Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Showing posts with label health care. Show all posts
Saturday, March 31, 2012
WHO praises Cuba's health care system
English.news.cn
2012-03-28
HAVANA, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's health care system has a lot to teach the world, the deputy head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said Tuesday during a visit to the Caribbean island nation.
WHO Deputy Director General Dr. Anarfi Asamoa-Baah praised Cuba's health care standards and held the island's universal health care system as a model for other countries to emulate.
Asamoa-Baah is part of a visiting delegation of health experts, including WHO Director General Dr. Margaret Chan, Regional Director for Africa Dr. Luis Sambo, and Shin Young-Soo, regional director for the Western Pacific, who were to attend the first-ever meeting of the agency's regional directors held in Havana.
During a tour Monday of scientific institutions in Cuba, the WHO deputy director said he was impressed by the nation's "well integrated" health care system at all levels.
Asamoa-Baah praised the fact that all Cubans have free access to high-quality, high-tech health services and applauded the country's ongoing campaigns to eradicate communicable diseases.
He also praised the work of Cuban health care workers in more than 32 countries and the medical training offered by Cuban universities to thousands of students from around the world.
The WHO experts expressed particular interest in Cuba's biotech industry, which has developed vaccines to fight cancer and other diseases, and Cuban medical products are marketed in over 40 countries.
The WHO delegation is scheduled to meet Thursday with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez and tour the Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Havana.
On Friday, the group will attend the closing ceremony of the Congress of Geriatrics and Gerontology.
Advanced universal health care and education in Cuba are two of the main achievements of the Socialist Revolution launched in 1959 by former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
The Drug Industry Cashes In
November 18, 2009
Editorial
New York Times
The drug industry has been ramping up its prices in advance of any health care reforms that might clamp down on its profits. The industry’s rapid price escalation over the past year threatens to make a mockery of its deal with the Senate Finance Committee and the Obama administration to contribute $80 billion over the next decade to help pay for covering tens of millions of uninsured Americans.
The industry’s contribution will consist of drug discounts to certain Medicare beneficiaries, larger rebates on drugs bought for Medicaid beneficiaries and new fees on the industry.
We complained earlier that the industry’s contribution looked small when measured against the $1 trillion needed to cover most of the uninsured or against the $3 trillion likely to be spent on drugs in this country over the next decade. The administration got political benefits from the deal: The drug industry has not opposed health care reform as it did in previous years and has actually run commercials supporting it.
But the deal looks mostly good for the drug companies. They stand to gain tens of millions of newly insured customers who will be able to buy medicines. And the discounts the companies will provide to Medicare beneficiaries who reach a gap in their drug coverage, known as the doughnut hole, will apply only to brand-name drugs, helping the manufacturers to lock in customers that might otherwise turn to cheaper generics.
Now come the price increases. As Duff Wilson reported in The Times on Monday, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of prescription drugs by about 9 percent in the past year. That appears to be the highest annual increase since 1992.
The industry contends that it must raise prices to finance research on new drugs, and that may hold some truth given the dearth of promising new drugs in the pipelines of major manufacturers. But the increases also look designed to establish a higher price base before reform bills, if passed, try to reduce drug spending.
The industry’s maneuver suggests that the Senate’s deal with the industry should be abandoned in favor of the much tougher demands in the reform bill passed by the House. The House bill requires rebates and discounts from drug makers that may save the government about $150 billion over 10 years, according to the chief actuary for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The House bill also authorizes the secretary of health and human services to negotiate with the companies to obtain lower prices for drugs sold to Medicare beneficiaries and to a new public plan if one is approved.
The government needs every penny it can get to help cover the uninsured. Given the industry’s last-minute price increases, it seems prudent to ignore the supposed deal and demand a greater contribution.
Editorial
New York Times
The drug industry has been ramping up its prices in advance of any health care reforms that might clamp down on its profits. The industry’s rapid price escalation over the past year threatens to make a mockery of its deal with the Senate Finance Committee and the Obama administration to contribute $80 billion over the next decade to help pay for covering tens of millions of uninsured Americans.
The industry’s contribution will consist of drug discounts to certain Medicare beneficiaries, larger rebates on drugs bought for Medicaid beneficiaries and new fees on the industry.
We complained earlier that the industry’s contribution looked small when measured against the $1 trillion needed to cover most of the uninsured or against the $3 trillion likely to be spent on drugs in this country over the next decade. The administration got political benefits from the deal: The drug industry has not opposed health care reform as it did in previous years and has actually run commercials supporting it.
But the deal looks mostly good for the drug companies. They stand to gain tens of millions of newly insured customers who will be able to buy medicines. And the discounts the companies will provide to Medicare beneficiaries who reach a gap in their drug coverage, known as the doughnut hole, will apply only to brand-name drugs, helping the manufacturers to lock in customers that might otherwise turn to cheaper generics.
Now come the price increases. As Duff Wilson reported in The Times on Monday, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of prescription drugs by about 9 percent in the past year. That appears to be the highest annual increase since 1992.
The industry contends that it must raise prices to finance research on new drugs, and that may hold some truth given the dearth of promising new drugs in the pipelines of major manufacturers. But the increases also look designed to establish a higher price base before reform bills, if passed, try to reduce drug spending.
The industry’s maneuver suggests that the Senate’s deal with the industry should be abandoned in favor of the much tougher demands in the reform bill passed by the House. The House bill requires rebates and discounts from drug makers that may save the government about $150 billion over 10 years, according to the chief actuary for the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The House bill also authorizes the secretary of health and human services to negotiate with the companies to obtain lower prices for drugs sold to Medicare beneficiaries and to a new public plan if one is approved.
The government needs every penny it can get to help cover the uninsured. Given the industry’s last-minute price increases, it seems prudent to ignore the supposed deal and demand a greater contribution.
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