Archive for category: U.S.

Paloma Marolf had an active childhood with no major health concerns until she went into a diabetic coma at age 15. Her diagnosis with type 1 diabetes meant Marolf’s already struggling family gained a new financial burden, a monthly cost that ranged up to $2,000. There were times the University of Arizona freshman held off buying insulin for a day.

“My pancreas doesn’t produce insulin like everyone else’s,” the 19-year-old said, “so the fact that I have to worry about if I’m going to get my insulin for next month and if my parents are going to be able to afford it is a huge stressor because it’s life or death for me.”

To save money, 25% of diabetics take less insulin than they are prescribed, and one-third didn’t tell physicians or families they were doing so, according to a 2019 survey published by the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Insulin isn’t the only drug that patients struggle to afford these days. In Arizona, a survey of pharmacies in Phoenix, Tucson and Holbrook found drug prices are on the rise, with users of one SSR antidepressant, sertraline, reporting prices that are nearly 800% more than the national average price, according to a 2019 Arizona Public Interest Research Group report.

The issue of drug pricing took center stage at Tuesday’s State of the Union address, when President Donald Trump called for a national strategy to solve a problem that has inspired a few state-based proposals – including a recent proposal for California to contract directly with pharmaceutical companies for generic insulin and other drugs.

Gov. Gavin Newsom wants California to reduce costs by shaping the generic drug market. In his annual budget proposal last month, Newsom called for the creation of a single market for drug purchasing that would additionally require manufacturers to contract with the state for generic drug production and set statewide prices.

“We are already in active conversation with some of the major purchasers in this state,” Newsom said during the Jan. 10 news conference addressing his proposal. “I can assure you things like insulin are top of mind in terms of that prescription generic program and strategy.”

Those priorities aside, there are few details about how California would become the first state in the U.S. to license the manufacture of generic drugs, and some experts say they can not endorse the proposal without more details.

One skeptic of the plan is the Association of Accessible Medicines, a Washington, D.C., trade association representing drug manufacturers and distributors. They don’t expect Newsom’s plan to work because it only targets generic drugs and ignores the affordability of expensive branded drugs, said Rachel Schwartz, the organization’s spokeswoman.

Low-income families like Marolf’s and minority communities are expected to benefit most from Newsom’s proposal, proponents and some health experts say.

Native Americans and Hispanic people, and people of lower economic status, are diagnosed with diabetes at a higher rate than the average, according to a 2017 report by the federal Centers for Disease Control.

“It’s low-income families who fall through the cracks,” said Geoffrey Joyce, director of health policy for the University of Southern California’s Schaeffer Center, which studies health policy and economics. For many, prescription coverage hinges on whether they qualify for Medicaid, the government-funded health insurance for low-income people of any age.

“If you’re on Medicaid, for example, drug coverage is quite generous and cost sharing is minimal,’ Joyce said, “but those who don’t qualify for Medicaid are the ones who are more vulnerable to high drug costs.”

Maintaining steady insurance coverage to deal with chronic diseases can be difficult for consumers. For Marolf, whose family is low-income, some of her biggest challenges arose when private insurance companies would stop covering her medication without notifying her family, forcing her mother to pay out of pocket.

 

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Attorneys general in 20 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Thursday challenging a federal regulation that could allow blueprints for making guns on 3D printers to be posted on the internet.

New York Attorney General Tish James, who helped lead the coalition of state attorneys general, argued that posting the blueprints would allow anyone to go online and use the downloadable files to create unregistered and untraceable assault-style weapons that could be difficult to detect.

The lawsuit, joined by California, Washington and 17 other states, was filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle. It is likely to reignite a fierce debate over the use of 3D-printed firearms and is the latest in a series of attempts by state law enforcement officials to block the Trump administration from easing the accessibility of the blueprints.

Proponents have argued there is a constitutional right to publish the material, but critics counter that making the blueprints readily accessible online could lead to an increase in gun violence and put weapons in the hands of criminals who are legally prohibited from owning them.

Washington state’s attorney general Bob Ferguson said a previous multi-state lawsuit led a federal judge last year to strike down the administration’s earlier attempt to allow the files to be distributed.

For years, law enforcement officials have been trying to draw attention to the dangers posed by the so-called ghost guns, which contain no registration numbers that could be used to trace them.

A federal judge in November blocked an earlier attempt by the Trump administration to allow the files to be released online, arguing that the government had violated the law on procedural grounds. But the administration published formal rules on Thursday that transfer the regulation of 3D-printed guns from the State Department to the Commerce Department, which could open the door to making the blueprints available online.

The state attorneys general argue the government is breaking the law and say such deregulation will “make it far easier for individuals ineligible to possess firearms under state or federal law to obtain a deadly weapon without undergoing a background check,” according to the lawsuit. They also argue that the Commerce Department lacks the power to properly regulate 3D-printed guns.

“Ghost Guns endanger every single one of us,” James said in a statement. “While the president and his Administration know these homemade weapons pose an imminent threat, he continues to cater to the gun lobby — risking the lives of millions of Americans.”

In 2015, Cody Wilson and his company Defense Distributed sued the federal government after it told him to remove online blueprints of a 3D-printed gun. The State Department reached a settlement with the company in 2018 and removed the 3D gun-making plans from a list of weapons or technical data that are not allowed to be exported. But a coalition of state attorneys general filed a lawsuit to stop the maneuver, arguing that undetectable plastic guns pose a national security risk.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit filed Thursday.

