Friday, May 11, 2018

Freeloading...

Image result for price of medication cartoon
President Trump will unveil a plan to limit prices on some costly drugs.

The plan will require Medicare Part D plans share a portion of discounts they receive from drug manufacturers with patients. It will include ways to allow the government to better negotiate with manufacturers on prices.
Rebates have become a battleground in the fight over who's to blame for high drug prices. Drugmakers accuse PBMs of profiting off higher list prices because they can negotiate bigger discounts. PBMs say it's manufacturers' fault for setting the high prices in the first place.

Trump's proposal will also seek to limit price increases that are greater than the rate of inflation for drugs covered under Medicare Part B, which covers treatments that patients need to be administered by a physician, the most expensive drugs like cancer treatments.
The administration would address "foreign freeloading," or how patients in other countries typically pay less for drugs than Americans, while U.S. companies invest in research and drug development.

Glass...

Image result for price of medication cartoon

Tweet...

The cartoonist's homepage, knoxnews.com/opinion/charlie-daniel

Loans...

Originally published in August 2011. The cartoonist's

Thursday, May 10, 2018

North...

Image result for three American returned from North Korea

Waving their hands and flashing peace signs, the freed prisoners  descended the stairs of their plane, flanked by the president and senior administration officials.
Their return to the United States removed a delicate obstacle as the president prepares to sit down with the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un, for a landmark nuclear summit meeting. But as Mr. Trump basked in the glow of floodlights and TV cameras, he indicated that the most difficult part of the negotiations, which include persuading North Korea to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, still lies ahead.
Why were these folks in North Korea?

Trouble...


An Israeli soldier stands next to signs pointing out distances to different cities, on Mount Bental, an observation post in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights that overlooks the Syrian side of the Quneitra crossing, Israel May 10, 2018.

Israel launched a deadly attack on Iranian positions in Syria, responding to an earlier rocket attack by Iran's forces on the Golan Heights, an Israeli-occupied area along the Syrian border. Iran's attack itself followed several strikes by Israel on its bases in Syria.
The earlier Israeli strikes came both before and after President Donald Trump announced he is withdrawing the United States from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.
Middle East-watchers warn that Trump's decision emboldens Israel and Saudi Arabia to take a more aggressive stance against Iranian forces and proxies in the region. They say it also marginalizes Iran's political moderates like President Hassan Rouhani and emboldens the nation's hardline conservatives and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps, an elite military organization loyal to the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
War, what is it good for?

Hoosier...

Originally published in August 2015. The cartoonist's