Oct. 27, 2020

'Through the Roof' Prescription Drug Prices Hit Communities of Color the Hardest
Grassroots advocates insist there's got to be a better way
By Hazel Trice Edney

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Seventy-three-year-old Leonard L. Edloe, a pharmacist of 50 years and pastor of a predominately Black church in Middlesex County, Va., knows the personal and professional sides of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes well. He also knows the astronomical costs of prescription medications and the related financial struggles.

His father—also named Leonard L. Edloe—opened the first of their four family-owned pharmacies in 1948. But he was only 65 when he came home from work one day, sat down, had a sandwich and a beer and then died of a massive heart attack. It was a major emotional blow to lose his father and mentor that way. But then Edloe's sister died at 60 and his brother at 54 - also both of heart attacks.

"I had to get out," he said sternly, reflecting on his now determined self-care through exercise and healthy eating. "I'm 73 now."

For decades, Edloe has been a prominent household family name in Richmond, Va. where his father's first pharmacy was established. Since his family was upper middle class, he acknowledged they had no problem paying for prescription medication.  But given his father's legacy and his own community service through his profession and dedication to help people in need, he is known for being on the cutting edge of the struggle to establish health equity. That includes exploring ways to make prescription drugs more affordable and accessible to all.

"The pricing has gone through the roof," he said in an interview. "I mean, insulin - a month's supply for some people - is $600." That's $7,200 a year. "Even the generic pricing has gone up," he points out. “That has become worse because so many of the drugs are imported. Seventy-five percent of the drugs in the United States have an ingredient that's made in China, India or Germany."

Edloe explained that "Because there's no control over pricing in the United States, they can basically charge what they want to; whereas in other countries, the government decides."

As a former long-time member of Medicaid HMO Virginia Premier Health Plan's board – Edloe pointed out that the drug used to treat Hepatitis C costs $1,000 a pill. But in Egypt, it is $1 a pill.

Edloe has expressed these concerns vehemently over the years in various leadership roles, including as chair of the Virginia Heart Association for the Mid-Atlantic Region; president of the American Pharmacists Association Foundation, and board member of the Virginia Commonwealth University Health Systems Authority.

"My blood pressure medicine for myself has tripled in price. I was paying $15 for three months. Now it's $45," he said. "Fortunately, that's with my insurance."

For people who lack health insurance, medicine for hypertension can cost upwards of $300-$600 a year, which, can be difficult to manage financially along with paying for other medications and bills. "So, it's real serious," Edloe concluded.

Community health workers and researchers around the country have long recognized the increasing costs of prescription drugs and the difficult choices some people must make to afford them.

An article in Harvard Medical School's Harvard Health Publishing, titled, "Millions of Adults Skip Medications Due to Their High Costs” highlights findings from a national survey conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics:

• Eight percent of adult Americans don’t take their medicines as prescribed because they can not afford them.
• Among adults under 65, sixpercent who had private insurance still skipped medicines to save money.
• 10 percent of people who rely on Medicaid skipped their medicines.
• Of those who are not insured, 14 percent skipped their medications because of cost.
• Among the nation’s poorest adults— those with incomes well below the federal poverty level — nearly 14 percent “did not take medications as prescribed to save money.” 

Those statistics get even worse when exploring prescription drug affordability in the Black community. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a division of the National Institute of Health, “Elderly black Medicare beneficiaries are more than twice as likely as white beneficiaries to not have supplemental insurance and to not fill prescriptions because they cannot afford them.”

Likewise, an AARP survey of 1,218 African-American voters last year found more than three in five (62 percent) said “prices of prescription drugs are unreasonable” and nearly half (46 percent) said they did not fill a prescription provided by their doctor, mainly because of cost.

The inability to pay for prescription drugs – even for those under the age of 65 - has significantly impacted Blacks, Latinos and other people of color due to economic disparities.

“Though the Affordable Care Act (ACA) reduced the number of uninsured Americans, over 28 million remain without insurance,” says PublicHealthPost.org. “More than half (55%) of uninsured Americans under the age of 65 are people of color. For those with no insurance, paying retail prices for medications is often financially impossible.”

This is no secret to those who have been working in the trenches on critical health care issues daily for years.

Ruth Perot, executive director/CEO of the Summit Health Institute for Research and Education, Inc. (SHIRE), serves the 92 percent Black and largely low-income families of Washington, D.C.’s 6th, 7th and 8th Wards. She has been working on grassroots health equity isuses in communities of color for more than 23 years.

“I am certainly aware of the extent to which folks have to, of course make that choice between the cost of a prescription and the other commitments that they have, whether it’s rent or whether it’s food on the table or something related to the education for their children,” Perot said. “The cost of prescription drugs has always been out of control. It’s been a major profit-motive driven industry. That’s been true for some time. And so, whatever we see at the national level from a policy perspective still hasn’t addressed the fundamental issue that the drug prescriptions cost too much…I don’t think the federal government has ever used its power as the principle buyer of drugs to get those prices down. So, it’s been a persistent problem for many, many, many years if not decades.”

