Tag Archive for: department of health and human services

RFK Jr. Wants Fluoride Out Of Water — And It’s Not Nearly As Crazy As His Detractors Claim

The day before the election, Democratic Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar joined countless other liberals in mocking Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the latter’s suggestion that America reduce its high levels of fluoride.

“I was a little shocked that one of their closing arguments for Donald Trump was take the fluoride out of water,” Klobuchar told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Nov. 4. “I guess they’re ending with more cavities.”

Skepticism of fluoridated water had been lumped in by the liberal establishment with a host of other heterodox views, often dubbed “conspiracy theories,” held by Kennedy and his allies.

Kennedy has harshly criticized fluoride, calling it a neurotoxin and an industrial byproduct. He’s claimed the mineral can cause arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.

He has pledged that the Trump White House will recommend to communities that they remove it from their drinking supplies immediately after Trump takes office. Trump appeared to co-sign the proposal, saying it “sounds alright to me.”

CNN’s Abby Phillip invited Harvard-trained epidemiologist Dr. Syra Madad onto her show the same day to deride Kennedy’s fluoride criticisms: “I do think there are some rocks to be thrown, frankly, at RFK Jr.”

Madad called Kennedy “dangerous” and said his views on fluoride were “against science.”

“It is safe. It’s not toxic,” Madad told the panel.

“When you look at adding in additional amounts of fluoride, even then, the studies have not proven any significant health adverse effects,” she continued.

But numerous other health officials and toxicologists believe Madad is wrong.

“I think that there is sufficient data now, largely from the epidemiological literature in multiple populations, done by different investigators, that early life exposure to fluoride is associated with an increased risk of IQ loss,” Dr. Linda Birnbaum, a board-certified toxicologist and former director of the National Toxicology Program (NTP), told the Daily Caller.

Birnbaum headed the NTP, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), from 2009 to 2019. She is now an adjunct professor at the University of North Carolina’s Gillings School of Public Health, in addition to still contributing research to HHS.

During her tenure, the NTP conducted a systematic review of the published scientific literature on the association between fluoride exposure and neurodevelopment. It found that exposure to higher levels of fluoride — levels it categorized as 1.5 milligrams per liter of water or higher — are associated with lower IQ in children.

The National Toxicology Program (NTP) has declared, “… the data support a consistent inverse association between fluoride exposure and children’s IQ.”

In the meta-analysis by NTP, 52 of 55 studies revealed a decrease in children’s IQ with an increase in fluoride. Internal…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) February 7, 2024

The review said there was insufficient evidence to reach a conclusion about the effects of exposure at 0.7 milligrams per liter, which is the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) current recommended level for U.S. community water supplies.

However, Dr. Birnbaum told the Caller, the NTP is running a comprehensive meta-analysis of the data that will likely show the linked drop in IQ rate is occurring at rates well below the 1.5 milligrams per liter number.

In fact, while Dr. Birnbaum maintained she hasn’t yet seen the newest version of the meta-analysis, older versions she did see show “that it’s quite clear that there may be really no safe level of fluoride just like there’s no safe level for lead,” she said.

Nearly all of the studies the NTP reviewed concluded the mineral was neurotoxic, Stuart Cooper, executive director of the Fluoride Action Network, told the Daily Caller.

The 1.5 number, which the NTP concluded with “moderate confidence” leads to lowered IQ in children, is in line with the World Health Organization, whose current guidelines suggest maintaining levels below that concentration will prevent dental fluorosis, a yellowing or visible calcification of the teeth caused by excessive fluoride exposure.

Cooper argued that the NTP’s report was partially political.

“If you were actually doing a real systematic dose response analysis of a Health Hazard Assessment, do you think you would just magically land on 1.5, which happens to be the World Health Organization’s number?” he asked. “It would be like point 82763, you know, I mean, it wouldn’t be 1.0, what happened? [The report] just coincided miraculously with the World Health Organization? That’s where politics was kind of embedded into this document.”

Cooper, who has spent over 14 years ringing alarm bells about fluoride, says his organization has repeatedly requested supporting studies from the CDC and the American Dental Association (ADA) that prove fluoride is safe but “after 80 years they had nothing.”

