Speaker 1: You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM
Speaker 1: six forty.
Speaker 2: And this is KFI bill Handle on a Wednesday morningday,
Speaker 2: August fourteenth. A couple of things new post on Instagram.
Speaker 2: I met some new neighbors in my new house. I
Speaker 2: went and met neighbors and we videoed it. And there's
Speaker 2: a little seven year old girl that I probably have
Speaker 2: completely destroyed her mental health for the next twenty years.
Speaker 3: So just go to at bill Handle Show and you
Speaker 3: can tune in on that one.
Speaker 2: Also, podcast, a Bill Handle Show podcast is now up
Speaker 2: and running every Tuesday and Thursday. It drops as I
Speaker 2: end the show at nine o'clock. And this week you
Speaker 2: what yesterday was Project twenty twenty five and tomorrow Supreme
Speaker 2: Court cases that.
Speaker 3: Will blow your mind going all the way back. Now,
Speaker 3: what is it? Friday is the two year.
Speaker 2: Anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act. Tomorrow, the White House
Speaker 2: is going to announce what happened with the Medicare negotiations
Speaker 2: for the price of ten prescription drugs.
Speaker 3: So let me tell you first of all how all
Speaker 3: of this works.
Speaker 2: Medicare has been able to negotiate with hospitals and doctors and.
Speaker 3: Device makers for decades.
Speaker 2: However, Medicare has not been able to negotiate with big pharma,
Speaker 2: and people over sixty five take lots and lots of drugs. I,
Speaker 2: for example, just took my morning meds and it is
Speaker 2: a handful everything from blood while you know, I had
Speaker 2: heart surgery, everything but blood pressure medication to blood thinner,
Speaker 2: A lot of anti anxiety drugs, calmatives, lots and lots
Speaker 2: of those.
Speaker 3: Like xanax.
Speaker 2: Lamictel is my anti anxiety drug of choice. And are
Speaker 2: you ready for this? What le miickeel does to me
Speaker 2: is calm me down. I know that's hard to believe,
Speaker 2: but it calms me down. So what ended up happening
Speaker 2: is under the Inflation Reduction Act, the government for the
Speaker 2: first time is now allowed to negotiate and they started
Speaker 2: negotiations and only on.
Speaker 3: Ten prescription drugs.
Speaker 2: That's it, right, talking to major big pharma on ten
Speaker 2: drugs that are used by seniors and all of us.
Speaker 2: Why well, because well, I tell you what the drugs are.
Speaker 2: You've seen these commercials, for example, Jardians. You know it's
Speaker 2: you know, people dancing around is Chardian's commercial? Will they
Speaker 2: do that musical that looks like Glee if I'm not
Speaker 2: mistaken trying to remember all these commercials and what they do,
Speaker 2: and then you have, of course the disclaimers. You could die,
Speaker 2: you know, your scrope could fall off, you know, just
Speaker 2: all of that stuff.
Speaker 3: That they do on the disclaimer.
Speaker 2: But these drugs, these are name brand drugs, and they
Speaker 2: cost hundreds, if not thousands of.
Speaker 3: Dollars per month, and there are no breaks.
Speaker 2: Now they tell you if you can't afford it, will
Speaker 2: help you out. Okay, that's one percent. We can make
Speaker 2: arrangements for you. If the insurance companies pay for it.
Speaker 2: You're off the hook, or you're mainly off the hook.
Speaker 2: I've got drugs that literally can cost and do cost
Speaker 2: brand name two thousand dollars a month, and I've been
Speaker 2: using a decades. Now. I'm a member of Kaiser and
Speaker 2: they negotiate because there's five million people on the Kaiser Plan.
Speaker 2: So what is happening now is that the government before
Speaker 2: the law has changed and kicks in allowing Medicare to
Speaker 2: now be part of the negotiating process with Big Pharma,
Speaker 2: who had somehow excluded itself from negotiating with the government.
Speaker 2: Everybody else negotiates, hospitals, doctors, the vice makers. They alln negotiate,
Speaker 2: not pharmaceutical companies. That is changing and why is that?
Speaker 2: Why did they get away with it? Well, look at
Speaker 2: the lobbyists, look at the power of big pharma. It
Speaker 2: is probably, if not the most powerful lobby that exists,
Speaker 2: among the most powerful lobby And so what is happening?
Speaker 2: And my favorite, absolute favorite response to the call for
Speaker 2: lowering the price of drugs, By the way, we pay
Speaker 2: in some cases ten times as much as.
Speaker 3: Anybody else in the world pays.
