Obamacare's first catastrophe: drug shortages

Obamacare’s first catastrophe: Drug shortages

 

Prescription drug shortages have become evident throughout the country, in every major pharmaceutical category, over the last two years. Concurrent with the initiation of Obamacare Hospitals and clinics have reported major scarcities in an array of drugs, which is presently reaching a critical point. People who are victims of cancer have found that needed chemotherapies have dwindled to a point where they are unavailable in many locales. One report noted that drugs for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma are becoming so scarce physicians are forced to withhold therapies from some. Emergency medical teams, in many jurisdictions, have resorted to using outdated drugs for lack of availability of a fresh supply.  Intensive care units are are unable to obtain there full complement of cardiology therapies from manufacturers. Pediatric vaccines are not finding their way into physicians’ offices to fulfill demand. Deficits in anesthetic supplies have delayed many surgeries. The dearth of injectable drugs is the most profound of the scarcities. Some pharmaceutical representatives state that manufacturing capacity has been reduced do to permanent facility closings and or to address quality issues in these production centers. Others note raw materials are not in abundant supply. In January 2013 many have gone to their local pharmacies to find price increases in their usual medications, some as high as 400 percent. Those in the know believe the heavy hand of government has triggered these shortages. FDA officials have been oppressive in their enforcement efforts against pharmaceutical manufacturers causing plants to bring production to a virtual standstill or even close. New financial burdens created by Obamacare and the slow thinkers in Washington have made the end-product, medications, much less profitable to produce. With less profit there will be reduced availability of a product or service, basic capitalism 101, something the creators of Obamacare forgot. Government officials claim they are trying to reduce the burden on manufacturers with easing up on some regulations, better communications with suppliers, quickening the pace of certain drug approvals and attempting to provide a cooperative effort between regulators and the private sector. In the event you live in the Obama fantasy world and accept the government’s explanation for the shortages so be it. Democrats have been pointing their fingers in a number of directions to blame anyone but themselves for these shortages. With the full implementation of Obamacare eleven months in the future, the problems embedded in this article will become more intense as the months move forward. Death is too high a price to pay for the President’s experiment in socialized medicine. Unfortunately, it is very likely that many will perish from the lack therapies available, the very promise made by the President would not happen under his ill-conceived health program. Mark Davis, MD, platomd@gmail.com www.healthnetsreviewservices.com

Author of the forthcoming book, Obamacare: Dead on Arrival, A Presciption for Disaster.

Wind energy: Maryland's next fiasco

Wind energy: Maryland’s next fiasco

 

Governor O’Malley is hot to dump hundreds of millions into wind technologies, which are neither perfected nor economical. His green agenda will only generate red in the event the state of Maryland moves forward with this folly. The proposed project entails building floating wind generating stations miles off the coast of Ocean City Maryland. Estimates from O’Malley’s crack team of experts believe this project would eventually extract up to 200 megawatts of power from the wind when these devices are fully functional. Wind energy is unreliable, costs to generate one megawatt of power are staggering and the infrastructure to get such a leviathan project off the ground will cost billions not hundreds of millions as suggested by the Governor. The best manner in which to view this project: think of a Solyndra on steroids. There exists an enormous bulk of literature on wind technologies displaying its impracticality for use in large populated areas. Maryland’s Executive branch is selling this folly to the State legislature and the General Public with creative accounting techniques. Ratepayers will be requested to fork out an estimated $1.50 per month, if you can suspend disbelief while you consider this number. Cost overruns by projects proposed and implemented by Democrats are not uncommon. The Big Dig, a highway/tunnel project in Boston was originally budgeted at approximately 2.8 billion. When the project was finally completed, ten years later than expected, its price tag was 15 billion dollars. A complicated series of unforeseen events triggered this project’s elevated costs and time delays including; very poor workmanship, unions and their selective work rules, double and triple overtime payments, poor quality materials, constant political interference, design flaws, deaths due to accidents and much more. Maryland’s ill-conceived wind project will have many of the same problems, which will intrinsically have its own set of cost overruns and time delays. The proposed legislation will have new entitlements for the Afro-American community, which include allowing minority investors to selectively buy into this project. Additionally, the plan provides a 10 million dollar fund to assist minority businesses so they can participate in supply chain economics of this horrifically conceived project. Many more questions arise than can be answered here. Who will get these jobs? Is the selective minority funding constitutional? Who will be accountable when the costs for this proposed project run into the billions? Who will benefit from Maryland’s newest proposed disaster: state workers and companies or out of state entities? In the event there is any sanity left in the Maryland State Legislature they should vote this tragedy down. Maryland does not need its own Solyndra, we have had too many already. Mark Davis MD, platomd@gmail.com, www.healthnetsreviewservices.com

Wind energy: Maryland's next fiasco

Wind energy: Maryland's next fiasco

Criminalizing self-defense: Obama's answer to a tragedy

Criminalizing self-defense: Obama’s answer to a tragedy

 

Fifteen different sources provide fifteen different answers for the number of people taking psychotropic drugs. Stating that 100 million prescriptions for these medications are written yearly may be underestimating the true number. President Obama proposes to check the psychiatric history of all potential gun purchasers.  Since 20% of the nation’s population takes psychotropic drugs, will their psychiatric histories become public record? In Obama’s universe as well as Andrew Cuomo’s the answer is a definite yes. In the event you do not reveal your psychological profile to a government official, will you be subject to felony charges and jail time, it seems so. The true nature of the government’s push for electronic medical records is now being fully realized. Along with this intrusion into one’s personal life other schemes have been put forth to make the average citizen a criminal in his own home. Gun magazines will be limited to a certain number of bullets, depending on the jurisdiction in which the gun owner lives.  One extra bullet and the perpetrator can be dragged into the criminal system. It seems the President and his liberal allies around the country have decided to limit law-abiding citizens’ ownership of weapons, bypassing Constitutional mandate. They have restricted weapons and ammo in the belief that other Newtown massacres will be stopped. Yesterday Obama revealed his 23 Executive edicts to control gun ownership with a call for even more legislation. Surrounding himself with children to make his point, he issued his latest set of commandments utilizing his usual demagogic style. Heightened emotions on gun control have reached a crescendo as two Congressmen have called for Impeachment of the President. With a Republican majority in the House, this threat may have legs.  Government officials in Texas state they will arrest any federal official attempting to enforce the President’s edicts. Critical to Andrew Cuomo’s and the President’s actions are the means to which they are attempting to stop gun violence. Unfortunately, they will not make a dent. Antithetically, more violence may erupt when the good-guys are denuded of their weapons. George Mason, the co-author of the 2^nd Amendment stated, “To disarm the people is the most effectual way to enslave them.” His analysis was correct over two centuries ago and is absolutely correct today. Perhaps disarming the public was Obama’s intent from the beginning of his reign. The next several weeks may shape gun ownership rights for decades to come. Mark Davis MD, www.healthnetsreviewservices.com

platomd@gmail.com

Obama's choice: Democracy or Tyranny

Obama’s choice: Democracy or Tyranny

 

President Obama believes managing America’s economic and social affairs by autocratic rule is an acceptable means to achieve his vision for the nation. Bypassing the Congress to move his agenda along, utilizing Executive edict, is his weapon of choice. In a few days his second term will start, which hints that even more controls to our lifestyles will be forced on us, with his lone signature to enforce the mandates. The range of detriments that Obama can cause by tyrannical orders from the Oval Office is nearly inconceivable. The first of many Executive Orders will be coming shortly as he begins his march towards a gun free America. Using Vice President Biden’s gun control committee as a front, the President will attempt to stifle gun ownership on several levels. The most potent enforcement presently being floated in the media is to inhibit the sale of ammo. An outright ban would be too noxious to the public, so he will perform this miracle in steps. All ammo purchases would have to be reported to a central authority, perhaps a national data bank similar to the one used against physicians. Once this is in place, licenses will be required to purchase ammo with restrictive regulatory structure to keep sales to a minimum. The assault weapon ban will be front and center in Biden’s recommendations, leaving only government entities with these munitions. Finally, national licenses for handguns requiring psychological profiling before purchase will become a reality. Congress and the Constitution are inconveniences to a man who wants to run a one-man show. Many legal issues will arise by Obama’s crude attempts at self-rule.  Though the Second Amendment will be at the forefront of these challenges, an array of legal precedents will come into play. These precedents include established intrastate commerce laws, states’ rights issues, civil rights concerns and prior Supreme Court decisions. In a case that drew national attention, District of Columbia versus Heller, the Supreme Court upheld the right to handgun ownership in its 2008 decision. Though this case only affected District of Columbia residents, in McDonald versus Chicago, the Supreme Court noted in 2010 that the Second Amendment applies to all the states by virtue of the Due Process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.  Rumor has it that Obama was a Constitutional Lawyer for a brief period in his life, yet he must have missed the chapters on the Second and Fourteenth Amendments in his studies. Implicit in President Obama’s reign over the last 4 years is the assumption that he knows better what is good for the nation than the Congress and the population that put them into power. Obama’s Machiavellian approach to rule comes with a price, the limitation of democratic principles. When this occurs, the horrific scent of tyranny pervades the environment in which it was created. A near hysteria has been generated by Obama’s potential use of Executive Order to control gun ownership. His authoritarian approach will fail, but at what cost to the Republic. Perhaps someone in his Administration or the Congress will explain to him that we are still a representative government and not a dictatorship, so far that message has not gotten through to his mind. Mark Davis MD, www.healthnetsreviewservices.com

platomd@gmail.com

Obama's choice: Democracy or Tyranny

Obama's choice: Democracy or Tyranny

Confiscation fever: is there a cure

Confiscation fever: is there a cure

 

Government’s intent to remove guns from all homes is moving along as scheduled. Utilizing the horrific tragedy in Newtown Connecticut as a focal point, politicians have decided that law-abiding citizens not psychos are the reason this massacre occurred. Sweeping gun legislation has been proposed at the federal level and in certain high crime states such as New York and Maryland. In Maryland a panel created by Governor Martin O’Malley has suggested that psychologically unstable people should have their guns seized. To foster such a plan the onus of reporting these people will fall on physicians, psychologists, educators and others who have contact with the potentially disturbed in society. Does this group include those on psychoactive drugs? If so, then upwards of 25% of the Maryland State population would be considered amongst this group. These people include political elites, those who reign in the judicial system, media royalty and more. Will exemptions be available for these special groups, knowing the liberal mind, of course. New York’s Governor Cuomo, looking for similar fame, has his own agenda on gun ownership. He is not interested if people have the ability to protect themselves in their own homes. Cuomo is now negotiating with New York’s legislators to make gun ownership and or retention of guns so difficult that it would not be worth the effort to hold or retain a weapon. Forget to recertify your weapon in New York could be a felony offense, if the liberals get their way. Obama is moving fast to beat the liberal Governors of New York and Maryland to the finish line by considering an Executive Order to limit gun ownership. The intellectually endowed Vice President’s gun control panel has leaked some of their potential suggestions to the media. A national database for gun owners may be in the future. Background checks to purchase ammo may be in the offerings. Federal recertification of weapon ownership could be a potential requirement. The ultimate aim is to remove as many guns from private hands as possible. Will Obama institute waivers for the elites as he did with Obamacare? This is a real possibility because politicians, media types, sport figures, Hollywood insiders and more have a special place in Obama’s cold heart and own weapons. Gun owners should be prepared for the oncoming, politically driven assault, on their weapons. Would the present plans on the table have prevented Newtown Connecticut’s massacre, sadly no. Proposed gun legislation will contribute to more of the innocent being shot in their own homes without the ability to defend themselves.  Where is the legal profession on this issue? They have been very silent, perhaps because they could ultimately find a means to profit from the liberals’ schemes to control guns and ammo. Where does this leave the general-public, victimized for the nth time by an overreaching government. Mark Davis MD, www.healthnetsreviewservices.com

Sell Out: Congress takes a dive for Obama

Sell Out: Congress takes a dive for Obama

 

America’s fiscal climate took a turn for the worse last evening as the Congress took a dive for Obama’s team. In a vote that will be remembered for a long time the House of Representatives agreed to plunge the nation further into debt. With a vote of 89 to 8 in the Senate and 257 to 167 in the House, Congress forestalled financial Armageddon for another few months. Automatic spending cuts will be delayed in exchange for more taxes on the rich starting with a threshold income of $400,000, changes in the alternative minimum tax, increased levies on capital gains, extension of the present estate tax and increased payroll taxes. This hodge-podge of tax code changes will not be matched by any major spending cuts, which are needed to offset even more government driven debt. Republican led House laid down their armaments and surrendered to the President’s continued crusade for higher taxes on the wealthy. Paradoxically, the wealthy will take a minor hit from Obama’s new tax legislation. Middle class working families will bear the brunt of  tax code changes. Worse, estimates are that 77% of all taxpayers will feel the pinch in some manner or form. As usual Obama provided pork for his supporters and the Republicans were more than happy to accommodate him. Hollywood was given an extension for special expensing rules for certain television and movie productions. There are extensions of tax gimmicks to help rum producers succeed in global markets. Algae and asparagus growers will be dished out unique tax exemptions to keep these products in the pipeline. Motor race track owners received a piece of the pie by being allowed to deduct numerous expenses related to these facilities. Electric scooter owners will be provided reductions in their taxes as part of a green energy program. Other tax abatements and extensions are detailed in this 157 page legislation, the latter are a taste of monetary maneuvers to come. Democrats who thought they would escape Obama’s financial hammer were demagogued into believing the World will be better off with him in the White House. Perhaps they are having second thoughts. Speaker Boehner, Majority leader Reid and other members of this so-called Congressional leadership were leaderless in attempting to stem the red ink now flooding the streets of America. The President displayed a profound concern for the American Public by leaving Washington without signing this newest legislative tragedy. Those who would consider starting a third party, this may be the right time because the other two have failed us. Mark Davis MD, www.healthnetsreviewservices.com platomd@gmail.com

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