Random rantings
04/05/19 04:32
Some days I don’t have a topic that i worthy of a full 1,000 word essay. Those days don’t come that often, but today is one of those days, so here are some shorter comments that aren’t necessarily related to one another.
So far I haven’t paid for a digital subscription to a newspaper, but I’m contemplating doing so. The reason is that the New York Times haas taken down its paywall for three days. On May 3, 4 and 5, anyone can enjoy unlimited reading at the New York Times website in celebration of World Press Freedom Day. Part of the announcement of their decision reads:
“We are living at a moment in history when democratic values are under threat by authoritarian leaders. The internet, which holds such promise as a democratizing force, has been co-opted by people peddling divisive, hateful ideologies. Citizens around the world who want to speak out are under siege from their own governments. Imagine if no one were watching.”
I believe that one of the roles to which we are all called is that of being witnesses. I try my best to keep up with what is going on in the world. I read articles about Venezuela and Yemen and the border between Israel and Gaza. I read the headlines every day, but I know that the headlines don’t tell the whole story. I know that the world needs witnesses to the events of our time. When I try to imagine if no one were watching, it isn’t a pretty picture. It is important that I pay attention even when I do not have the power to change the events. We, like those of years ago, may be called to tell the story.
I’m not positive that the sentiment means I should give way to the advertisers and the commercial purveyors of biased reporting, but it is becoming clear that what has been labeled “fake news” by our leaders isn’t fake at all and that the news reporters are much more accurate than the politicians.
On another topic: Read an article by a friend about a youth sailing club on the east coast that doesn’t have a boat. Since it seems absurd that there could be a training program without a boat, it was proposed that they build a boat. A well-known designer offered to draw up the plans for free. A local boat builder offered to supervise construction.What the members of the group and their parents would have to do is raise funds and provide volunteer hours. They opted to not build the boat, figuring that they simply couldn’t find the time. There wouldn’t be enough volunteer hours to accomplish the task. My reaction to the story is similar to my reaction to parents who keep arguing for youth confirmation programs to be designed without any attendance requirements. Signing up should be seen as sufficient commitment for confirmation. Youth “need to be confirmed” and parents have argued to me that study and learning about the church and regular church attendance shouldn’t be a part of the process of preparing for confirmation. It doesn’t make sense to me that parents should argue against youth making commitments. And, I don’t understand the argument that youth “just don’t have the time.” 21 years times 365 days peer year times 24 hours a day is 183,960 hours. In fact youth today have exactly the same number of hours youth had in my day. Add to that the fact that adolescence is longer than was the case in our time, they may even have more time.
They don’t, however, have enough time to build a boat or to take regular confirmation classes. I’m guessing they don’t have time to read a newspaper, either.
On an unrelated topic, I recently had a conversation with a friend who is a pharmacist, who was explaining to me how pharmacy benefits managers engage in spread pricing. Pharmacists purchase drugs from manufacturers bottle them and distribute them to those in need. They themselves are one type of intermediary. But the transaction isn’t that simple, because insurance companies and large corporations hire pharmacy benefits manufacturers (PBMs) to make decisions about where to purchase drugs and what prices are paid. PBMs make their money by paying one price to the provider of the drugs and charging another price to the insurance company or corporation paying the bill. The insurance company, in turn passes the costs off to the consumer in the form of premiums. The average spread for a PBM on drugs coming out of a local pharmacy in Rapid city is $40. That’s right, a bottle of pills for which the pharmacy is reimbursed $6 costs the insurance company $46. But that is just the average. Some drugs have virtually no spread, while others have much bigger spreads. Cited was the case of a generic drug for which the pharmacy was paid $5.73 and the insurance company was billed $198.22. Remember the PBS was hired by the insurance company “to keep down the costs” of drugs.
Pharmacy Benefits Services blame the drug manufacturers for the high price of prescriptions. But they don’t seem to be going broke in the process. And there is considerable evidence that they don’t really save money for the insurance companies, either.
American use roughly the same amount of health services as people in other industrialized nations. In one time period, however, U.S. patients averaged $1,443 per person for duress, compared with an average of $749 per person across the other countries in the study. When the system is set up for U.S. consumers to pay double what others pay at the same time that the health outcomes in the U.S. are worse, there’s bound to be someone who makes extra money.
When it comes to news sources, youth commitment or drug prices, I don’t have solutions. I do, however, have opinions and I’m not afraid to express them. What I wish is that I could figure out how to motivate one of these brilliant youth I know to make the commitment to come up with solutions to the high costs of medicine. It appears that they have enough time. And, if they avoid excessive health care, they have more time left in their lives than I do in mine.
