It Costs Too Much To Stay Healthy
I am continually amazed at what the pharmaceutical companies are getting away with, which costs each and every one of us more and more money for health insurance. "Back in the day" when I was a young punk kid just starting out in radio at the age of eighteen, I really couldn't care less about health insurance. My first job in radio paid $1.90 an hour, but at that age in 1970) to have a full-time job doing something I loved, I still felt like a King!
Since leaving my less than lucrative job at a radio station in Northern California this past March, my wife and I are currently on the "COBRA Plan". At least we get good health insurance. But it does come with a price. The middle of this month, we received word from our COBRA provider that our premiums were increasing. At the time we were shelling out $750.00 and some odd cents a month for really good coverage. Expensive? You bet. Money that's easy to come by? Nope. The increase was an astonishing amount that now takes our premium price to $922.00 a month. Or on yearly terms, that comes to a whopping $11,064 a year! The last time there was a price increase, I was still working. Come the end of the year, after 52 weeks of busting tail for "the man", I asked for a raise. I had been a great employee. But after a pat on the back from my supervisor, I entered the office of the general manager and found that my extra efforts and hard work yielded a whopping two per cent raise.
Yes, I have to admit I worked in a smaller radio market (ranked number 199 in Arbitron's ratings directory). But shouldn't loyalty, hard work, picking up projects people dropped and finishing them myself without blowing my horn bring in a little more than $6.00 a week after taxes??? Unbelievable! A six dollar a week raise. That's just over a dollar a day. That's fifteen cents an hour for someone that has twenty-five years of radio experience under his belt. What the hell am I gonna do with this windfall??
Now, this is where the real injustice comes in. Pharmaceutical companies are literally gouging the public with prices that are unjust and unfair. Sure, I'll stomp my feet and say "unfair", knowing well and good that life itself isn't fair. But this cash raking drug company profiteering, especially along the elderly patient line, has to stop. Do you morons know that elderly people have a tremendously difficult time getting the medicines they need because YOU have a private jet? There MUST be some kind of regulation to make them stutter a little bit when crying about the cost of research and development. Sorry Squibb...I'm sure your R&D isn't costing you THAT much.
The quagmire that is life these days MUST see some progressive movement in the House and Senate to stop these rediculous increases and put forth an honest working drug plan, especially for the seniors who have gone before us. After all, "The Greatest Generation's" rewards for defeating the Nazi's shouldn't be a poke in the eye with a sharp tongue depressor? My Dad fought at Normandy and was among the first to charge the beaches of France to help liberate the world from the grips of Hitler. Now the Pharmaceutical Nazi's are changing the way we can stay afloat and still get the health care that's needed.
I call on our Representatives in the State and Federal Government to get the drug lobbyists to stop the pressure of our elected officials and work fairly to make sure that American's are taken care of for the rest of their lives. Don't wanna do anything about the prices here in America? Then let us legally and watchfully be able to import our needed prescriptions from Canada. Until you come to the realization that the citizens of this Country depend on your fairness and honesty, we remain nearly tapped out in the wallet with, in some cases, barely enough to eat.
And with the current affairs of our inept President and his band of pocket stuffing Bozos, it's no wonder the rest of my fellow Patriotic citizens are leaning on Prozac, Effexor and Valium to help us hide in the fog till you're gone.
Get real! This IS a country founded on freedom, on fairness and the ability to look after all citizens to make sure that everybody gets what they need at a fair price.
I have no numbers and no proof right now, but I'd be willing to bet a month's worth of Neurontin that those of you in the "higher power" can do something if you want to.
The problem is, the President is too busy shoving the Constitution of The United States of America through the Congressional paper shredder while you stand by amused. You are an embarassment to the human condition and should be burned and hung above a bridge like the poor contractors you greedy infidels sent to Iraq, knowing well, the only reason for this war was profiteering.
Respectfully and in disgust,
Swanny
Since leaving my less than lucrative job at a radio station in Northern California this past March, my wife and I are currently on the "COBRA Plan". At least we get good health insurance. But it does come with a price. The middle of this month, we received word from our COBRA provider that our premiums were increasing. At the time we were shelling out $750.00 and some odd cents a month for really good coverage. Expensive? You bet. Money that's easy to come by? Nope. The increase was an astonishing amount that now takes our premium price to $922.00 a month. Or on yearly terms, that comes to a whopping $11,064 a year! The last time there was a price increase, I was still working. Come the end of the year, after 52 weeks of busting tail for "the man", I asked for a raise. I had been a great employee. But after a pat on the back from my supervisor, I entered the office of the general manager and found that my extra efforts and hard work yielded a whopping two per cent raise.
Yes, I have to admit I worked in a smaller radio market (ranked number 199 in Arbitron's ratings directory). But shouldn't loyalty, hard work, picking up projects people dropped and finishing them myself without blowing my horn bring in a little more than $6.00 a week after taxes??? Unbelievable! A six dollar a week raise. That's just over a dollar a day. That's fifteen cents an hour for someone that has twenty-five years of radio experience under his belt. What the hell am I gonna do with this windfall??
Now, this is where the real injustice comes in. Pharmaceutical companies are literally gouging the public with prices that are unjust and unfair. Sure, I'll stomp my feet and say "unfair", knowing well and good that life itself isn't fair. But this cash raking drug company profiteering, especially along the elderly patient line, has to stop. Do you morons know that elderly people have a tremendously difficult time getting the medicines they need because YOU have a private jet? There MUST be some kind of regulation to make them stutter a little bit when crying about the cost of research and development. Sorry Squibb...I'm sure your R&D isn't costing you THAT much.
The quagmire that is life these days MUST see some progressive movement in the House and Senate to stop these rediculous increases and put forth an honest working drug plan, especially for the seniors who have gone before us. After all, "The Greatest Generation's" rewards for defeating the Nazi's shouldn't be a poke in the eye with a sharp tongue depressor? My Dad fought at Normandy and was among the first to charge the beaches of France to help liberate the world from the grips of Hitler. Now the Pharmaceutical Nazi's are changing the way we can stay afloat and still get the health care that's needed.
I call on our Representatives in the State and Federal Government to get the drug lobbyists to stop the pressure of our elected officials and work fairly to make sure that American's are taken care of for the rest of their lives. Don't wanna do anything about the prices here in America? Then let us legally and watchfully be able to import our needed prescriptions from Canada. Until you come to the realization that the citizens of this Country depend on your fairness and honesty, we remain nearly tapped out in the wallet with, in some cases, barely enough to eat.
And with the current affairs of our inept President and his band of pocket stuffing Bozos, it's no wonder the rest of my fellow Patriotic citizens are leaning on Prozac, Effexor and Valium to help us hide in the fog till you're gone.
Get real! This IS a country founded on freedom, on fairness and the ability to look after all citizens to make sure that everybody gets what they need at a fair price.
I have no numbers and no proof right now, but I'd be willing to bet a month's worth of Neurontin that those of you in the "higher power" can do something if you want to.
The problem is, the President is too busy shoving the Constitution of The United States of America through the Congressional paper shredder while you stand by amused. You are an embarassment to the human condition and should be burned and hung above a bridge like the poor contractors you greedy infidels sent to Iraq, knowing well, the only reason for this war was profiteering.
Respectfully and in disgust,
Swanny
posted by Swanny @ 11:37 PM
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