Speaker 2: And I'll tell you a story about France, I'll tell
Speaker 2: you a story about other governments and negotiations with big
Speaker 2: pharma and what's going to happen? And what the Pharmaceutical Association,
Speaker 2: I don't know what the National Association of Pharmaceutical Associations
Speaker 2: with all the pharmaceutical clubs belonged to. What they said
Speaker 2: to defend the prices, it's stunning, It is stunning what
Speaker 2: they said.
Speaker 3: I couldn't even believe it.
Speaker 2: And the Biden Harris administration now Kamala Harris wants fifty
Speaker 2: new drugs per year negotiated down. And of course big
Speaker 2: Pharma is has been just absolutely crazy fighting this, and
Speaker 2: not only that, Republicans are fighting this and you go,
Speaker 2: wait a minute, how is it possible that foreign countries
Speaker 2: pay a third in some cases the tenth that we pay.
Speaker 3: For the same medicine.
Speaker 2: Well, because of political clout of the pharmaceutical companies and
Speaker 2: the backing of most members of the Republican Party. So
Speaker 2: the government negotiating with these pharmaceutical companies is very different
Speaker 2: than your company or your insurance company negotiating. Story out
Speaker 2: of France, and this is what happens with single payer.
Speaker 2: France has nationalized government, nationalized medical care, and France, the
Speaker 2: country negotiates with pharmaceutical companies. Eli Lilly comes in and
Speaker 2: is introducing a drug and they want to go into France. Okay,
Speaker 2: they're negotiating with the government of France to buy the
Speaker 2: drug and set the prices.
Speaker 3: So there is a great story.
Speaker 2: Out of France where one of the big pharmaceutical companies,
Speaker 2: I don't remember which one it came up with a
Speaker 2: new drug and they wanted to pry. They wanted to
Speaker 2: charge a ridiculous amount of money, and the government of
Speaker 2: France said, no, we're not willing to pay that much.
Speaker 2: And they said, well, there's no other drug out there.
Speaker 2: We have it and you have no chill. And the
Speaker 2: government said, you're right. If we wanted to have that drug,
Speaker 2: you would you would have to get the price. So
Speaker 2: tell you what, not only are we not going to
Speaker 2: buy it, you're done in the French market for all
Speaker 2: of your drugs.
Speaker 3: Get out.
Speaker 2: Oh okay, let's redo, let's revisit that one.
Speaker 3: Okay.
Speaker 2: But that's because the government can negotiate. And in this
Speaker 2: case you got the You have the government of the
Speaker 2: United States negotiating with.
Speaker 3: Pharma over these ten drugs.
Speaker 2: And it's on behalf of three hundred and twenty million
Speaker 2: people or in the case of over sixty five let's
Speaker 2: say they're one hundred million or fifty million.
Speaker 3: I don't know.
Speaker 2: The stats changes everything, and they finally came to the table.
Speaker 2: And this is going to be part of Joe Biden's
Speaker 2: legacy because he's been working for this for years.
Speaker 3: And as I told you.
Speaker 2: What when this came to being, when the government said
Speaker 2: that the big pharmaceuticals have a gri read to negotiate
Speaker 2: the price on ten drugs, and then more as the
Speaker 2: years now are increasing, Next year there's more, the year
Speaker 2: after that, there's more. Ann Harris wants fifty drugs per
Speaker 2: year negotiated down. Why is all of a sudden Big
Speaker 2: pharm is saying yes, Well, because they have no choice.
Speaker 3: Governments said, tell you what, you don't do this. They've
Speaker 3: been in negotiations for a couple of years.
Speaker 2: You don't do this. Okay, we're gonna pass a law
Speaker 2: that says we're gonna determine the price. Whoa, whoa, Okay,
Speaker 2: we'll talk to you. Not so much determine the price,
Speaker 2: just say you can't go above this price. They did
Speaker 2: that with insulin. If you are on insulin and you
Speaker 2: are a senior, you're not paying more than thirty five
Speaker 2: bucks a month.
Speaker 3: That's it. You're done. And they used to charge three hundred,
Speaker 3: four hundred dollars a month and people couldn't afford it.
Speaker 2: So, as I told you, how did Big Pharma? What
Speaker 2: was their position regarding drug prices going down? And this
Speaker 2: is the one that absolutely stunned me. They actually argued
Speaker 2: that seniors paying less money for drugs is good for them.
Speaker 2: They are better off paying less money. What how is
Speaker 2: that possible? Well, here's their rationale. It costs so much
Speaker 2: money to develop these drugs that if we don't get
Speaker 2: our full price.
Speaker 3: We are not going to.
Speaker 2: Be able to generate the amount of research that it
Speaker 2: takes to create the new drugs.
Speaker 3: It's not going to make sense financially.
Speaker 2: Therefore we need the money, and seniors won't get the
Speaker 2: benefit of new drugs that we would develop. Okay, I
Speaker 2: mean that's logical, that's logical. And then they come back with,
Speaker 2: then how come you sell the drug in den Mark
Speaker 2: or Norway or Mexico for a third the price.
Speaker 3: Why don't you say the same thing to them?
Speaker 2: Well, one thing, the government charge. The government negotiates the
Speaker 2: price in those countries. And two, well, the answer is
Speaker 2: the reason we charge them a tenth what we charge
Speaker 2: here is uh uh uh exactly because they can get
Speaker 2: away with it because it's private industry, because there's a
Speaker 2: fear of the government getting involved, because it's socialism. By
Speaker 2: the way, anybody you ask about socialist medicine, how horrible
Speaker 2: it is. Just ask And by the way, when they
Speaker 2: hit sixty five saying don't accept, saying don't accept medicare
Speaker 2: because that's socialized medicine. Don't accept, just say no, I'd
Speaker 2: rather pay for insurance on my own. How many how
Speaker 2: many think would say okay, have you ever heard of
Speaker 2: even those that are against medicare, Conservatives, pro business, pro
Speaker 2: pharmacy industry, say I refuse to accept medicare. I won't
Speaker 2: do it because that's the government paying for it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, raise your hand. I've had talks.
Speaker 2: I mean, I've had people on the phone screaming at
Speaker 2: me about because I'm in favor of single payer. I
Speaker 2: am in favor of socialized medicine. Like the rest of
Speaker 2: the world. You know, we're the only industrialized country on
Speaker 2: the planet that doesn't have socialized medicine.
Speaker 3: Maybe South Africa, but that's it.
Speaker 2: Every other country has governmental involvement in.
Speaker 3: Medicine is considered a right to us. It's not a right.
Speaker 2: And so I've had people say I don't want it,
Speaker 2: I don't want it, but leave my medicare.
Speaker 3: Alone, all right.
Speaker 2: So the good news is now you're going to see
Speaker 2: the commercial Jordian's commercial with that gal who's about one
Speaker 2: hundred pounds overweight, dancing around and singing in glee, and
Speaker 2: you are going to be able to pay far, far,
Speaker 2: far less for your Jordians. Why because that's one of
Speaker 2: the drugs that the government has negotiated down. The announcement
Speaker 2: is going to come out tomorrow after the market's closed
Speaker 2: because of the.
Speaker 3: Fear it's going to accept. It's going to affect the markets.
Speaker 2: By the way, these pharmaceutical companies are saying they don't
Speaker 2: anticipate taking a big financial hit, they've already anticipated it.
Speaker 2: I don't know how because they're selling drugs that would
Speaker 2: go for four hundred dollars a month and now they're
Speaker 2: going to pay thirty They're going to get thirty five
Speaker 2: dollars a month, So I don't know how they're going
Speaker 2: to get away with it.
Speaker 3: Now.
Speaker 2: If you're on Social Security, it's tough. It is tough now.
Speaker 2: Every year raise last year I think it was five percent.
Speaker 2: Actually one year it was eight percent. Because that's based
Speaker 2: on inflation, and Social Security is supposed to keep up
Speaker 2: with inflation.
Speaker 3: It hasn't.
Speaker 2: It is tougher and tougher for seniors and people.
Speaker 3: And I've talked about this over and over again.
Speaker 2: Social Security was never meant to be the sole retirement fund.
Speaker 2: It was always meant to be that it was is
Speaker 2: going to augment whatever retirement you have.
Speaker 3: So there are people and I get.
Speaker 2: Calls all the time on the Saturday Show, people who
Speaker 2: are on Social Security who are living on eleven twelve hundred,
Speaker 2: fifteen hundred dollars a month and they get evicted?
Speaker 3: Is there anything I can do? Bill? And it is.
Speaker 2: It's very, very tough to know those people are well.
Speaker 2: A lot of older people are homeless, more so than
Speaker 2: ever before because they just can't afford it getting Social Security.
Speaker 2: And it's not keeping up with inflation. A couple of
Speaker 2: years of the last twenty years, it is kept up
Speaker 2: with inflation.
Speaker 3: But let me tell you give you some stats.