So far I haven’t paid for a digital subscription to a newspaper, but I’m contemplating doing so. The reason is that the New York Times haas taken down its paywall for three days. On May 3, 4 and 5, anyone can enjoy unlimited reading at the New York Times website in celebration of World Press Freedom Day. Part of the announcement of their decision reads:
“We are living at a moment in history when democratic values are under threat by authoritarian leaders. The internet, which holds such promise as a democratizing force, has been co-opted by people peddling divisive, hateful ideologies. Citizens around the world who want to speak out are under siege from their own governments. Imagine if no one were watching.”
I believe that one of the roles to which we are all called is that of being witnesses. I try my best to keep up with what is going on in the world. I read articles about Venezuela and Yemen and the border between Israel and Gaza. I read the headlines every day, but I know that the headlines don’t tell the whole story. I know that the world needs witnesses to the events of our time. When I try to imagine if no one were watching, it isn’t a pretty picture. It is important that I pay attention even when I do not have the power to change the events. We, like those of years ago, may be called to tell the story.
I’m not positive that the sentiment means I should give way to the advertisers and the commercial purveyors of biased reporting, but it is becoming clear that what has been labeled “fake news” by our leaders isn’t fake at all and that the news reporters are much more accurate than the politicians.
On another topic: Read an article by a friend about a youth sailing club on the east coast that doesn’t have a boat. Since it seems absurd that there could be a training program without a boat, it was proposed that they build a boat. A well-known designer offered to draw up the plans for free. A local boat builder offered to supervise construction.What the members of the group and their parents would have to do is raise funds and provide volunteer hours. They opted to not build the boat, figuring that they simply couldn’t find the time. There wouldn’t be enough volunteer hours to accomplish the task. My reaction to the story is similar to my reaction to parents who keep arguing for youth confirmation programs to be designed without any attendance requirements. Signing up should be seen as sufficient commitment for confirmation. Youth “need to be confirmed” and parents have argued to me that study and learning about the church and regular church attendance shouldn’t be a part of the process of preparing for confirmation. It doesn’t make sense to me that parents should argue against youth making commitments. And, I don’t understand the argument that youth “just don’t have the time.” 21 years times 365 days peer year times 24 hours a day is 183,960 hours. In fact youth today have exactly the same number of hours youth had in my day. Add to that the fact that adolescence is longer than was the case in our time, they may even have more time.
They don’t, however, have enough time to build a boat or to take regular confirmation classes. I’m guessing they don’t have time to read a newspaper, either.
On an unrelated topic, I recently had a conversation with a friend who is a pharmacist, who was explaining to me how pharmacy benefits managers engage in spread pricing. Pharmacists purchase drugs from manufacturers bottle them and distribute them to those in need. They themselves are one type of intermediary. But the transaction isn’t that simple, because insurance companies and large corporations hire pharmacy benefits manufacturers (PBMs) to make decisions about where to purchase drugs and what prices are paid. PBMs make their money by paying one price to the provider of the drugs and charging another price to the insurance company or corporation paying the bill. The insurance company, in turn passes the costs off to the consumer in the form of premiums. The average spread for a PBM on drugs coming out of a local pharmacy in Rapid city is $40. That’s right, a bottle of pills for which the pharmacy is reimbursed $6 costs the insurance company $46. But that is just the average. Some drugs have virtually no spread, while others have much bigger spreads. Cited was the case of a generic drug for which the pharmacy was paid $5.73 and the insurance company was billed $198.22. Remember the PBS was hired by the insurance company “to keep down the costs” of drugs.
Pharmacy Benefits Services blame the drug manufacturers for the high price of prescriptions. But they don’t seem to be going broke in the process. And there is considerable evidence that they don’t really save money for the insurance companies, either.
American use roughly the same amount of health services as people in other industrialized nations. In one time period, however, U.S. patients averaged $1,443 per person for duress, compared with an average of $749 per person across the other countries in the study. When the system is set up for U.S. consumers to pay double what others pay at the same time that the health outcomes in the U.S. are worse, there’s bound to be someone who makes extra money.
When it comes to news sources, youth commitment or drug prices, I don’t have solutions. I do, however, have opinions and I’m not afraid to express them. What I wish is that I could figure out how to motivate one of these brilliant youth I know to make the commitment to come up with solutions to the high costs of medicine. It appears that they have enough time. And, if they avoid excessive health care, they have more time left in their lives than I do in mine.