ppp 07-21-08

Quote of the day: There is no nonsense so arrant that it cannot be made

the creed of the vast majority by adequate governmental action.

Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

This weekend my 3 brothers and I cleared some land of trees. We cut about 40 trees to make a place for our hunting/fishing place. Most were dead or would be expected to fall in less than 5 years. Each had the capacity to fall over the power lines and cause an outage for our neighbors and us. Our 6 acres on a lake is solidly forested so we are still farming way more oxygen than the four of us and our families can consume. The carbon dioxide that we produced by burning of the slash (limbs taken off of fallen trees) will be converted via photosynthesis into oxygen. The wood (not corn) that we set aside will provide heat to us at a latter date. It is like running our autos on wood because we will purchase less fossil fuels. We did have to put some energy into the project in the way of sawing, chopping, dragging, and stacking but even that saves resources (no need for a gym membership).

Buying and taking generic drugs can hold your expenses in check as you control diseases that could become even more costly without the control. (see number 4 below). Think of taking medications as an investment that can produce huge returns. Just like the “weekend wood warriors”, the effort can produce some aches and pains but the expense will be a “good hurt” when all is tabulated. Now all I have to do is find the ibuprofen before I hit the sheets tonight.

ps. Best answer this week to the question "How are you?" was "Stupendous!" (A nurse)

The weak dollar is partially responsible for TEVA’s purchase of the rival, US, generic manufacturer, Barr for only $7 billion and change. Expect more US drug makers to become Euro drug makers.

An 11% cut in payments to doctors for Medicare patients was to take place. The Congress passed a bill to stop the cut. The President vetoed the cut halt bill. Congress overrode the veto… leaving us precisely back where we were before this whole thing started… sort of. (There were many other considerations in the bill including coverage for benzodiazepines, restrictions of Medicare Advantage programs, and incentives to e-prescribe.

Patients are not necessarily spend less on drugs but the rate of increase in the number of prescriptions has decreased according to IMS Health info.

If I gave you $5 for every dollar that you handed me, you would love it. Disease prevention is shown to do just that by state (DC get 9:1, Maryland 6:1, etc). Check out the details and ask why the states aren’t pushing this harder.

Many things have been suspected to cause childhood leukemia but this may be worth a second look. I am sooooo happy that I tested my son’s home before the birth of his son. Makes me rest easier… just in case.

Insurers keep premiums down by lowering their exposure “per belly button” by limiting the amount of insurance claims per lifetime to a set amount. A million dollars doesn’t buy as much care as you would think. Congress wants to raise the lifetime limits… actuaries will figure that into rates and increase the cost of insurance…(just my opinion but I’ll bet I’m right on this one) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/13/AR2008071301092.html

If you buy your Timolol eye drops from Canada you should look up the lot numbers to see if your eye drops are too strong… if you can see that is.

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