Fuente: Nuestro País

El diputado del Frente Amplio, José Merino. (Archivo / Nuestro País)

Directorio legislativo impide a Merino oposición a proyecto de Ley

23 de febrero, 2010

San José (elpais.cr) – El Gobierno de Costa Rica pretende, mediante decreto, cambiar una ley sobre propiedad intelectual para beneficiar a las transnacionales agroquímicas y farmacéuticas y por ello el directorio legislativo pretenden impedir al diputado José Merino defender mociones de oposición a ese plan.

El legislador denunció que mediante una resolución, el Directorio Legislativo pretende impedirle la defensa de cerca del 90 por ciento de las mociones para oponerse al proyecto y defender sus tesis. Read the full story

Artículo publicado en Amauta con permiso de Argenpress

Fuente: Argenpress

por Pedro Rivera Ramos
11 de febrero, 2010

La producción de medicamentos constituye uno de los componentes más importantes, más sólidos y más poderosos, conque cuentan en la actualidad las gigantescas corporaciones transnacionales, que luego de la reestructuración que hiciesen de su producción de plaguicidas, se autocalificarán como “industrias de las ciencias de la vida”, al pasar a controlar virtualmente todas las actividades esenciales para los seres humanos en todo nuestro planeta. Read the full story

Source: Raw Story

A Raw Story Exclusive

by Brad Jacobson
February 4, 2010

The Supreme Court’s seismic January ruling that corporations are free to spend unlimited amounts of their profits to advertise for or against candidates may have been the latest shakeup of campaign finance – but gaping holes already allow corporations to spend enormous sums without leaving a paper trail, a Raw Story investigation has found.

Campaign finance experts confirmed that though disclosure rules remained intact in the new Supreme Court decision, there are effective methods to circumvent them. Read the full story

Hmmm, feels limiting (photo: TheTruthAbout)

Source: Firedoglake

by Jane Hamsher
December 30, 2009

There is tremendous fear rising on both the right and the left that the announced intention of Congress – to force every American to pay tribute to private corporations, with no government alternative – sets a dangerous and frightening precedent with implications far outside the scope of health care.

If the health care bill written by the Senate is passed, middle class Americans will be mandated to pay almost as much to private insurance companies as they do to the federal government in taxes, with the IRS acting as a collection agency for penalties of 2% of your annual income for refusing to comply. Read the full story

Early Christmas in Washington DC. The US Senate health care vote was a big win for the drug companies, the biologics industry, the hospital companies, and the for-profit health insurance corporations.(AFP/Getty Images/Win Mcnamee)

Source: FireDogLake

A Big Win For PhRMA, Health Insurance Companies, Obama, Reid, Nelson, Lincoln, Lieberman; A Big Loss For The American People And the Progressive Movement

by Jon Walker
December 24, 2009

Today’s vote in the Senate to pass their health care reform bill was a big win for many people. It was a big win for the drug companies, the biologics industry, the hospital companies, and the for-profit health insurance corporations. They will all get billions of government dollars piled on to their ledgers, and and millions of Americans now forced to buy their products. The vote was also a huge win for the lobbyists who just saw their profits jump thanks to this great opportunity to show their clients just how powerful their hold on Washington really is. Read the full story

Source: Firedoglake

by Jane Hamsher
December 21, 2009

FDL has become the go-to place for coverage of the health care bill due to the work of our incredible team.   Jon Walker’s second-to-none knowledge of the health care bill has made the policy and political analysis he offers up at  FDL Action a driving force.  Dave Dayen’s reporting at the FDL News Desk, Marcy Wheeler ’s research and in-depth analysis at Emptywheel, Laura Flanders’ interviews at GritTV, our FDL team of writers and editors, and our community members at The Seminal provide the most independent and comprehensive picture of what’s happening moment-by-moment on the health care debate to be found anywhere.

So, I asked them to help make it simple:  how do we let people know what’s going to happen to them if the Senate bill passes.  Everyone put their heads together and came up with a list: Read the full story

(Image: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t; Adapted: zaxl4, Thom Watson)

Source: t r u t h o u t

by Evelyn Pringle
December 12, 2009

Prescriptions for psychiatric drugs increased 50 percent with children in the US, and 73 percent among adults, from 1996 to 2006, according to a study in the May/June 2009 issue of the journal Health Affairs. Another study in the same issue of Health Affairs found spending for mental health care grew more than 30 percent over the same ten-year period, with almost all of the increase due to psychiatric drug costs.

On April 22, 2009, the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reported that in 2006 more money was spent on treating mental disorders in children aged 0 to 17 than for any other medical condition, with a total of $8.9 billion. By comparison, the cost of treating trauma-related disorders, including fractures, sprains, burns, and other physical injuries, was only $6.1 billion. Read the full story

Fuente: La Jornada

por Javier Aranda Luna
2 de diciembre, 2009

Los datos son claros y abrumadores: cada vez más los grandes laboratorios no sólo investigan y fabrican medicamentos, sino también crean enfermedades.

Por lo menos eso prueba el incremento exponencial de síndromes y patologías de los últimos años y los excesivos gastos de marketing y comunicación por concepto de lanzamiento de un nuevo medicamento, que han estimado en más de 600 millones de dólares.

Muchas de esas patologías tienen límites confusos, mal definidos, y otras parecen ser fabricadas con métodos de dudosa calidad científica, apunta categórico Emilio de la Rosa en su libro La fabricación de nuevas patologías, publicado por el FCE. Read the full story

by Derrick Z. Jackson
November 21, 2009

In making a fool of President Obama, Big Pharma has turned itself into a poison pill of health care reform. In the summer, the drug companies offered $8 billion a year over 10 years in drug cost cuts, as long as the government did not ask for further reductions in what Medicare provides them. Obama proclaimed this a huge breakthrough, given the drug industry’s prior attacks on reform. “The pharmaceutical industry has been quite constructive in this debate,” Obama said. “And the savings that they’ve put on the table are real and significant and appreciated.” Read the full story

“One of the reasons I have long supported the U.S. biotechnology industry is that it is a homegrown success story that has been an engine of job creation in this country.” This written statement by Rep. Joe Wilson of South Carolina on the health care bill was identical to one by Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer and used language suggested by lobbyists. (Luke Sharrett/The New York Times)

by Robert Pear
November 14, 2009

WASHINGTON — In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies.

E-mail messages obtained by The New York Times show that the lobbyists drafted one statement for Democrats and another for Republicans. Read the full story