Not much to
smile about today, so let’s start with the old reliable- "Florida oddities." It seems
two young stalwarts in South Florida illegally captured a small alligator. As
an aside, I remember when the ‘gator was threatened as a species. Now they may
show up (literally, it happened recently two doors down) on your doorstep.
Anyway, after videoing it biting one of them on the arm (small gator, remember)
they also videoed themselves forcing it to drink beer.
Based on documented
fan behavior at University of Florida football home games, this might qualify
for the Guinness Book of World Records as the only time a ‘Gator has ever had
to be forced to drink beer.
An article in
the local section featured locals bitching about the measly “1.6 % Cost of
Living Allowance” increase for Social Security this year. The complaint was
some variation of the “prices are goin’ up faster” than Social Security. Obviously,
at first glance, these rustics are computer illiterate or economically challenged,
which is a more realistic option, since a quick Google search shows the CPI (Consumer
Price Index) for 2019 to be 1.7%, while the COLA was “only” 2% in 2018 and will
be 2.8% in 2019. (Spoiler Alert: “but wait, There’s more!”)
So, what is
this CPI, of which you speak Obi Wan? The
Consumer Price Index is a measure that examines the weighted average of prices
of a basket of consumer goods and services, such as transportation,
food, and medical care. It is calculated by taking price changes
for each item in the predetermined basket of goods and averaging them. Overall
it is the generally accepted metric (statistic) used to define “annual
inflation” also. The problem, which may be driving the complaints of those who do,
is that “weighted average” part.
What that means
to the average consumer is that there are several components sampled (price
wise) which are not equal in impact to the CPI. There are 8 major groups of
commodities/services sampled. These are Housing (42.02%), Food and beverages
(14.31%), Transportation (16.35%), Education and Communication (6.6%), Recreation
(5.69%), Apparel (clothing) (2.6%), Other Goods and Services (3.2%), and
Medical Care (8.68%). This “market basket” of expenditures and their increase or
decrease in price has been unchanged for some time. The percentages above are
the weighted average cost share which makes up the CPI.
What anyone acquainted
with statistics will note is that the effect of an increase or decrease in Housing
of 1% is equivalent (because of the 42% weighting of that sector) to an
increase of almost five times that much in medical/health care costs. However, Housing
costs, tend to be more or less stable in many regions and tend lower in Baby
Boomers. So, what is affecting these people who claim that their SS doesn’t go
as far as it should? Considering the age of SS recipients, it should come as no
surprise that, as a percentage of income, spending on seven of the eight
categories that are sampled to calculate the CPI for seniors (over 65 and on
Social security /Medicare) goes down, while one escalates markedly. That one,
of course is Health Care/Medical expenditures, which average 30% higher than
the national average for all age groups.
What this means
is that, while indexing COLAs is an apolitical method of determining them, which
removes Congress from the process (contrary
to the blatant lies of some Republicans who claim that “Democrats didn’t give
them enough raise” or some other totally bullshit fallacy) the CPI as currently
calculated, while valid for the “average” (whatever that is) household is not
truly representative of the challenges faced by seniors, since for them, while
seven of the component sectors of the CPI actually decrease when over 65,
health care is a much larger portion of household expense. This comes at a time
when, again for (many) retirees over 70, household income is about 25% lower,
drug and other medical expenses are about 30% higher. Meanwhile, per the bureau of labor statistics,
average per person health care expenditures even for those continues to
increase faster than the CPI.
OK, enough
stats, what a you trying to tell us? Simply that the components which are factored
into the CPI were defined before the Robber Barons of the Healthcare and specifically
Big Pharma, skewed the playing field, as they continue to do. Congress is
taking the heat for the wrong thing, which is the reality that weighted health
care components of the CPI are no longer proportional to their actual share of
expenditures by Boomers and newly Social Security eligible households, and it isn’t
even close! What Americans should be angry about is the gutless Congressional refusal
to tell Pharma to keep their lobbying bucks ($27.5 million - that we know about
this year) and enact meaningful legislation either 1) shortening patent periods
or 2) Even better, pass legislation requiring Pharma to prove their development
costs to the FDA, to obtain permission for initial pricing (you know – “regulation
in the public interest?” ), with any increases over patent life indexed to the CPI.
And, 3) Replace the Medicare Part D
prohibition allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices like every single
civilian insurer already does.
Another nice
touch would be to ban DTC (direct to consumer) media advertising of drugs ($5.1
billion in 2018), like every other civilized nation of the world, except
New Zealand, does. Of the nearly $30
billion total that health companies now spend on medical marketing each year,
around 68 percent (or about $20 billion) goes to persuading
doctors and other medical professionals—not consumers—of the benefits of
prescription drugs. And that's according to an in-depth analysis published in January
of this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association!
Okay, I quit, that’s
all I got on this slow news day, other than a deep sense of sorrow for those
innocents caught in the Turkish-Kurdish conflict which our illustrious President
facilitated. When Pat Robertson criticizes you (he said Trump may have lost the
“mandate of heaven” [gag me with a chainsaw]) you are well and truly fucked.
This is the one and only time I have ever hoped that Evangelicals will listen to
this Blood Diamond facilitating, Misogynistic, bag of offal.
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