Interesting to call this “confiscating” when it’s just making the rich pay their fair share, especially considering all the stolen wealth from the bottom 99% and historic tax evasion.
“When we talk about college campuses, I want everybody to know there are no protests on college campuses in Gaza. You know why? Because every one of the 12 universities in Gaza has been bombed and destroyed.” - Bernie Sanders, 5/8/2024
Less than three months after U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin and her colleagues launched an investigation into the four major American manufacturers of inhalers, three of the companies have relented, making commitments to cap costs for their inhalers at $35 for patients who now pay much more.
25 million Americans have asthma and 16 million Americans have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), meaning over 40 million Americans rely on inhalers to breathe.
Inhalers have been available since the 1950s, and most of the drugs they use have been on the market for more than 25 years.
According to a statement from the Wisconsin Senator’s office, inhaler manufacturers sell the exact same products at a much lower costs in other countries. One of AstraZeneca’s inhalers, Breztri Aerosphere, costs $645 in the U.S.—but just $49 in the UK. Inhalers made by Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, and Teva have similar disparities.
Baldwin and her Democratic colleagues—New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders—pressured the companies to lower their prices by writing letters to GSK, Boehringer Ingelheim, Teva, and AstraZeneca requesting a variety of documents that show why such higher prices are charged in America compared to Europe.
As a ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, Baldwin recently announced that as a result of the letters they had secured commitments from three of the four to lower the out-of-pocket costs of inhalers to a fixed $35.00 rate.
“For the millions of Americans who rely on inhalers to breathe, this news is a major step in the right direction as we work to lower costs and hold big drug companies accountable,” said Senator Baldwin.
A full list of the inhalers and associated drugs can be viewed here.
It’s the second time in the last year that pharmaceutical companies were forced to provide reasonable prices—after the cost of insulin was similarly capped successfully at $35 per month thanks to Congressional actions led by the White House.
This is actually a great response to people like Bernie Sanders who keep insisting Bibi Netanyahu is the real problem and, if he were removed from power, things would get better.
Bibi’s a monster, no doubt. But they probably wouldn’t.
His opponents dislike him because he’s incredibly corrupt and can’t/won’t get the hostages back.
But very few of them really object to his view on the Palestinians. At most, they wish he was a bit more subtle about his genocidal tendencies.
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is pushing harder for a cease-fire in Gaza and demands that the United States send “not another nickel” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“My view, not another nickel for Netanyahu’s government if he’s going to continue this wholesale slaughter of the Palestinian people,” Sanders told MSNBC’s Alex Wagner Friday.
Sanders’ declaration comes just days after the death toll in Gaza surpassed 30,000 people since the start of the war on Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. More than 100 Palestinians in Gaza City were killed and more than 700 injured Thursday, when Israeli soldiers opened fire on the people scrambling to access humanitarian aid, some media outlets reported.
Sanders, who recently voted against sending more aid to Israel for its war against Hamas, stressed the importance of stopping the “unprecedented humanitarian disaster.”
The Vermont senator argued that President Biden, who has put pressure on Netanyahu and Israel to scale back its attacks, is taking “an important step forward,” but argues that “we need to do more.” Biden said Friday that the U.S. will begin airdrops of aid to Gaza amid negotiations for a cease-fire.
Sanders said Biden should be telling the Israeli government to open borders so trucks of food, water and medical supplies that are critical to the more than 1 million refugees in the region can be delivered.
During the interview, Sanders said that “it’s totally absurd” that the United States is sending humanitarian aid to civilians in Gaza, but also supplying Israel with the funds and military capabilities to hurt those civilians.