May, 27 2020, 12:00am EDT
Most Insulin Patients Won't Benefit Under Trump's Plan
Statement of Peter Maybarduk, Director, Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program
WASHINGTON
Note: President Donald Trump announced today that 1,750 Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage plans have applied to participate in a model to limit insulin out-of-pocket payments. Only 54% of all Medicare beneficiaries are enrolled in so-called "enhanced plans" that are eligible to participate in the model, and only 44% of those plans have agreed to participate. A Public Citizen analysis from March concluded that the model did nothing to address the ability of pharmaceutical corporations to set exorbitant prices for insulin.
Deaths from insulin rationing are preventable, and under this plan, such deaths will continue.
This plan could provide relief for many seniors who struggle to afford their insulin, but it fails to help most insulin users, including millions of young people and seniors who are not in an eligible plan. Most of the people known to have died from insulin rationing in recent years were young and uninsured. The plan also does not touch outrageous insulin price gouging.
The federal government has the power today, under existing authority, to challenge the insulin makers' oligopoly, license patents and lower prices. The Trump administration has taken none of these steps and has shown its unwillingness to take on Big Pharma.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization that champions the public interest in the halls of power. We defend democracy, resist corporate power and work to ensure that government works for the people - not for big corporations. Founded in 1971, we now have 500,000 members and supporters throughout the country.
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres stressed the "urgent need" for Israel to "de-escalate violence on all fronts."
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United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Thursday that he is "deeply concerned" by Israel's "recent and extensive violations of Syria's sovereignty and territorial integrity," including a ground invasion and airstrikes carried out by the Israel Defense Forces in the war-torn Mideastern nation.
Guterres "is particularly concerned over the hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on several locations in Syria" and has stressed the "urgent need to de-escalate violence on all fronts throughout the country," said U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric.
Israel claims its invasion and bombardment of Syria—which come as the United States and Turkey have also violated Syrian sovereignty with air and ground attacks—are meant to create a security buffer along the countries' shared border in the wake of last week's fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and amid the IDF's ongoing assault on Gaza, which has killed or wounded more than 162,000 Palestinians and is the subject of an International Court of Justice genocide case.
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Addressing the assassination of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson and conversations it has sparked about the country's for-profit system, longtime Medicare for All advocate Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday condemned the murder and stressed that getting to universal coverage will require a movement challenging corporate money in politics.
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Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)—a co-sponsor of Sanders' Medicare for All Act—similarly toldHuffPost in a Tuesday interview, "The visceral response from people across this country who feel cheated, ripped off, and threatened by the vile practices of their insurance companies should be a warning to everyone in the healthcare system."
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Reporters Without Borders' (RSF) 2024 roundup, which was published Thursday, found that at least 54 journalists were killed on the job or in connection with their work this year, and 18 of them were killed by Israeli armed forces (16 in Palestine, and two in Lebanon).
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Meanwhile, in a statement released Thursday, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) announced that at least 139 Palestinian journalists and media workers have been killed since the war in Gaza began in 2023, and in a statement released Wednesday, IFJ announced that 104 journalists had perished worldwide this year (which includes deaths from January 1 through December 10). IFJ's number for all of 2024 appears to be higher than RSF because RSF is only counting deaths that occurred "on the job or in connection with their work."
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