Category Archives: In the Money

Greed does not heal – it kills.

Survey Findings Paint Grim Picture of Health Care Affordability in the US

Half of the surveyed adults reported difficulty affording their health care, and a large proportion said they delayed or avoided care or medication because they couldn’t afford it, often leading to their health problems worsening.

Half of working-aged adults in the United States report it is somewhat or very difficult to afford their health care costs, according to new data published by the Commonwealth Fund, and these financial pressures can lead them to delay or forgo care, resulting in worse downstream health outcomes. [1] Continue reading

Battling Beasts and Bureaucrats: Naomi Wolf and the American Medical-Government Police State

Naomi Wolf was, until the covid era, “a well-known feminist nonfiction writer for thirty-five years . . . privileged to be part of the cultural ‘scene’ made up of influencers on the progressive Left.” With great courage, she rejected the masks, lockdowns, and vaccines urged upon us by the state, viewing them as totalitarian impositions upon us. Her heroic stance turned her into a “nonperson”: her friends and associates on the left shunned her.

As a result, she has rethought her political alliances and now finds herself in the company of conservatives and libertarians. In what follows, I’d like to discuss some of her insights about covid and then to focus on how she sees the world. Continue reading

DANGEROUS MEDS: Pharmaceutical Drugs Becoming So Tainted That the Defense Department Is Calling for Outside Testing

The world’s pharmaceutical drug factories have become so filthy that the United States Department of Defense (DoD) is intervening to try to clean things up by bringing in an outside testing service to spot contamination.

Valisure, an independent testing laboratory that deals with this kind of thing, was brought in by the DoD to test a slew of medications amid growing concerns about pharmaceutical drug contamination and other quality and supply issues. Continue reading

Parts 1 & 2: The Cancer Within Modern Medicine

The turn of the 20th century promised to offer cures for every ailment with patented and colorfully packaged pills. Yet here we are. What happened? We were duped. More importantly, so were all of the well-meaning doctors, nurses, medical technicians, and scientists. There is a cancer within what we now know of as modern medicine – eating away at the very heart of its original design. Rather than saving and healing humanity, this cancer seeks to destroy us from within.

While many medical discoveries and innovations over the past century have undoubtedly saved lives, there is a small group of shadowy elites scattered throughout the world who have been quietly plotting to control the world population by infiltrating and shaping every aspect of modern medicine for the purposes of imposing their own agendas. No institution is immune. Medical schools, foundations, organizations, companies and government programs all have succumbed to this sickness. In order to surgically remove the cancer within modern medicine, we must first dissect and diagnose it. This report seeks to analyze the agendas, as well as the notable individuals, families, institutions, organizations, foundations and government programs involved in shaping the world of medicine since the turn of the 20th century. Continue reading

Eight in 10 hospitals and pharmacists rationing drugs or delaying care because of crippling medicine shortages – including for cancer

Up to eight in 10 hospitals and pharmacists are rationing drugs or delaying appointments as they battle a crippling medicine shortage, a report suggests.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists surveyed more than 1,000 pharmacists and 99 percent said they were struggling to stock enough of the drugs they needed

A national survey published Thursday showed there were 309 ongoing drug shortages, the highest number in nearly 10 years. And just a few less than the all-time high of 320.

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a group that tracks US drug availability, surveyed more than 1,000 pharmacists and 99 percent said they were struggling to stock enough of the drugs they needed.

The group attributes the issue to limited investment in manufacturing capacity, subpar manufacturing quality and a breakdown in the supply chain, as well as extreme price competition among generic drug makers. Continue reading

Johnson & Johnson sues researchers who linked talc to cancer

(Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Johnson & Johnson has sued four doctors who published studies citing links between talc-based personal care products and cancer, escalating an attack on scientific studies that the company alleges are inaccurate.

J&J’s subsidiary LTL Management, which absorbed the company’s talc liability in a controversial 2021 spinoff, last week filed a lawsuit in New Jersey federal court asking it to force three researchers to “retract and/or issue a correction” of a study that said asbestos-contaminated consumer talc products sometimes caused patients to develop mesothelioma. Continue reading

Foreign Countries with Drug-Price Controls Ride for Free on U.S. Investment

A trainee pharmacy staff member puts in order medications on shelves at Monklands University Hospital in Airdrie, Scotland, March 7, 2022. (Andy Buchanan/Pool via Reuters)

European and other developed countries that have imposed drug-price controls are free-riding on the research and development (R&D) investment of the U.S. and a handful of other countries, a new study has found.

