absolutely. Well, our thoughts and prayers are with Gabby and the families of all the victims of this senseless crime. And it was a deranged person, but the fact is, it gives us an opportunity to talk about political speech, to remember that words do matter, that as Debbie Wasserman Schultz said, people are influenced by these words. And you know, honestly, it happens on the left and the right. There was a left-wing blogger, when Debbie didn’t vote for Nancy Pelosi, said, Gabby Giffords, you’re dead. In my state, there’s a right-wing group that has a slogan on its Web site that said, If you’re willing to fight for your country, are you willing to kill for your country? We can’t use language like this and expect that it won’t have some effect on civil discourse, which is critical to our political system. So, exactly three months ago, two days after the Tucson shootings, Schultz told Matthews, “We have to tone down the rhetoric…Hopefully, by removing and checking ourselves on the violent rhetoric that far too many people sometimes use in the political arena, that we’ll be able to lead by example and push the outside world, the shock jocks and the — and other political leaders, to take a page from our book.It’s absolutely critical because there’s fragile people who are mentally unstable that, you know, we just don’t know when they’re going to take those — that language literally.” I guess Matthews has forgotten this, as he did Grijalva telling him, “This whole political discourse that we’ve had for the last four or five years in this country, we’re not — I’m not saying that this has led to this, but there is a contributing factor that all of us in political life that use rhetoric that is incendiary, that creates demons out of other people — we need to be very careful and we need to tone that whole thing down.” It appears he also forgot Pingree saying, “We can’t use language like this and expect that it won’t have some effect on civil discourse, which is critical to our political system.” Now, three months later, Matthews is quite comfortable saying Republicans are “Going for the kill” and “want to fight to the death.” Just more proof that all this hand-wringing about violent rhetoric in politics three months ago was utter nonsense, for people like Matthews and Schultz are now using the same language against their Republican rivals that they were complaining about in January. How does hypocrisy smell to you on a Sunday?
Continue reading …Less than a day after his wife of 39 years lost her long battle with cancer, a Michigan man died in a car crash. “I definitely think there was some divine plan that made my dad die 24 hours later,” said daughter Kellie Ittner. Ittner and her two siblings had…
Continue reading …
This time last year, HTC had two Android smartphones for the mainstream: the 3.7-inch Desire , outfitted with the latest and greatest, and the 3.2-inch Legend, which was humbler in specs but offered the novelty of an aluminum unibody construction . After seeing that strategy pay off handsomely, the company’s come back in 2011 with a similar proposition. The 4-inch Incredible S is now the higher-end device, while the 3.7-inch Desire S is the smaller, aluminum-shelled handset. What’s curious this time, however, is that the Desire S has exactly the same 1GHz Snapdragon inside it, the same graphics, same WVGA resolution, and the same 768MB of RAM as the Incredible S. Throw in the fact it comes with Gingerbread preloaded and a few new tweaks to the Sense UI and you’ve got to wonder if this might not be the more, um, desirable of HTC’s new Android duo. Only one way to find out, right? Full review after the break. Gallery: HTC Desire S review Gallery: HTC Desire S versus Desire and Incredible S Continue reading HTC Desire S review HTC Desire S review originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 10 Apr 2011 13:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink
Continue reading …No more soda on Boston city property, or sports drinks or sweetened ice teas, for that matter. In an effort to reduce the city’s rising obesity rates—and the soaring health costs associated with obesity— Slashfood reports that Mayor Thomas Menino has banned all sugary beverages from vending machines, cafeterias,…
Continue reading …
The National Weather Service is investigating reports of tornadoes in three northwest Iowa counties. One storm chaser caught on camera what he believes was a twister and the damage it caused to a Sara Lee turkey farm. (April 10)
Continue reading …Bob Dylan’s recent concert in China represents “a whole new kind of sellout,” writes Maureen Dowd in the New York Times , “even worse than Beyoncé, Mariah and Usher collecting millions to croon to Gadhafi’s family, or Elton John raking in a fortune to serenade gay-bashers at Rush Limbaugh’s fourth wedding….
