Author: KJ McElrath

Profiting on Addiction and Death: Kaleo Pharma Raises Price of Opioid Antidote Over 500% 

Profiting on Addiction and Death: Kaleo Pharma Raises Price of Opioid Antidote Over 500% 

Posted by | Feb 2, 2017 | , |

It is the same story we have been hearing over and over and over again for the past several years: Big Pharma develops a life-saving treatment for a serious condition, then the company that manufactures it raises the price to astronomical, unaffordable levels. In many cases, it’s even more egregious: the industry creates a problem, then cleans up by selling a treatment for that very problem. Case in point: opioid addiction. This is a crisis, and if the pharmaceutical industry didn’t create it, it’s certainly enabling it. They’re also playing both sides. Virginia drug company Kaleo Pharma manufactures a...

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Executive Orders: What They Are And How The Current Administration is (Ab)using Them

Executive Orders: What They Are And How The Current Administration is (Ab)using Them

Posted by | Feb 1, 2017 | |

To the alarm and dismay of many, Donald Trump has been extremely busy since January 23rd (he decided to take the weekend after the inauguration off), signing one executive order after another. Most of these are intended to make life more difficult for average people such as the restoration of the “Mexico City Policy,” the freeze on federal hiring and gutting significant provisions of the Affordable Care Act while others play into the fears of his low-information base (i.e., ordering the construction of the “wall” between the U.S. and Mexico and banning Muslims traveling from countries in which he has no...

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Health Insurer Aetna Backed Out of Obamacare, Blaming High Prices – Turns Out That Was a Lie

Health Insurer Aetna Backed Out of Obamacare, Blaming High Prices – Turns Out That Was a Lie

Posted by | Jan 31, 2017 | |

Last August, health insurance giant Aetna pulled out of the exchanges in 11 of the 15 states in which it operates, dealing a serious blow to the Affordable Care Act. According to the nation’s third largest health insurer, the company had sustained losses of over $430 million over a two-and-a-half year period. That was a lie. In fact, Aetna has been, and continues to be, quite profitable. It turns out that “corporate person” Aetna was throwing a little tantrum because the Big, Bad Department of Justice wouldn’t allow the giant insurer to become even BIGGER when it blocked its...

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E-Cigarette Explosions: They Don’t Happen Very Often, But The Consequences Can Be Devastating

E-Cigarette Explosions: They Don’t Happen Very Often, But The Consequences Can Be Devastating

Posted by | Jan 30, 2017 | |

Earlier last year, a young man from Albany, New York, was partaking of “vape” with his electronic cigarette when the device exploded in his mouth, taking out several of his teeth, ripping a hole in his tongue, and causing severe burns on his hands. He later described the experience: “[It was] like a M80 bomb went off in my mouth.” In May of 2016, an unidentified minor in New Jersey also had an e-cigarette explode in her mouth, causing severe burn injuries to her lips and gums. These examples of oral injuries caused by exploding e-cigarettes are horrific, but...

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How the “Fourth Estate” Has Been Falling Down on the Job

How the “Fourth Estate” Has Been Falling Down on the Job

Posted by | Jan 30, 2017 | , , |

For nearly 180 years, the press has been referred to as the “Fourth Estate,” and in the U.S. since 1949, as the “Fourth Branch of Government.” The reason is that the press has historically played an important role in influencing politics and the course of government. In a representative democracy, the media has two important jobs: to keep the public informed, and to keep serve as a conduit of information between the citizenry and lawmakers so that the former knows what the latter is up to   and the latter understand what the former expect from them. In the...

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