Edloe, having owned pharmacies in predominately Black communities, vehemently agrees. In addition to his medical career, he also interfaces with the community as pastor of the New Hope Fellowship Church in Hartfield, Va. As he personally works to avoid his family’s history with heart disease, he passes along health lessons to his congregation, and is intimately familiar with their struggles to pay for prescription drugs. Currently working with two groups involving health disparities and pharmaceuticals, he says he believes the answer to achieve equity will ultimately be “some form of universal health care.”

But, there must also be a culture change, he said. “Because a lot of health care providers still are not trained and the materials are still not designed for diverse communities. So it’s all about getting equity – not equality – but equity in health care. Because there’s a big difference. If everybody stands beside the fence and the fence is six feet and you’re 6 feet 5 inches tall, you can see over it, but other people can’t. Equity means you might have to give them a stool to see.”

This article is part of a series on the impact of high prescription drug costs on consumers made possible through the 2020 West Health and Families USA Media Fellowship.

Oct. 26, 2020

We Know What We Have to Do - Beyond the 2020 Elections
By Julianne Malveaux

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - No matter what the outcome of the 2020 election, there remains much work to do. Our economy is wrong-sided, and we have to right-side it. Our tax code rewards the wealthy and penalizes others. Our regulatory system protects corporations, not people. Almost a hundred environmental regulations from the Obama years have been reversed. Schools have fewer protections than they once had. Workers have fewer protections, and unions are under attack. And the Supreme Court has been stacked to favor oligarchs, not everyday people. The very right to vote has been compromised with rules that marginalize too many people.

It is my fervent hope that the Biden-Harris ticket will prevail in this election, but even if they win, there is still much work to do. First, the coronavirus needs to be controlled. Mark Meadows, the 45^th President's chief of staff, says the administration will do nothing to contain the virus, and their wanton disregard of essential public health tenets (hand-washing, mask-wearing, social distancing) reflects their casual approach to the virus. A President Biden would tackle this issue, but he will need to be pushed to ensure that the process is egalitarian and that those who have suffered disproportionally, like Black folks, will get more remediation than those who have not so suffered.

Economic recovery and economic expansion should be high on the agenda. Again, those who have suffered from covid and repressive economic policies need special attention. Biden-Harris must address the racial wealth gap, the relentless unemployment rate differential, and systemic poverty. Some of the employment situation can be addressed through an infrastructure improvement program. The American Society of Civil Engineers consistently grades our roads, bridges, water quality, and public buildings with substandard grades. The appropriate investment of federal dollars would not only be good for employment but also for the economy.

Our criminal justice system must be fixed, and federal initiatives to stop police brutality must be developed. Environmental issues must be vigorously addressed. Health care must be treated as a right, and it must be universal. The "do" list is long, and it may include expanding the Supreme Court's size. It's not court-packing, as some would suggest; it's right-sizing something that has gone wrong. The point is that a Biden-Harris victory may be cause for celebration, but it is also an invitation for all of us to roll up our sleeves and get to work, not only at the federal level but also at the state and local level.

I can hear my conservative friends already asking what all this will cost. We know the 2017 tax cut cost the Treasury trillions of dollars. We seem only to be interested in cost when we are looking at people on the bottom. There appears to be much less concern about programs designed to benefit the wealthy. Then, some of the work we have to do is to transform our mindset, decide what kind of economy we want, and then work to create it. That may mean a very different approach to our predatory capitalist system, and it may mean restructuring the system to make it more people-focused. It is a possibility!

Now we know what it is like to live with a graft-centered leader who has thrown our nation under the bus for his selfish gains. We have the opportunity to learn what it is like to live with a more people-centered leader. Still, we should be clear that Bidden-Harris leadership will be center-left predatory capitalism. They will need to be pushed, and we need to be prepared to push them. If we have learned nothing from the Obama years, we should have learned that a closed mouth won’t get fed. Black folk were so happy to have a Black president that we were reluctant to push him and his administration very hard. Much as we may like Biden-Harris, we must be willing to push them.

When he accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King said, “I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits. I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up.” Biden-Harris will move us closer to King’s dream, but they won't take us all the way there. Not unless we push. We know what we have to do.

October 26, 2020

To Be Equal 

 
Racism Leaves America Vulnerable To Foreign Manipulation And Exploitation Of The Threat Of Violent Voter Intimidation
By Marc H. Morial 

(TriceEdneyWire.com) - “We have to accept that foreign powers seize upon these divisions because they are real — because racism remains the United States’ Achilles’ heel. Indeed, it is, and always has been, a national security vulnerability — a fundamental and easily exploitable reality of American life that belies the image and narrative of equality and justice we project and export around the world.” -- Sherrilyn Ifill, President and Director-Counsel, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund

Voters in Florida and Alaska woke up to a chilling message in their email this week.

“We are in possession of all your information. You will vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you.”

The messages seemed to be coming from the far-right white supremacist group, Proud Boys.

It was a terrifying reminder of America’s long history of white supremacist terrorist tactics used to keep Black Americans from exercising their right to vote.