“They couldn’t confirm. They have no studies showing that low levels is safe for the developing brain. So here they are exposing 200 million Americans, 2 million pregnant women, 300,000 exclusively bottle-fed infants right at this very second to fluoridation in the drinking water. We have 64 studies showing that that’s harmful, that poses an extreme risk. They have zero studies confirming safety. And yet they want you to ask me what more evidence do I need to find.”

The CDC lauds fluoride as a landmark innovation in preventing tooth decay and caries, otherwise known as cavities. The agency calls community water fluoridation one of the “top ten public health achievements of the twentieth century.”

Thanks to water fluoridation in the U.S., the CDC claims “dental caries declined precipitously during the second half of the 20th century.”

But that precipitous drop has occurred in both fluoridated countries and non-fluoridated alike. Countries with no community water fluoridation like Iceland, Italy and Japan, have all seen even steeper drops in cavities, according to data from the WHO.

“Although the prevalence of caries varies between countries, levels everywhere have fallen greatly in the past three decades, and national rates of caries are now universally low. This trend has occurred regardless of the concentration of fluoride in water or the use of fluoridated salt, and it probably reflects use of fluoridated toothpastes and other factors, including perhaps aspects of nutrition,” KK Cheng, a professor of public health and the Director of the University of Birmingham’s Institute of Applied Health Research, wrote in the British Medical Journal.

WHO data shows decay rates have dropped at the same rate in non-fluoridated countries: https://t.co/Tg8pLmkoR0 pic.twitter.com/jjFr8yxC2w

— Fluoride Action Network (@FluorideAction) March 18, 2016

Some western communities did remove fluoride from their water and actually saw their cavity rates decrease. Buffalo, New York, a city which removed fluoride in 2012, saw their rates of cavities for people between the ages of 12-65 drop, according to data from the National Institutes of Health.

Nine years after removing the mineral from their water supply, however, Buffalo began fluoridating again in September after families sued the city in a class action lawsuit, alleging their children had to receive more dental care as a result of the fluoride halt.

Despite the many studies and experts expressing concern over the mineral, CNN and Dr. Madad continued to push both its safety and efficacy in reducing cavities.

“Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral, it’s not a man-made mineral,” Madad told CNN.

Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral. It is an ionized form of the element fluorine. Yet Kennedy Jr. called it “industrial waste” in a Nov. 2 tweet.

On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water. Fluoride is an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease. President…

— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) November 2, 2024

Fluoride does occur in nature, and in fact many of the studies evaluated in the NTP report were from international communities in China and India who do not fluoridate their public water supply, but simply have high natural levels of the mineral in their groundwater.

But the specific type of fluoride that’s added to American public water supplies is often a chemical byproduct from the fertilizer industry, Cooper explained.

Phosphate fertilizer giants, like The Mosaic Company, produce the precursor to fluoride as a byproduct of their fertilizer production process and then sell it off to dental supply companies and municipalities for their water supply, Cooper told the Caller.

Cooper says the byproduct is known within the industry as “scrubber liquor,” because it’s literally scrubbed from the side of smokestacks.

The chemical companies make a nice profit from this side business, Cooper told the Caller, however he added that if it were banned in public water supplies, it likely wouldn’t hurt their bottom line.

“It wouldn’t be a big deal for them if it went away economically, because they could just replace it with other markets, including in Africa and China, where they’re seeing an increase in fluoride toothpaste. They actually still use the same product, but it’s refined to pharmaceutical grade,” Cooper said.

While many public health agencies still sing the praises of fluoride’s anti-cavity benefits, some dentists say it’s not as effective in treating cavities as the CDC and others profess.

Dr. Staci Whitman, a Portland-based dentist, said she used to be militantly pro-fluoride until she started looking into it.

“I never questioned what my professors in dental school told me. I never questioned the data that was presented to me. I absolutely thought anyone that spoke out against it was lulu tin foil hat brigade, just a total kook,” she told the Caller.

Staci actively participated in pro-fluoride campaigns, handing out pamphlets detailing the benefits of the mineral and attending lectures and debates on the topic. It was at one of these debates where Dr. Whitman had an epiphany.