“We successfully challenged the Trump administration’s first reckless attempt, and we will continue to fight against this latest attack on the safety of our communities,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

 

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Gold traded as much as 1.5% higher in early Friday trading, nearing a six-year high after a US airstrike killed one of Iran’s most powerful military leaders on Thursday and spiked tensions between the two nations.

The safe-haven asset rocketed as high as $1,551.30 per ounce, less than a 1% gain away from its highest price since April 2013. Gold typically surges in the wake of rising geopolitical tension, as unexpected volatility often drives investors away from the stock market and into hedge assets.

President Donald Trump ordered the strike that killed Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite Quds Force. Iran’s supreme leader warned a “harsh retaliation is waiting” for the US in the wake of the attack, and an advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said the US crossed a “red line” with the attack.

The Pentagon claimed Soleimani was planning attacks on US service members and diplomats abroad, and that the general and his forces were responsible for “the deals of hundreds of American and coalition service members.”

“This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans,” the Pentagon added.

The Friday morning surge helped prop gold up higher following its biggest yearly gain in nearly a decade. The precious metal passed its $1,500 per ounce psychological level on December 26 and ended the year up 18.8%, driven higher by a weakening dollar and global economic slowdown.

Gold serves as a traditional safe-haven asset for traders looking to flee unpredictable markets. The precious metal’s allure, scarcity, and historic value solidify its status as a popular hedge bet.

Other haven assets, including Treasury bonds, platinum, and silver, rose on news of the US strike.

Though the attack prompted fresh fears of war between the two nations, a full-scale conflict is unlikely, Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist Ian Shepherdson said in a Friday note. Global oil markets face the greatest threat should the Thursday attack drive any retaliation, Shepherdson said.

“Our base case here is that a full-blown war between the U.S. and Iran is unlikely, though we appreciate the old adage that nothing brings a country together more effectively than an external threat, and Iran’s government right now is extremely unpopular,” the economist wrote. “The infrastructure of the oil sector, though, is a likely target in the event of tit-for-tat escalation.”

Gold traded at $1,543.70 per ounce at 8:40 a.m. ET Friday. Oil also soared on news of the attack, up about 5.7% at the same time.

 

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Former Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin issued 428 pardons in his final days in office, a list that includes multiple violent offenders.

The Republican pardoned a convicted child rapist as well as a convicted murderer whose brother raised money for Mr Bevin’s election campaign.

Mr Bevin was defeated by Democrat Andy Beshear in November after a contentious election.

The flurry of pardons sent shockwaves through the state’s legal system.

State prosecutors told local media they had not been consulted on Mr Bevin’s decision, and families of the victims were not notified in advance.

“I’m a big believer in second chances,” Mr Bevin said in a statement to the Washington Post newspaper. “I think this is a nation that was founded on the concept of redemption and second chances and new pages in life.”

Mr Bevin’s spate of pardons includes Dayton Jones, convicted of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy, Brett Whitaker, convicted of killing a pastor and his wife while drink-driving, and a woman who was sentenced to life in prison for throwing her newborn in the trash after giving birth in a flea market outhouse.

He also pardoned a man who was sentenced to 23 years in prison last year for raping a 9-year-old child.

The extensive list includes Patrick Brian Baker, convicted in 2017 of reckless homicide, robbery, impersonating a police officer and tampering with evidence linked to a 2014 home invasion that resulted in the death of Donald Mills.

Mr Baker’s brother and sister-in-law held a political fundraiser for Mr Bevin last year, raising $21,500 (£16,100) and donating an additional $4,000 to his campaign at the same event, first reported by the local Courier Journal newspaper.

Mr Baker had served just two years of his 17-year sentence when Mr Bevin pardoned him on 9 December. His co-conspirators in the robbery and homicide were not pardoned.

In his decision to pardon Mr Baker, Mr Bevin called him “a man who has made a series of unwise decisions in his adult life”, including his drug addiction, and called the evidence him “sketchy at best”.

State lawmakers have now called on the Kentucky attorney general to investigate Mr Bevin’s pardon of Mr Baker, according to local media.

It is typical for governors to give pardons on their way out of office. Former Governor of California Jerry Brown is thought to sit near the top in terms of numbers, issuing 1,189 pardons and 152 commutations while in office from 2011-2018. Most of these pardons erased historic conviction records for drug crimes and non-violent offences.

The violent nature of some crimes forgiven by Mr Bevin have fuelled disapproval.

“What this governor did is an absolute atrocity of justice,” Commonwealth Attorney Jackie Steele, who prosecuted Baker, told the Washington Post. “He’s put victims, he’s put others in our community in danger.”

Some critics of the pardoning spree suggest it contrasts with Mr Bevin’s decision while in office to scrap an order restoring the right to vote for offenders who have completed their sentences for non-violent crimes.

On Thursday, the newly elected Mr Beshear signed an executive order to restore the vote for more than 140,000 convicted felons who have served their sentences.

In a tweet on Thursday, the Democratic Governors Association said Mr Bevin “kept standing with special interests until the very end – even at the expense of Kentuckians’ safety and wellbeing”.

Polls suggested Mr Bevin left office as one of the least popular governors in the country, following high-profile battles with unions and teachers.

But others celebrated Mr Bevin’s actions, including Amanda Hall, an organiser for the American Civil Liberties Union, who had her 2009 drug trafficking conviction pardoned by Mr Bevin this month.

“I hope that governors to come see the example that you have given us about redemption and second changes,” Ms Hall said in in a video posted to Twitter. “This is one of the best days of my life.”

Past presidents have also been criticised over their use of pardons, and critics accuse President Donald Trump of using his powers of pardon to address what he believes are political wrongs.

 

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