Intelligence officials have determined the messages were the work of Iranian operatives and that more of this kind of interference could be in store from Russia.

Russian interference in the 2016 election is well-documented – and the largest part of their efforts were aimed at suppressing the Black vote.

Exploitation of American racism by both Russia and Iran extends back through the decades. In the 1960s, KGB and Soviet influence operations were aimed at discrediting Martin Luther King Jr. During the Iranian hostage crisis that began in 1979, the hostage-takers declared a unified stance with “oppressed minorities” in the United States, and released all Black and woman hostages in an attempt to use American racial tensions as a wedge issue. In the 1980s the Soviet Union stoked racial tensions ahead of the 1984 Olympics.

The simple truth is American racism – which is very real -- makes us vulnerable to foreign adversaries intent on weakening our democracy.

The threat of violence contained in the emails sent by Iran appears to be an empty one. And Black voters do not appear to have been singled out in this operation.

But the threat of election-related violence from white supremacist terrorists is real, not an invention of Iran or Russia.  In the last presidential election, Neo-Nazis and groups related to the Ku Klux Klan — threatened to send “armies” to Black precincts.  Arsonists who set fire to a Baptist Church in Mississippi spray-painted the message “Vote Trump.”

Devin Burghart, executive director of the Institute for Research and Education on Human Rights, told WBUR, “We are seeing a high level of activity from militia-type groups and other far right organizations discussing the possibility of interfering in the electoral process, either on Election Day or after the ballots are cast.”

The Department of Homeland Security’s October Threat Assessment warned that violent extremists might target events related to the 2020 Presidential campaigns, the election itself, election results, or the post-election period. “Among [Domestic Violent Extremists], racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists—specifically white supremacist extremists (WSEs)—will remain the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland.”

In the same document, the Department also warned that Russian actors would exploit “perceived grievances within minority communities, especially among African Americans” and “engage in efforts to discourage voter turnout and to suppress votes” in the 2020 election just as they did in the 2016 election.

The fact that both foreign and domestic actors have focused their efforts on Black Americans is proof of the power of the Black vote.  If your vote didn’t matter, they wouldn’t fight so hard to block it.

We won’t be intimidated, and we won’t be fooled. Please make a plan to vote, early if possible.

###

Oct. 26, 2020

Don't Be Confused
By Dr. E. Faye Williams

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – I was ready to be forgiving of people who hadn’t decided for whom to vote this late, but no longer after hearing the latest news about foreign interference in our November election—and not hearing a mumbling word from the President of the United States!

This President has not shown any interest in protecting our democracy from foreign intervention in our election. He’s already asked homeland terrorists to simply standby after the governor of Michigan and others have been threatened with kidnap and murder, he leads chants to lock up perfectly loyal Americans. I can’t imagine a sane person who chooses Donald Trump over Joe Biden to be our President.

Isn’t it obvious that Trump has shown no interest in helping or protecting anybody other than himself? I’m convinced he cares nothing about his family or his friends. I use the term “friends” loosely because he throws them under the bus as soon as they don’t agree with his dangerous requirements. He’s already threatening to fire his FBI Director and has given warning to his Attorney General while rushing him to arrest political opponents for no reason. He’s called Dr. Fauci a disaster for trying to provide health advice to stop killing people with COVID-19.

We’ve heard more than enough of his angry, vulgar, insulting, rhetoric to vote him out of the White House. No one else would be allowed over 20,000 lies and still hold such an important position. In a democracy, truth matters. Who are these people who enable him to continue holding such a powerful position without speaking out against such behavior? Who are these people who act like there’s no difference in Joe Biden and him when the differences are so obvious? Joe Biden is an honorable man who can admit, and has admitted, his mistakes and worked to overcome them.

It’s so disappointing that Kanye West is lending his name to keeping the current President in office. I don’t think he understands what he is doing in trying to take a few votes from Black men over to Trump.

On the other hand, I think Ice Cube, as he calls himself, seems to be pretty bright. He knows how much Black people are suffering under Trump who has no interest in doing anything to help our people. We risk losing the health benefits President Barack Obama and VP Joe Biden worked to get even for people with pre-existing conditions. I have no problem with his Contract for Black America, but I haven’t spoken to a single Black man who was asked what he wanted and do they want it so bad they’re willing to not vote and deliver the Presidency to Trump.

I have no problem with the contents of Ice Cube’s Contract. My problem is with his timing and his approach to selling it that gives a few Black men an excuse for not voting without telling them not voting is a way of supporting Trump. Joe Biden has shown his ability and willingness to help our community. I think it’s wrong to say both men are evil. Even if it is true, he knows one is more evil than the other. Such a time as this is reason for voting for the lesser of two evils. Any sensible person would take one mistake over 20,000 lies any day.

My plea to Ice Cube is to stop confusing people about the best person to vote for. Lord knows our community is owed a lot of help by a lot of politicians, but we risk too much to take another chance with a reality show man who hasn’t a clue as to what the reality is on needs of our community.

(Dr. E. Faye Williams is President of the National Congress of Black Women and host of “Wake Up and Stay Woke” on WPFW-89.3 FM.)