Continue reading …
The following video contains shocking scenes of the dire consequences of a federal government shutdown. Viewer discretion is advised. Produced by Meredith Bragg and Nick Gillespie. Go to Reason.tv for downloadable versions and subscribe to our YouTube Channel to receive automatic notifications when new material goes live. For more on life during government shutdowns, go here and here . Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Reason Magazine – Hit & Run Discovery Date : 08/04/2011 21:35 Number of articles : 2
Continue reading …
• Click refresh to update or click the auto-update button • Email your thoughts to scott.murray@guardian.co.uk • Read Lawrence Donegan’s day three report • Official Masters leaderboard • A golf tome you may like (but I would say that) 6.35pm: Dustin Johnson, tipped by many to do well this weekend on account of his searing talent, although only by those who didn’t factor in his ability to implode on a regular basis, has been uncharacteristically steady today: six pars followed by a birdie on 7. He’s -2 for the tournament. “Forget green jackets for a sec, some Scots Green Battle Fever is on,” writes Greig Aitken, and he’s not talking about Martin Laird. “The Scottish Greens launched their election broadcast online today, featuring among others a Jock Wallace sound-a-like discussing Donald Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf abomination.” I’ve had a wee look further down Greig’s email, and it turns out he’s a press officer for the aforementioned envoronmentally friendly clique, and this is crowbarring of the most shameless order. But it does give me an excuse to link to this , without waiting for somebody to toss their wedge at their caddy after chipping into Rae’s Creek from a bunker at 12, so I’ll let that slide. 6.25pm: Not a huge sample, admittedly, but no amazing scoring out there yet, which suggests the course is set up to give up as few birdies as possible. I’m hoping the pins aren’t too tight today: there’s nothing like witnessing a few charges on Masters Sunday. All good news for McIlroy, though, providing he doesn’t implode himself. 6.20pm: Trevor Immelman was as steady as they come in 2008, leading from beginning to end, but today he’s anything but: a run between holes 3 and 7 of birdie, bogey, bogey, birdie, birdie to find himself one under for the day, and -2 for the tournament. Justin Rose, who came so close here in 2007 before falling away at the death, has started smoothly enough, though: he’s birdied 2 and is alongside Immelman at -2 on the scoreboard through 5. 6.10pm: Villegas bucks his ideas up with a birdie at 9. Meanwhile the first-day co-leader, Alvaro Quiros, has opened with a bogey. He’s +3 for the 1st hole this week. That opening-day 65 remains the only time he’s broken par at Augusta in three visits, having followed it up this time round with 73 and 75. 6pm: One player who started the tournament well, only to fall away dismally, was Camilo Villegas. He started out with a 70, before carding 75 and 73, and today he’s +3 for his round through 8, with only Kim Kyung-tae below him on the leaderboard. For some reason I’ve had him suspended in amber for the last few years in my mind: I thought he was in his early 20s, but he’s 29 now! Three top-ten major finishes doesn’t seem much of a return for his talent, especially as he was never really in the running for any of those tournaments (the 2008 US Open and PGA, and last year’s PGA). I suppose being constantly voted the sexiest player on tour by the readers of glossy magazines is fair compensation, though. Tiger must be awfully jealous. 5.50pm: Ishikawa’s double-bogeyed the par-three 4th to drop back to level par for the day, -1 for the tournament. The main movers now are Justin Rose and Ryan Moore, who are both -1 today through 3, -2 overall, and Brandt Snedeker and Jim Furyk, good Scrabble hands who have both birdied 2 and are -3 for this year’s Masters. “Where on the leaderboard is the 31-year-old American with a bad shirt, terrible sunglasses and all the conversational verve of a mormon insurance salesman on a twelve-step programme who’s going to nick this?” asks Jon Millard, who I’m sensing hasn’t got over Zach Johnson’s victory in 2007 yet. Then again, who has? 5.40pm. In lieu of anything interesting to report at this early stage, some music: “Awww-gusta I love you but you’re bringing me down…” 5.30pm: So, let’s get on with it. A couple of minor moves down in the nether regions of the leaderboard. The heroic Ryo Ishikawa has eagled the 2nd to move to -3 for the tournament. Sergio Garcia, meanwhile, has dropped a shot, need we tell you. He’s level par for the championship through 4. I wonder whether he’ll ever win a major? Actually, no I don’t. I know the answer to that one. It’s the final round of the Masters, everyone! Hee heeeeeeeeeee! IT