“I realized that these people representing antifluoride, if you will, they were very articulate, very professional, had a ton of science and data that I had never seen, never had even heard, never even knew there was potentially an issue with water fluoridation. It wasn’t even on my radar.”

Then, Dr. Whitman began to read. “I don’t know if I can support this anymore,” she realized. “And that was when I thought water fluoridation maybe worked, and now we know it really doesn’t. We know that fluoridated countries have the same decay rate as non-fluoridated countries.”

The vast majority of European countries do not fluoridate their water.

“Most of those countries have banned the practice because they view it as a medical experiment. It’s the only chemical we add to the water supply that’s not intended to treat the water. It’s intended to treat the consumer,” Cooper said.

Florida once again leading the way w/wise public health recs from @FLSurgeonGen

Almost all of Europe (gray👇) decided decades ago against fluoridating water; benefits unclear w/access to topical fluoride

2024 Cochrane review agrees

W/unclear benefits, why take risks of harms? https://t.co/cGDL9FZaSY pic.twitter.com/vCfSTsK9RN

— Tracy Høeg, MD, PhD (@TracyBethHoeg) November 23, 2024

Dr. Whitman said she went along with fluoridation because everybody else did.

“I literally was just making it up. I was just seeing what my professor said, which I would say, ‘Oh, look at you. No cavities. You must have grown up in a fluoridated community.’ I was just saying it because everyone else did. It was observational. That’s not science.”

Dr. Whitman pointed to the latest findings on community water fluoridation from the Cochrane Report, a systematic review of research in health care and health policy which she calls “the gold standard.”

Cochrane reviewed 21 studies of community water fluoridation and found the practice “may slightly increase the number of children who have no tooth decay in either their baby teeth or permanent teeth.”

However, “these results also included the possibility of little or no difference in tooth decay,” the report added.

Cavities are the largest chronic disease globally, affecting both fluoridated and non-fluoridated communities alike, Dr. Whitman explained. Fluoride, she told the Caller, is not the problem. Rather, it’s the food we eat.

“No one gets cavities because of lack of fluoride,” she said.

“Ancestrally, we didn’t have fluoride in our lives. Look at the skulls from 10 or 12,000 years ago. The teeth are pristine. So what changed it was our diet. It was an agricultural revolution and the industrialized revolution we started adding sugar and flour into everything. So fluoride is just a cop out for our issue with our food system and big food and the big sugar industry.”

Dr. Whitman explained she’s not necessarily anti-topical fluoride, and pointed to the widespread availability of fluoridated toothpaste as further evidence for the unnecessary nature of water fluoridation. But she also recommended hydroxyapatite, a calcium and phosphorus based teeth cleaner that is used in Italy, Japan and other western European countries, as a fluoride alternative.

Our teeth, Dr. Whitman explained, are comprised of hydroxyapatite, not fluoride. The use of the alternative can prevent the development of dental fluorosis, which affects 40 percent of teenagers in America today, according to the CDC.

It can also prevent the much more serious skeletal fluorosis, which can severely distort a person’s bones. While communities across the United States add fluoride to their water supplies, governments in India and China and other communities with high natural levels of fluoride have spent millions of dollars on research and removal efforts, Cooper told the Caller.

“The government and many nonprofits have been working for decades to solve that problem. It’s just, it’s just really difficult, and it’s difficult to filter out, and that’s why we get to this point here in the United States where … we voluntarily add it, we self-inflict this harm,” he said.

Both Cooper and Dr. Whitman pointed to the embedded nature of the mineral in standard dental practices as a barrier to change the public perception on its potential harms.

“I don’t think there’s a nefarious action. I think most dentists just don’t know the issue very well,” Cooper said. “When I talk to them at city halls and I talk to them at legislative hearings, the average dentist has been working with topical fluoride their whole life in their dental office. They learned one day in dental school, they heard about the benefits of water fluoridation as settled science, and they believe it, and they care about children.”

Still, he said, the American Dental Association, who publicly endorse water fluoridation, are too deep in defending the practice to change course.

“At this point, it’s a lie that’s too big to fail,” he said. “If they now admit that they were not only wrong, but that many millions of children were harmed by this, there would be a grand loss of trust in the American Dental Association. And unfortunately along the way, as the dental lobby is really wealthy and powerful, they co-opted government in support of this.”

Both experts argued the burden of proof should be on the pro-fluoride side, especially considering the high stakes surrounding neurodevelopment.

“I am trained as a dentist to fix teeth, but I can’t fix a brain,” Dr. Staci said. “We only have one shot at developing a child’s brain.”

Cooper concurred.

“The cavity can easily be filled, but damage to the brain is permanent and has lifelong consequences. There are no second chances with brain development, and we have a large volume of government-funded research that now shows that fluoride at the levels experienced in Florida communities is neurotoxic. That’s the scientific consensus. There is no contradictory science. And we have government-funded research showing that for decades, and they knew it, we have been overexposing infants to water fluoridation,” he concluded.

The American Dental Association, in fact, receives millions of dollars from corporations that produce fluoride products, an ADA memo requested by Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley in 2010 revealed.

“These dental product companies were giving different grants … but they were also giving millions of dollars to pay for the ADA’s endorsement of their products,” Cooper said. “You see that ADA seal of approval? Well, the one rule the ADA has to get that seal of approval is your product must contain fluoride. So even if you make a really great Xylitol toothpaste, they’re not going to put their stamp of approval unless you also add fluoride.”

Cooper lauded the Trump administration and Kennedy Jr. for taking action and drawing publicity to the issue.

“What the Trump administration is doing, what RFK is doing is on water fluoridation, is common sense that elected officials ought to be doing at every level,” he said.

Now, some public health officials are following Trump and Kennedy’s lead.

Dr. Joseph Ladapo, Florida’s Surgeon General, officially recommended against community water fluoridation last month, citing “the neuropsychiatric risk associated with fluoride exposure.”

His recommendation follows a landmark September decision from United States District Judge Edward Chen in Northern California forcing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to more strictly regulate the levels of fluoride in water under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

“The scientific literature in the record provides a high level of certainty that a hazard is present; fluoride is associated with reduced IQ,” Chen, an Obama appointee, wrote in his decision.

Still, some communities, like Buffalo, New York, are doubling down. Nine years after removing the mineral from their water supply, Buffalo began fluoridating again in September.

Others still express doubt that the studies showing high levels of fluoride linked to neurotoxicity are in any way relevant to the levels at which American water is fluoridated.

“Fluoride can certainly be toxic,” Dr. Ryan Marino, a board-certified toxicologist and professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, told the Caller.

“Acute fluoride toxicity is one of the worst poisonings I can think of. However, the levels of fluoride used for dental health benefits in American drinking water are significantly below the levels that could even start to cause harmful effects and toxicity, and the levels we use have never been shown to cause harmful effects or toxicity,” Dr. Marino concluded.

But given the recent California ruling and Kennedy Jr.’s anti-fluoride campaign, Cooper is hopeful the tide is turning.

“There’s decades of science that we’ve been doing our best to get out there, but it’s been stifled by mainstream media and the ADA,” Cooper said. “Finally, now they can’t keep the lid on it anymore, and it’s just like they don’t know what to do. They’re in a panic.”

The Daily Caller contacted the CDC, the ADA, the NTP, HHS and Dr. Syra Madad for comment but did not hear back by publication.

AUTHOR

Robert McGreevy

Reporter.

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Processed Food Stocks Drop After RFK Jr. Announcement

Major processed food corporations saw their stock take a dive Friday, a day after President-elect Trump picked Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to be secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Nestle saw its stock reach a 52 week low Friday, according to CNBC. Nestle is one of the top ten companies in the processed food market, along with PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Kraft-Heinz and General-Mills, according to market.us.

Similarly, PepsiCo Inc. saw its stock plunge almost 4% Friday, with Coca-Cola Co. decreasing by more than 1%.

Sugary drinks weren’t the only market hit — General Mills, which manufactures products like Bisquick, Cocoa Puffs and Cinnamon Toast Crunch, dipped more than 2%.

Meanwhile, Campbell Soup Co also decreased by almost 3%, and Kraft Heinz Co. reached a 52 week low. Kraft products include Heinz, Oscar Mayer, Jell-O, Lunchables, Kraft Mac & Cheese and Kool-Aid.

Trump announced Thursday that he would nominate Kennedy to direct the HHS.

“I am thrilled to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as The United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS),” he tweeted. “For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and drug companies who have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation when it comes to public health.”

Kennedy has been vocal about public health and the chemicals in America’s food. Food additives like potassium bromate, Titanium dioxide and Brominated vegetable oil (BVO) are banned in Europe but allowed in the U.S., CBS News reported.

“The Democrats, who claim to be all about health care have stood by watching other countries ban these poisons that make our kids sick,” RFK stated in a post online. “Enough is enough. President Trump and I are going to stop the mass poisoning of American children.”

AUTHOR

Eireann Van Natta

General assignment reporter.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Editor Daily Rundown: Trump Taps RFK For HHS Secretary

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EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

AARP Spent Millions Advocating For New Laws That Likely Benefit A Major Corporate Backer

AARP, an organization that represents the interests of retired Americans, spent tens of millions of dollars promoting provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that likely benefit the bottom line of one of the group’s major corporate backers.

AARP spent more than $60 million between 2019 and summer 2022 advocating for a provision that eventually made it into the IRA allowing Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical companies over the prices of certain drugs, according to an article posted on the group’s website. The provisions would require the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to negotiate the prices of certain drugs with drug manufacturers starting in 2026.

“We agreed that state directors would drop everything and get on this. Calls started going in to the White House and congressional leaders by 10 a.m. We had never responded to something so quickly,” Nancy LeaMond, AARP executive vice president and chief advocacy and engagement officer, said in the article. “Over the next few days more than 400,000 communications from AARP members and activists made it clear to leaders in Washington that taking Medicare prescription drug reform out of the budget package was unacceptable. Members emailed, called, tweeted and posted on Facebook and other social media channels.”

However, experts say that AARP’s article leaves out how the Medicare negotiation requirements would benefit private insurers such as healthcare conglomerate UnitedHealth Group, a major source of AARP’s funding. Additionally, the IRA expands subsidies under the Affordable Care Act to private insurance providers, offering another boon to insurers like UnitedHealth.

“Under the IRA insurers like UnitedHealth are in line for a financial windfall with super-sized subsidies for Obamacare policies and government price controls dictating pricing of many medicines,” wrote Phil Kerpen, the president of the free-market policy advocacy group American Commitment, a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization.

AARP receives a significant portion of its funding through royalty agreements with insurance companies, who use AARP’s brand to market their products. These agreements have historically provided a greater share of AARP’s revenue than dues paid by retirees, a DCNF review of the organization’s financial documents found.

UnitedHealth pays AARP royalties to use the group’s brand to market insurance plans. AARP also collects a 4.95% share of monthly payments made to UnitedHealth for insurance on co-branded AARP-UnitedHealth Medigap plans, KFF Health News reported.

AARP received $909 million in corporate royalties in 2017, with 69% of that revenue, or about $627.2 million, coming from UnitedHealth alone. However, that was the last year AARP reported the proportion of its royalties that came from UnitedHealth, making these the most recently available official numbers.

American Commitment estimates that UnitedHealth funded AARP by $732 million in 2022.

AARP did not respond to the DCNF’s inquiry about why it stopped publicly reporting UnitedHealth’s royalty payments.

“The royalty revenue generated is used by AARP in support of our mission to protect Social Security and Medicare, lower prescription drug costs, enable people to save for retirement and support family caregivers,” AARP Senior External Relations Director Colby Nelson said in a statement to the DCNF.

Kerpen told the DCNF that the IRA would directly improve UnitedHealth’s finances by reducing the amount they need to pay to acquire drugs and by extending the subsidies paid to UnitedHealth under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA, which has been commonly referred to as “Obamacare,” was signed into law by former President Obama in 2010.

UnitedHealth is the largest health insurance provider in the United States when measured by market share. The firm has increasingly been moving into the businesses of providing healthcare, spending billions acquiring medical practices and pharmacy benefit managers.

