Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Pfizer: 4th Fine Against Drug Company since 2002

I don't get why some people think that government supervised Health Care is automatically bad, and Private (for Profit) Health Care is automatically good.
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I think it would be nice to have a reasonable discussion of the pros and cons of different Health Care plans. But lets start honestly. Government does screw up, but does do somethings well. We have a "universal" highway system that works. A "universal" air traffic control system that usually works. A "universal" protection system (the armed forces) that works great AND uses government health care. Which we believe is the best health care we can give our armed forces.
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As for private companies, like the government they can be rife with dishonesty, corruption and graft. For example:
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Last week Pfzier (one of the great free market companies keeping the government out of Health Care) agreed to a $2.3 Billion settlement and to plead guilty to civil and criminal charges that it illegally promoted a pain killer drug.
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But we should keep government out of Health Care and trust them.
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Okay, maybe Pfzier (and it's 4 settlements and fines paid out since 2002) is an aberration.
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No that wont' work.. in June Eli lilly agreed: " Eli Lilly & Co. urged doctors to prescribe Zyprexa for elderly patients with dementia, an unapproved use for the antipsy chotic, even though the drugmaker had evidence the medicine didn't work for such patients, according to unsealed internal company documents. "
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.They haven't been fined since 2003 when they;
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"Anglo-Swedish drug giant AstraZeneca has agreed to pay $354.9m to settle charges it defrauded the US healthcare system.

The company admitted giving free samples of cancer drugs to doctors, who then billed Medicare for the full price.

The scheme which ran between 1993 and 1996 was designed to get oncologists accustomed to prescribing AstraZeneca's prostate cancer drug Zoladex."
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Well maybe our current insurance giants will save us from government run health care. Groups like HealthNet, Blue Cross Blue Shield and Kaiser. This companies have our best interest in mind whenever giving us recommendations....
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Anthem Blue Cross, the state's largest for-profit health insurer, has agreed to pay a $1-million fine and offer new coverage -- no questions asked -- to 2,330 people it dropped after they submitted bills for expensive medical care.

As part of a deal that the California Department of Insurance is set to announce today, Anthem also will offer to reimburse those people for medical expenses that they paid out of pocket after they were dropped. The company, a subsidiary of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc., estimated that those reimbursements could reach $14 million.

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From the LA Times Re: HealthNet. May of 2009.
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Health Net Settles With California Hospitals in Policy Rescission Suit

Health Net has agreed to pay about $1.95 million to California hospitals to settle claims related to the rescission of patients' individual insurance policies, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal reports.

The California Hospital Association organized the class-action lawsuit, which relates to Health Net's decision to revoke policies between February 2004 and October 2007.

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Okay, May Kaiser, they have been cleanish since 2007 (LA Times re: Kaiser):..

State fines Kaiser again - The HMO's second such penalty in a year targets its handling of patient complaints at nine hospitals.

By Tracy Weber, Times Staff Writers and Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writers
July 26, 2007

Kaiser Permanente will be assessed a record fine today for its haphazard investigations of questionable care, physician performance and patient complaints at its California hospitals, according to state HMO regulators.

The California Department of Managed Health Care said it will levy a $3-million fine against Kaiser, the largest HMO in the state, with 29 medical centers and more than 6 million members

Somehow I would like to move to a reasonable discussion with Americans on how we can fix all this, and not keep screaming at each other. And no, I don't want to kill Trig Palin.

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