Posted on 03/17/2017 6:25:34 AM PDT by kevcol
Democratic lawmakers introduced a proposal to place a fee on opioid prescriptions with the revenue going to combat rampant painkiller and heroin addiction across the U.S.
Sen. Chris Murphy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, a state hit hard by increases in drug overdoses, are calling for a one-cent per-milligram tax to be added to prescriptions for opiate-based painkillers.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailycallernewsfoundation.org ...
You’re absolutely right. Over the last couple of decades, it’s been more and more difficult for honest, caring doctors to be able to provide relief to people with chronic pain (due to Crohns disease, degenerative disc disease, and severe arthritis, I understand both chronic and acute pain.)
Many doctors have been forced to strictly limit how much pain medication they will give to their patients, because they’re afraid of the government.
Unfortunately, it seems that some of the worst offenders of prescribing opioids “like candy” are the doctors at the VA. It seem that for many of them, they took Obama’s advice, “rather than having that surgery, just take a pill.”
Mark
I guess it would be okay to laugh at the idiots in CT that keep voting these dopes back in office, over and over again.
Is there any situation where they don’t think a tax will solve the problem?
One other side is, sick people in unrelieved torture who can't get adequate opioids to control the pain.
I doctor I know who was aware of the problem told me, with some anger, "I have never seen 'intractable pain' but I HAVE seen intractable doctors and nurses."
It's failure in modern pain management that drives up the sickening demand for physician-assisted suicide. People deeply fear a future of severe chronic pain.
We would be better off taxing the pension payments of retired educators at 50% for the damage they have done to the multiple generations of now idiot graduated students. To all who think this is a good idea - WTF ? When did taxing for social engineering become a conservative or constitutional positive belief system here? Seems like we are seeing more big government wolfs in conservative costumes of late. Mind boggling.
I saw an old Mexican movie in which the government finds a way to TAX THE AIR people breathed.
They put a tax on windows and doors.
People simply bricked up the windows and doors except for one, to go in and out of.
How typical, tax addicted people. Rats.
Yeah, that’ll work!
So by all means, let’s raise taxes on the elderly and their fixed incomes.
Once again the idiot Democrats create multiple unintended consequences by not thinking their “brilliant idea” all the way through.
This is why I don’t vote Democrat.
Idiots
I propose that any Senator or Rep proposing a new tax on the citizens be required to retire 5 taxes of equal or greater value already on the books.
I think Doctors are better qualified to make these assessments. Thay should also be responsible for follow up care
1. Tort reform. 2. Pay doctors for their performance. If they achieve better metrics they get better reimbursement. 3. Exclude non-compliant patients from metric 2. 4. Free market healthcare..:reduce nonsense metrics currently in force by the federal government. 5. Across state line insurance. 6. Insurance is just that insurance. Forbid payment of routine medical care and check ups from routine insurance policy. 7. Physicians need to increase accountability by proposing what should be measured in terms of pay for performance. 8. Patient accountability — like physician — if you don’t take care of yourself your insurance costs go up and can’t be shifted to others. These are eight suggestions that took about 15 seconds to consider. Other questions?
“1. Tort reform ...”
Great reply! Good ideas. What can we do to get politicians to adopt some of the ideas?
Do you think the healthcare industry, through money handouts, unduly influences the politicians?
Why can’t voters see the importance of medical cost reduction? Maybe the question is why do politicians never talk about it?
Because doctors have abdicated the profession to those who don’t practice medicine. Shame on us! We were too busy running around trying to enrich our bank accounts instead of taking care of our profession. The hospitals are now run by administrators who have never taken care of a patient. They think that medicine is like any other buskness which makes widgets. Not true! We expect our care to be cutting edge without bad outcomes and not to pay for it. We need to get the nonclinical people out of running the business. i have no idea how I get the politicians to listen. They gain from the system as is. Lots of power...not sure the incentive to change it for them. Unless we threaten the politicians with their jobs for not representing us.
“Unless we threaten the politicians with their jobs for not representing us.”
Actually, that’s exactly the way America is intended to work.
I’m not totally cynical about this. As other posters say, people really really want guaranteed health care.
The solution possibly is to make the case to voters that the cheaper healthcare is, the more available it will be.
It’s a two-front battle: how much it costs and who pays.
Sen. Chris Murphy and Sen. Richard Blumenthal from Connecticut, a state hit hard by increases in drug overdoses, are calling for a one-cent per-milligram tax to be added to prescriptions for opiate-based painkillers.
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$15 tax per month for me. 150, 10 Mg. per month. My co pay for one month is only $5.
Please oh please Smuckey Schumer may I cut my Toe Nails without being taxed?
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