Dear Mr. President,
Do the right thing.
Set a precedence.
If no one can - YES, YOU CAN!
Yet again, pharmaceutical industries are taking advantage of people’s suffering. Their behavior is CRIMINAL.
You know, when a CEO of a pharmaceutical company raises her income from $2 some million to almost $19 million a year on the back of sick and struggling people - you know something is WRONG!
You know, that selling a life saving drug for $600 when the actual cost is $1 - is WRONG and CRIMINAL!
Correct the WRONG with one executive order, punish the human vultures and don’t let this to be the norm in this country yet again and again and again!
Help the american people who have difficulties to pay all their bills already.
Help the people, who need your help!
I have supported you twice to get you elected. Get it right before your term is up. Make it your legacy.
Open Letter to President Barack Obama
I have been recently put to the same "bag" of parents whose kids have food allergies and are dependent on life-saving always-to-carry-with-me EPIPEN. Couple of days ago I just about had a heart attack when they told us the price at the pharmacy - $600 with an insurance!!!
I immediately started a research whether this life saving drug could really cost that much. I am from Europe, from Czech Republic and I looked up the same drug over there. My findings are here at this summary:
EPIPEN = Epinephrine = Adrenalin (no new rocket science, well established and known drug for centuries)
The retail cost in USA: $800 and more
With insurance: $600
Coupon: max. $100 off ( and they think one is supposed to jump and be happy and gracious about this...)
Retail cost of the medicine itself if bought as a vial: $4
Syringe cost: $1 (But you need a medical training to prepare and administer properly.)
The retail cost in EU: $50
Insurance pays : $35
Max. out of pocket for a patient: $15
Estimated wholesale cost:$25
Estimated manufacturing cost: probably less than $15 ($1 to be exact) for a plastic carrier with self injecting needle that was designed long time ago with tax dollars .
How could anyone get away with this in this country?! What is the law for if it enables this? What are the lawmakers for if they silently approve of this? Where are the anti-monopoly and anti cartel laws?! What is the government for?! What is the president for if he can not protect people from human vultures and human hyenas with a single executive order of his or his courts and make responsible people PAY for their immoral and disgusting behavior?! Does anyone know what MORAL means anymore?!
Meaningless to say how I felt after finding out how we are being robbed under the clear sky and bright sun! And I know this is only a tip of an iceberg - just ONE of many drugs that are SO overpriced just because they can! - this is true for diabetic patients who depend on insulin, this is same for asthma patients depending on their nebuliser (the retail cost in other countries around the world is $1.75 , $$$ hundreds in USA...etc. etc. etc).
I BLAME two groups - first - the actual companies who produce these drugs and set the prices here in US. I was trying to imagine the meeting room where they meet and talk and decide to set the price 500%-and up% higher than the actual cost. How come there is not at least one person in that room that does not actually suffocate from his own vomit?!?!?!
The other group - is of course - the government - YOU. You are to blame equally because YOU allowed the legislation to rob us, and are potentially killing us - I am not exaggerating. This is criminal and YOU as a government are part of the problem. This is in a sense a genocide of its own people in the USA!!!
I (and the Congress should) demand an IMMEDIATE action to STOP this vulturous behavior of ALL pharmaceutical companies on the US soil.
You know very well, that the same companies over in EU are not allowed to charge these outrages prices. I am not just fighting for a damn EPIPEN here at the moment and the millions of people whose life depends on it, but for a principal.
This is a principal fight.
People should not have to fight over and over again for what should be their basic rights and basic needs as is in all rest of the civilized world. You know something is wrong with the system, if you can not escape one week without some kind of a fundraiser for this or for that...all for good causes - but it just shows how the system is dis-functional.
If this is not going to get solved here in America, then America needs to be exposed to the International Justice.
And I only say this because there have been millions of activists before me - and still - NOTHING EVER CHANGES!!! Michael Moore made movies about this - and nothing happens, lawyers with a heart in the right place are working hard to get back on track a common sense - and nothing happens, activists are fighting - and nothing happens! We are still where we were decades ago - and in many cases probably worse. The monopolies are growing stronger and justice is getting weaker.
There are articles about this issue left and right these days - but they all ONLY state the problem. None of them offers any solution, correction or hope! I know there is to be an investigation on this issue - but my question is - WHAT IS TO INVESTIGATE?! Why spend and waste any time and money on some kind of investigation when the merit is so clear? The cost of the drug is $1 since the 1970's and the surges in prices are nothing but CRIMINAL on all fronts!
I also demand and believe it would be only fair that everybody who was forced to buy these drugs under these prices will be compensated back minus the actual production cost.
We have been robbed and we demand our money back and fair JUSTICE.
People who create these prices AND laws - belong to jail. Period.
I grew up in a communist country, in Prague, Czechoslovakia back then, where one was absolutely powerless and could not fight the system. Now I feel exactly the same here - unless YOU - as a president/government take an immediate action and correct the WRONG. You can do it with one directive and punish those people who are SO immoral and wrong.
Mr. President,
Do the right thing.
Set a precedence.
If no one can - YES, YOU CAN!
Andrea Regnier
concerned and outraged mother with million others...