In a landmark move, the United States as a government has sided with corporations and attempted to block a policy promoting breast feeding. In a New York Times article by Andrew Jacobs (link here), the US delegation went so far as to threaten the sponsors with trade sanctions. It took sponsorship by the Russian delegation for the US to fall in line.
This event puts the topic of the Healthcare Industrial Complex into focus. This adds to the growing evidence that corporations involved in healthcare are involved in actions that are focused on profit rather than healthcare and use their ability to bully governments (even the government of the United States) to act on their behalf. The fact that babies' health is now part of the equation through formula profits is disturbing.
In addition to using their lobbying efforts to affect US governmental policy, corporations continue to control high prices on the most needed formulas and influence insurance companies coverage decisions. Blue Cross Blue Shield is one of those insurance companies that has denied prescriptions to the most expensive formulas even though it was the only formula not to create problems that caused blood in the baby's stool.
Please take the time to communicate with your politicians and companies like Abbott, and Nestle about these issues. A large threat to sell shares owned (we all likely own shares through retirement funds) or a large scale publicity campaign are probably two of the most effective. Even President Trump has started tweeting about high drug prices. But we'll get into that chicanery in a later post.
** This blog is used for opinions and ideas and should not be used as a direction to act without doing your due diligence.**
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