Stephen Ezell, vice president for global innovation policy at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, told National Review that while many countries around the world are willing to invest heavily in combatting climate change because they see it as an existential global threat, the same zeal falls away when it comes to public health and developing new, life-saving drugs.

Countries that have instituted drug-price controls do not pay market value. For example, the European countries pay around 30 percent less, said Ezell, adding that “historically it’s been the American consumer that bears the real cost of [these] innovative drugs.” Continue reading

The $80 Million in Health Care Fraud Exposed After Patient’s Suspicious Death

The death of a patient led to the end of a scam that robbed Medicare for years.

A chiropractor’s office stole from Medicare for years. Here’s how crimes like this affect you

It was a Friday afternoon and Debbie Dillinger was hoping for a pain-free weekend. Car accidents had left the 47-year-old mother of three with chronic neck pain and headaches, and to deal with it she was visiting Dolson Avenue Medical, a clinic in Middletown, New York.

Around 5 p.m., Dillinger swung through the glass front door of the office. She checked in at a curved reception desk in the clinic’s large, open treatment area, where patients lay on massage tables and exercised on a variety of equipment. Behind the desk, a floor-to-ceiling mural of a waterfall, trees and a soaring eagle set a serene tone. Continue reading

How BIG Pharma Is Price Gouging Cancer Patients

“Cancer patients – the majority of whom are on Medicare – can face annual out-of-pocket costs of more than $16,500.”

A cancer patient hugs his wife Mercy Fore River Campus in Portland, Maine on December 6, 2017. (Photo: Derek Davis/Getty Images)

Major pharmaceutical companies are profiting immensely from the second-leading cause of death in the United States by saddling cancer patients with tens of thousands of dollars in out-of-pocket costs, often forcing them to choose between treatment and other basic necessities.

But many people living with cancer in the U.S. will soon see long-overdue relief thanks to provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a law that the pharmaceutical industry lobbied aggressively against and is still fighting tooth and nail. Continue reading

Doctors and Hospitals Declare War on Patients

Originally published on this site on June 29, 2016. ~ Ed.

death by medWar is the right word meaning they are killing more patients each year than any war. Over the last ten years, the numbers add up to a minimum of 3.5 million dead and that is only if you count the way doctors count. If you count the way I count, by including doctor ignorance of what can prevent death, like magnesium does in heart disease, the numbers would be millions higher.

After heart disease and cancer, medical errors kill more Americans than anything else does, claiming a quarter of a million lives a year, according to a study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University the British Medical Journal reports. Add to this number over 100,000 that die from properly prescribed medicines and you can see how quickly we reach 3.5 million dead over the last decade. Continue reading

May 26, 2023: Your Health ~ YOUR Choice!

Warning signs of a heart attack a month before
A heart attack is a medical emergency in which the blood supply to the heart is suddenly blocked. Warning signs that occur a month beforehand could be chest discomfort, fatigue, and shortness of breath.

Every year, around 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack, or myocardial infarction, roughly one heart attack every 40 seconds.

Heart attacks have distinct symptoms, meaning people can seek emergency treatment immediately upon noticing them. However, while heart attacks occur suddenly, there may be signs ahead of a major cardiac event, such as chest discomfort.

Being aware of these heart attack warning signs can help people seek treatment quickly, improving the chance of a swift and full recovery… (Continue to full article)

Individuals with a long-term high tea consumption trajectory may have lower risk for all-cause mortality
In a recent study published in the Nutrition Journal, researchers investigated whether the protective effects of consuming tea against hypertension and mortality interact with alcohol intake among Chinese individuals.

Tea is an extensively consumed beverage across the globe. Recently published studies have reported the beneficial effects of consuming tea against various medical conditions, including hypertension, cardiovascular disorders, diabetes, stroke, heart attack, and mortality.

However, several factors, such as milk content, smoking habits, coffee intake, lifestyle, and gender, could lower the health benefits of consuming tea… (Continue to full article)

An apple a day really DOES keep the doctor away
Fruit linked with 20 per cent lower risk of becoming frail

Research suggests eating foods that contain certain dietary compounds – such as blackberries and apples – can lower your chances of becoming weak and delicate in older age.

Known as flavonols, these have been linked to a variety of health benefits, and are found in a range of fruit and vegetables… (Continue to full article)

Drug shortages reach ‘public health emergency levels’ across the US with cancer, heart disease and transplant patients all facing lottery for lifesaving meds

Drug shortages across the US have reached ’emergency’ levels, with cancer, heart disease and transplant patients facing a lottery to get hold of lifesaving meds.

Up to 300 drugs are currently in shortage nationwide, according to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which is a five-year high.

