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Posted on 01/17/2019 5:23:06 AM PST by SJackson
Freshman congresswoman shares story of her aunt who died in Somalia for lack of insulin
Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar shared that her aunt died of “diabetic shock” in Somalia when she was 21 years old because she did not have access to medication, and said the fact that this sort of tragedy can happen in a country as wealthy as the United States is a “mark of shame.”
“There are people in the developing world who are dying because they don’t have access to health care or they don’t have access to medicine. My aunt was one of those people,” said Omar, whose family resettled in Minnesota as refugees after fleeing the civil war in their native Somalia.
Omar’s aunt died within days of her diagnosis.
“It is a mark of shame that in the wealthiest country in the world people are dying because they can’t afford lifesaving medicine,” the 5th District Democrat added in a statement.
Omar was among the House and Senate Democrats at a news conference Thursday to introduce a new suite of bills to curb drug costs.
The three-part plan, championed by Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders, would allow the government to negotiate prices with manufacturers under the Medicare Part D drug program, set drug prices based on the median price of five other wealthy countries and authorize importing drugs from Canada.
Omar likened her aunt’s story to the death of a Twin Cities resident.
Alec Raeshawn Smith died of diabetic ketoacidosis when he was 26 years old, just months after aging out of his mother’s insurance plan. His mother, Nicole Smith-Holt, found receipts for insulin and blood sugar testing supplies in his car totaling $1,300 per month, and concluded her son had been rationing his insulin supply until his next paycheck.
Smith’s name has become a rallying cry for health care advocates pushing the pharmaceutical industry and lawmakers to lower the cost of essential medicines.
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“Last year in Minnesota when I heard about Alec, who was 26 and died because he could not access insulin to save his life, it did not make any sense to me,” Omar said.
The news conference Thursday coincided with fresh price hikes by Sanofi and Novo Nordisk — two of the “big three” drug manufacturers that dominate the market for insulin.
Both drugmakers will tack on an increase of roughly 5 percent to the list price of a dose, which varies from just under $300 to $400, the Financial Times reported.
T1International — an advocacy group that campaigns for lower drug prices with Smith-Holt — decried the new surcharges in a statement Thursday.
“Once again, shareholder profits will be increased on the backs of people with diabetes,” the advocacy group said.
Of the trio of bills on pharmaceutical pricing introduced Thursday, importing lower-cost drugs from other countries could draw bipartisan and bicameral support because an influential Republican senator, Finance Chairman Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, has released his own drug importation draft bill.
Omar described the legislation on drug pricing as “just the first step” on a path to a Medicare for all single payer health care system.
There are actually quite a few African immigrants who become conservatives of course you are never told about those. I talked to many of those some of which are in my church. The problem I have is that the liberal brainwashed immigrants from Africa never call out the dictators back home as being the root cause of stealing everything from the people and keeping them poor.
You can also get killed by a bus if you’re too lazy to get up out of the road. That doesn’t mean that we have a lousy mass transit system.
obamacare/romneycare DELIBERATELY made drugs
less available and more expensive.
and the GOP/DNC did nothing to change it
beyond partying.
Somalia has an EMTALA law?!
Who knew!
Health insurance really doesn’t matter if you show up at some emergency room and there’s three marginal doctors there, and half the nurses are incompetent. It also won’t matter if you got cancer and the doctor missed all of the original signs from two years ago, and he says now that you are in stage four with no real possible outcome other than death.
I think a lot of us are reaching the stage of realizing that we’ve arrived at a new type of environment, where it’s like a university pretending to offer four-star classes for $20,000 a year, and when you graduate....you basically know little to nothing. Yes, we’ve corrupted the health care system, like we did the education system.
I love these people who come over to the U.S. because their country is a killing field despite the billions in foreign aid it receives from the U.S., and then get everything given to them here for free. The first thing they do is become sharp tongued critics and full of anger and vehemence toward Americans once their bellies are full and they’ve gotten used to indoor plumbing. There oughta be a law but there won’t be preventing refugees and their spawn like this ingrate from running for public office. Let’s say 25 years in the country before you are eligible to open your stupid mouth in a stump speech. Jesus. The rest of the first world has to be laughing at the number of demons we have imported then tasked with destroying our own selves and society.
Wonder if Sharia Law required female genital mutilation will be covered?
Using my best Dana Carvey church lady voice oh, well isn’t that special!. Lady that lingo may work in your District but the rest of us in America are okay with a good old USA!
Tell that to the US VETERANS the VA is killing daily, denying Pain meds to and who are committing Suicide because they can’t live with that much pain. Then add in the same Intractable Pain Patients, many with Cancer who can’t get pain meds.
While your rewarding Street Junkies and Illicit drugs flowing across our borders.
And I wonder how long her Mother had untreated Diabetes back in her utopian country of Somalia? If it is so bad, I will be glad to chip in and buy her a one-way ticket back to Somalia.
Considering that incest and bigamy are felonies in Minnesota and she is seemingly guilty of both, she probably shouldn’t be in congress anyways but I digress.
Yet another article I have seen since the shutdown happened about lack of insulin.
Like the stories are all planned.
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