IS ON!!! Some selected times, in the UK money: Justin Rose is off at 5.10pm, Ian Poulter at 5.30pm, Lee Westwood at 6pm, Lefty at 6.10pm, the amateur Hideki Matsuyama at 6.20pm, Tiger at 6.40pm, Freddie Couples at 6.50pm, Bubba and Ross Fisher at 7pm, Luke at 7.10pm, and the final pairings: 7.20pm – Jason Day and Adam Scott 7.30pm – Charl Schwartzel and KJ Choi 7.40pm – Rory McIlroy and Angel Cabrera Other golf players are available, of course. And there’s a selection of fine fellows who, should McIlroy not make it, would also be worthy Masters champions. Angel Cabrera, Tiger Woods and Fred Couples, the only men with a realistic shout who’ve been there, got the jacket. The Korean pair KJ Choi and YE Yang. The talented Charl Schwartzel. The Aussie pairing of Jason Day and Adam Scott. Golf’s Mr Beige Nice, Luke Donald, and his British compatriots Ross Fisher and Martin Laird. Bubba Watson, Bo Van Pelt, Matt Kuchar, Ryan Palmer, Phil Mickelso… I’m just typing out the entire field now. Whatever happens, it’s going to be a very enjoyable afternoon’s golf, is what I’m trying to say. A very enjoyable afternoon’s golf indeed. Rory, then, if history teaches us anything, will need to keep going with the positive approach he’s displayed all week. Tee to green, he’s been in a league of his own. It’s no exaggeration to say that, had his putter been hot this week, his current lead could be double figures. If he keeps hitting the approaches he’s been hitting, this should be a done deal. But he’ll have to stay firm with the putter, and there have been times (especially on Friday) when he’s been wafting it around like a divining rod. Still, no great disasters with it yet, but the pressure’s going to be unreal now, so hopefully he’ll maintain his mental equilibrium and putt with conviction. It’s nothing he doesn’t already know, of course: after the first round, he spoke of the importance of staying positive and attacking the course whenever possible. It’s an approach that should, all being well, win him the green jacket. God speed, young man. Venturi had a four-shot lead going into that fateful final round, but ended up shooting 80, and was overtaken by Jack Burke Jr, who won by a single stroke. Venturi could cite mitigating circumstances: it was pelting with rain, the wind was blowing a gale, and the lowest scores of the day were a pair of 71s, from Burke and Sam Snead, the only two men in the field to break par. Also, Venturi was, at the time, an amateur (which meant, adding insult to injury, he disappeared back down Magnolia Lane without a dime in his pocket for his troubles). Despite all this, Venturi’s story is probably the most relevant to McIlroy. Because instead of blaming the conditions for his collapse, Venturi would blame his putter. “The mistake I made was consciously trying to two-putt every green and just coast home,” he admitted years later. “I hit 15 greens that day but three-putted six times. The hardest thing in golf is trying to two putt when you have to, because your brain isn’t wired that way. You’re accustomed to trying to make putts, and when you change that mindset, your brain short-circuits, especially under pressure.” There’s an elephant in the room, of course. And there’s no point trying to ignore its brash trumpeting: should Rory fail to seal the deal today, the capitulation would go down as one of the great instances of Masters gift-horse dentistry. There have been 13 previous occasions where the 54-hole leader has held a four-shot advantage or more, and only three men have failed to go on and win. There’s Greg Norman in 1996, of course, who had a six-shot lead over Nick Faldo going into the last day, only to stumble along the first nine before crumbling round Amen Corner and then totally losing his motor skills during a painful traipse home. There was Ed Sneed in 1979, who held a five-shot 54-hole advantage, and was still three ahead with three to play; he bogeyed 16, 17 and 18, then lost a play-off to Fuzzy Zoeller. And then there was Ken Venturi in 1956. Now, if Rory pulls this off, he’ll become the second-youngest Master of all time. He’s 21 years, 11 months and six days old today, a rickety old pensioner compared to Tiger Woods, who was 21 years, three months and four days old when he ran away with the green jacket in 1997. Still, it’d be an amazing record nonetheless. Although not quite as jaw-dropping as the fact that, if he does end the day triumphant, 50% of golf’s current major champions will hail from Northern Ireland. So have the exploits of Rory McIlroy given you Masters Fever? Yes, I thought they would have. Let’s all just try to calm down, and concentrate on what could be a very enjoyable afternoon’s golf. A very enjoyable afternoon’s golf indeed. Masters 2011 Golf The Masters Scott Murray guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …