The House bill has a death sentence for patients with AIDS, breast cancer, and other serious illness

[joeycola]

On Thu, Nov 5, 2009 at 12:26 PM, Jane Hamsher, Public Option Please <[e-mail]> wrote:

Dear xxxxx,

The health care bill in the House of Representatives has a death sentence for patients with AIDS, breast cancer, and other serious illnesses.

Members of Congress owned by PhRMA - the lobbying arm of the pharmaceutical industry - pushed for a dangerous provision about "biologics" drugs that will make it virtually impossible for patients to have access to affordable medication.

We can't fix it before the House passes its bill this weekend, but we can make sure it's fixed in the Senate bill.

Sign our petition to key Senators now: make generic drugs available for patients and stop protecting the pharmaceutical industry's profits.


http://publicoptionplease.com/biologics/petition/

Click here to add your name: http://publicoptionplease.com/biologics/petition/

Several members of Congress - like Rep. Anna Eshoo and Sen. Kay Hagan, both Democrats - want to make sure people with serious medical conditions don't ever have access to affordable medication that can save their lives.

Diseases like AIDS, breast cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and Crohn's disease all require advanced, expensive medication that most people can't afford. Biologics cost on average 22 times more than other medicines. For example, Herceptin for breast cancer costs $48,000 per patient per year, and Humira, used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease, costs about $50,000 annually.

But we can turn this around. Democratic Senators Chuck Schumer, Sherrod Brown, and Debbie Stabenow and Republican Senators Susan Collins and David Vitter all agree on a fix that would make generic drugs more accessible.

We need these senators to offer their plan. Sign our petition asking these senators to introduce their amendment to make generic drugs available.
We can't let PhRMA and the members of Congress they've bought off hijack the health care bill and potentially kill patients in the process. Please join us in the fight for generic drugs in health care reform.

Thanks so much.

Jane Hamsher

[BrklynLiberal]

1. kick

[Blue_Roses]

2. "stop the damn bickering and DO SOMETHING..."

I couldn't help myself when I added that comment :argh: I'm so sick of this shit! My kids depend on generic drugs because they fall through the cracks otherwise. We don't qualify for CHIPS and my husband's health insurance is too high to afford.

I just don't get it! :argh:

[LovinLife]

3. Is this true? If so, wow. Something really needs to be done about it. nt