Speaker 2: Social Security benefits have lost twenty percent of their buying
Speaker 2: power since twenty ten. Those who retired that year would
Speaker 2: have needed a boost of three hundred and seventy dollars
Speaker 2: a month to keep up.
Speaker 3: On average.
Speaker 2: Well, let me tell you need three thousand, four thousand
Speaker 2: dollars three at least three thousand dollars a year if
Speaker 2: it's only Social Security.
Speaker 3: And keep in mind, how far.
Speaker 2: Does three thousand, excuse me, three thousand dollars a month?
Speaker 2: And how far does three thousand dollars a month go?
Speaker 2: Here in southern California where rent can be three thousand
Speaker 2: dollars a month, twenty five hundred dollars a month, who
Speaker 2: is it that I just talked to that moved and
Speaker 2: went to I think Texas or Arkansas, where a nice
Speaker 2: one bedroom in a very nice neighborhood is twelve hundred
Speaker 2: bucks a month, And if you're on Social Security, it's
Speaker 2: across the board. You live in Arkansas, you're getting the
Speaker 2: same amount of money that you're getting here. Social Security
Speaker 2: is does not recognize geographical areas.
Speaker 3: So it simply doesn't keep up. And next year's boost.
Speaker 2: And it will be announced in October because they already
Speaker 2: know the figures. It goes back a year and then
Speaker 2: it goes back a year before that, and they do
Speaker 2: an average.
Speaker 3: There's a whole formula.
Speaker 2: Here that's expected to be two point six percent based
Speaker 2: on inflation that was through June, and that's a formula
Speaker 2: two point six percent on Social Security. It is not
Speaker 2: keeping up with inflation, even though infation inflation has dropped precipitously.
Speaker 2: But inflation is going to be one of the big
Speaker 2: big issues with this presidential election coming up in November,
Speaker 2: because you will see the Republicans and Donald Trump talk
Speaker 2: about how inflation is out of control.
Speaker 3: It's not inflation is now it's controlled.
Speaker 2: The problem is it already has gone up so high
Speaker 2: that people don't recognize that it's flatlined. All they know
Speaker 2: is the price of restaurants, the price of food, the
Speaker 2: price of everything has in fact increase. And does it matter, Well, Neil,
Speaker 2: you talk about restaurants all the time where food has
Speaker 2: gone up so dramatically, and does it matter if it
Speaker 2: hasn't gone up in the last year.
Speaker 3: Do you think anybody cares?
Speaker 1: Well, the people are making money from it.
Speaker 3: But I'm talking about the consumer.
Speaker 2: You me going into a restaurant and you're looking at
Speaker 2: the prices and you're going, I can't believe that this entree. Well,
Speaker 2: Hamburger's write, fifteen bucks for a Hamburger would be at
Speaker 2: a high, high end restaurant. We'd go to Morton's down
Speaker 2: the street and take clients to lunch, and it'd be fifteen.
Speaker 3: Bucks for a Hamburger. That was a lot of money.
Speaker 3: Now fifteen dollars nothing.
Speaker 1: No, you find that anywhere, you know, which is what
Speaker 1: is causing a trend of people not going to fast food.
Speaker 1: They're going to sit down restaurants because they're going to
Speaker 1: pay for the same cost and get better food, and
Speaker 1: they'll sit down.
Speaker 2: But the point I'm making is that prices went up
Speaker 2: so quickly that that increase is now in everybody's head,
Speaker 2: and it has become a legitimate political attack on.
Speaker 3: Kamala Harris because it was under her.
Speaker 2: Watch, Joe Biden's watch, that at prices increase so dramatically,
Speaker 2: And it really doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: Now tell you who gets nailed big time. People are on.
Speaker 2: Social Security because it's not keeping up with inflation.
Speaker 3: Actually, wages aren't keeping up with inflation.
Speaker 2: They will, I think because it has leveled off and
Speaker 2: there hasn't been an inflationary period like we've had for
Speaker 2: a couple of years now. But it doesn't matter seniors.
Speaker 2: I mean, it breaks my heart literally. I have phone
Speaker 2: calls bill I get sixteen hundred dollars a month and
Speaker 2: I'm paying twenty two hundred dollars a month for my apartment.
Speaker 3: How do you do that? How do you do that? Well?
Speaker 2: Family helps Now, I have fifteen roommates. My dumpster is
Speaker 2: nice and roomy. I eat cat food now. I make
Speaker 2: a lot of jokes about that, but I'm willing to
Speaker 2: bet that there are more than a few people that
Speaker 2: are homeless because and on Social Security because they just
Speaker 2: can't afford it. Really is heartbreaking. Okay, just a story
Speaker 2: about how you know your life is terrible. You know
Speaker 2: I do a lot of those, don't I. There's just
Speaker 2: something about your life is horrible. You're going to die
Speaker 2: next week, You've gotten some strange disease that you will
Speaker 2: never be able to cure.