They include everything from chemotherapy and antibiotics to a sterile fluid used to stop the heart in bypass operations and an antidote to lead poisoning… (Continue to full article)

Drug overdoses now killing the equivalent of a classroom of high schoolers EVERY WEEK – and nine out of 10 are fentanyl
Deadly fentanyl is killing the equivalent of an entire classroom of children every week, staggering figures show.

Fentanyl, a highly potent synthetic opioid that’s 100 times stronger than morphine, is ravaging America’s youth.

A recent study found that fentanyl was responsible for the death of 1,557 children in 2021 — the equivalent of 30 children every week… (Continue to full article)

Does ADHD even EXIST?
It has a huge and powerful lobby which turns with fury on its critics so I know this question will get me into loads of trouble but…

In online consultations, staff had diagnosed a BBC reporter with ADHD — attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — despite an in-person, and far longer, assessment by an NHS psychiatrist concluding that he didn’t have the condition.

The clinics, while charging rather plump fees, seemed to have an extremely relaxed attitude towards diagnosing this increasingly common complaint.

It is a huge issue. ADHD was once mainly confined to children but is now spreading rapidly into the adult populations of the Western world.

The clinics, one of them working on behalf of the overloaded NHS, were also willing to prescribe powerful stimulant drugs on the basis of this… (Continue to full article)

BIG Pharma

Big Pharma Uses Fuzzy Math to Discredit Discount Drug Program
When it comes to 340B, a program granting cheaper medicines to nonprofit healthcare patients, drug industry innumeracy is only rivaled by its greed.

The recent wave of articles on the 340B Drug Pricing Program’s supposedly “out-of-control” growth relies on faulty comparisons and fuzzy math. News reports and opinion columns often cite misleading statistics from 340B opponents.

Drug makers have the entire commercial insurance and federal entitlement drug markets to reap massive profits. Yet the drug industry remains unsatisfied with less-than-outrageous profits for a small slice of prescription drug sales… (Continue to full article)

Letter to the Editor: Cancer Treatment Should Be Better Prioritized

What follows below was published on May 10, 2023 in our local-weekly, community newspaper, the West Valley View. As regular readers to Dr. Kelley’s site, and to our Wednesday evening broadcast – many of you will agree with what the author has to say – but there are certain aspects that we will disagree with – one of which deals with her guidance and expectation for CON-gress to commit to what she is suggesting – and hoping for. BIG Pharma buys these elected officials off – hence – her wishes shall not come to pass. It is among our greatest concerns. ~ Ed.

Editor:
As an oncology nurse, I see patients every day who are dealing with various forms of cancer.

We should be doing everything we can to support medical research and drug development so that no family has to face heartbreaking decisions.

Recently, more price-setting policies have been included in President Biden’s health care priorities package. I worry that these additional measures could deprive patients of access to future cancer medicines and hope for a healthier, more comfortable future. Instead, I hope Congress focuses their efforts on one of the biggest headaches for many patients dealing with health issues – pharmacy benefit managers (PBM’s). Prescription drugs play a large role in oncology because many forms of cancer are treated with a combination of medications and care. Continue reading

Sanders Grills Big Pharma CEOs Over Years of Deadly Price Gouging

“We want to know why there are Americans who are dying, or are becoming much sicker than they should, because they can’t afford the medicine they need.”

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Wednesday paid his respects to the victims of insulin price gouging in front of the Big Pharma CEOs who are responsible and reiterated the need to make all lifesaving prescription drugs affordable.

Sanders (I-Vt.), chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP), opened the panel’s hearing by acknowledging “the many Americans who have needlessly lost their lives because of the unaffordability of insulin” and “the thousands who wound up in emergency rooms and hospitals suffering from diabetic ketoacidosis – a very serious medical condition as a result of rationing their insulin.”

“This is a problem that is unique to the United States.”
Continue reading

America’s Broken Health Care: Diagnosis and Prescription

The following is adapted from a talk delivered at Hillsdale College on March 5, 2023, during a Center for Constructive Alternatives conference on “Big Pharma.”

I developed a serious cardiac arrhythmia, ventricular tachycardia, seven years ago. It worsened over the past summer and early fall, and over the past six weeks I’ve had several ambulance rides and hospitalizations. And my experience through this illustrates the good side as well as the bad side of medicine today.

On the good side, I was fortunate to have the attention of two world-class doctors who spent six hours, one going inside my heart, the other coming through my chest wall to the outside of my heart, to map electrically the aberrant signals in my heart and to ablate them. Since then, I’ve not had a problem. Continue reading