Speaker 3: It's just part of it, you know. That's what the
Speaker 3: show is about.
Speaker 1: Not that you do them because they are news stories.
Speaker 1: It's the joy you've take in them that's a little off, but.
Speaker 3: You know that's probably true. Okay. Hey, there's a.
Speaker 2: Thing going on this out of the Wall Street Journal,
Speaker 2: and that is a there's a trend of wearing shorts
Speaker 2: at work, and it has to do with it is
Speaker 2: becoming more and more casual, casual Fridays, which now don't
Speaker 2: exist anymore because it's Monday through Friday. Casual people wearing shorts.
Speaker 2: And I asked, and I'm thinking they've been asked, Neil
Speaker 2: and Ann. They've been wearing and I'm talking about management,
Speaker 2: even high management has been wearing jeans here for years.
Speaker 2: Who the hell wears a tie anymore? I haven't seen
Speaker 2: a tie around here in years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they've slowly moved away from that.
Speaker 2: They have even the other day Paul Corvino, who is
Speaker 2: our you know, the division president here. I mean, it's
Speaker 2: about as high end as you're going to get on
Speaker 2: the West Coast. There he is in jeans, open shirt,
Speaker 2: and so I'm thinking, and the story says that there
Speaker 2: is a move. Now there's a counter move saying, hey,
Speaker 2: you got to be professional.
Speaker 3: People still expecting to be professional, and the.
Speaker 2: Reality is when you see clients, then you wear a
Speaker 2: coat and tie. For example, tomorrow, I have a meeting
Speaker 2: with a client, perspective client, and I'm dressing up. I
Speaker 2: am wearing my shorts that don't have holes in them,
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna wear one of my Hawaiian shirts that
Speaker 2: I bought at Costco, and I'm gonna wear my mandals.
Speaker 3: And that's expected.
Speaker 2: And people around here, well, it's casual Monday through Friday,
Speaker 2: and it's just what's going on there.
Speaker 3: And there is a counterpoint on this there actually is.
Speaker 2: There are actually is a move against this because they're
Speaker 2: saying business has gone so informal that we sort of
Speaker 2: lost all formality, all professionality. So so i'd share that
Speaker 2: with you.
Speaker 3: Because we're wearing shorts, you wear pants, You don't wear shorts,
Speaker 3: so you.
Speaker 1: Neil, I do wear shorts around the house. I don't
Speaker 1: wear shorts to work, huh, very really, even on Saturdays
Speaker 1: when I go in to do the Foe Report. I
Speaker 1: don't know that I've ever worn shorts.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you're not a short kind of guy, all right.
Speaker 1: No, I like shorts, I just don't tend to wear
Speaker 1: them to work, all right, I do constantly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks for that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just like the air flowing around. I don't
Speaker 2: want to get into that, all right.
Speaker 3: Just a quick one.
Speaker 2: Just Instagram is up at Bill Handle Show. I met
Speaker 2: my new neighbors and videoed it and you'll see what
Speaker 2: I did to a little seven year old girl.
Speaker 3: It's very handlesque.
Speaker 2: And the podcast, the Bill Handle Show podcast is now
Speaker 2: been running. It every Tuesday and Thursday at nine o'clock.
Speaker 2: A new episode drops yesterday it was Project twenty twenty five.
Speaker 2: Tomorrow at nine o'clock. It is supreme Court cases that
Speaker 2: will blow your mind. And since I don't listen to it,
Speaker 2: I'd love for you to share your thoughts unless you
Speaker 2: hate the show. And then well, actually, if you hate
Speaker 2: the show, that's even better, and I'll probably respond and
Speaker 2: tell you to go pound sand and not in those words,
Speaker 2: because that's the Internet.
Speaker 3: That's it.
Speaker 2: We're done tomorrow more it starts all over again. Amy,
Speaker 2: wake up call five o'clock. Neil and I join Amy
Speaker 2: at six when we do the morning show Kono and
Speaker 2: and as I say every day, never go home.
Speaker 3: And we are finished. Catch it tomorrow, everybody.
Speaker 2: This is kf I Am six forty live everywhere on
Speaker 2: the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 3: You've been listening to the Bill Handle Show.
Speaker 2: Catch my Show Monday through Friday, six am to nine am,
Speaker 2: and anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app.