Under the IRA, HHS is obligated to negotiate the prices of certain drugs covered under Medicare Part D with drug manufacturers. Medicare Part D is a program individuals on Medicare can opt into through private insurers that covers most outpatient prescription drugs.

Brand name drugs covered under Medicare Part D are eligible for negotiation under the IRA if they lack generic equivalents or readily available alternative treatments. Pharmaceutical companies that refuse to accept government-imposed drug price ceilings face a steep excise tax.

Chris Jacobs, founder of the health policy research firm Juniper Research Group, told the DCNF that the drug price negotiation provisions in the IRA “would reduce prescription drug costs for United” in a way “that ultimately will benefit the insurance company’s bottom line.”

Jacobs also pointed out that the Obamacare subsidies extended by the IRA “are payable directly to insurance companies” like UnitedHealth.

By subsidizing insurance plans, Jacob argues, the government increased insurance enrollment and incentivized people to purchase more expensive plans, thus generating more revenue for insurance providers.

Michael Cannon, director of health policy studies at the Cato Institute, told the DCNF that “the insurance companies figure the amount they might be paying for these drugs [under the IRA] would go down.” If insurance companies pay less for drugs, they could expand their profit margins.

Grace-Marie Turner, president of the Galen Institute, a non-profit, Section 501(c)(3) healthcare policy research organization , told the DCNF that insurance companies are “just looking at their own bottom line, and they’re saying ‘Oh good, if Medicare can pay company ‘X’ a dollar for their pill, we’ll be able to do that too.’”

“Medicare is often the payment standard upon which the private health insurance industry bases their own payments,” Turner explained.

AARP championed the IRA, which experts told the DCNF would benefit its corporate health insurance backers.

The organization expressed gratitude to President Biden for signing the IRA into law in a press release. Jo Ann Jenkins, president and CEO of AARP, called the IRA, which passed without any Republican support in Congress, “a monumental victory.”

In addition to the $60 million it spent between 2019 and 2022 on ads pushing for government drug price negotiations, AARP lobbied Congress to influence the IRA, according to lobbying disclosures.

AARP also “generated 3.6 million emails to lawmakers and flooded congressional offices with hundreds of thousands of phone calls” to push for drug price negotiations, according to its website.

“It is plain common sense that Medicare should negotiate for lower prices,” AARP Senior Vice President of Government Affairs Bill Sweeney told the DCNF.

“For too long, big drug companies got a sweetheart deal that, unbelievably, forced Americans to pay the highest prices in the world,” Sweeny said. “AARP fought hard to end that horrible deal, saving our country and taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars.”

AARP did not address the DCNF’s questions about the possible conflict of interest posed by their insurance royalties.

‘Betrayed Seniors’

Some healthcare experts disagree with AARP’s characterization of the IRA, arguing that the drug negotiation provisions could end up harming seniors by discouraging pharmaceutical innovation and production of new drugs.

“AARP betrayed seniors by supporting a regime of price-fixing that will result in fewer new drugs, and therefore reduce the chance of a major breakthrough in Alzheimer’s, cancer, and other leading causes of death,” Kerpen told the DCNF.

Government-imposed price ceilings would make it more difficult for manufacturers to recoup research investments since they would have to sell drugs at lower prices, experts told the DCNF.

“It’s not a negotiation, it is the government dictating to companies that they must charge a price that the government deems itself to be reasonable,” George Mason University law professor Adam Mossoff told the DCNF. “If you are negotiating a price over a house or something of that sort, the other side doesn’t get to impose massive crippling penalties on you … if you decide not to proceed with the negotiations.”

The IRA’s price negotiation system could also have consequences for the supply of existing drugs used by seniors, Mossoff said.

Mossoff argued that the reduced pharmaceutical manufacturer revenue brought on by the IRA’s price negotiation system could impact the supply of existing drugs used by seniors.

“Manufacturers, when they’re not making enough money to even recoup their own expenditures, as a matter of economic necessity make less,” he continued. “Not because they want to, but because they’re being compelled by law to do so.”

A University of Chicago policy brief estimated that the IRA would result in a 12.3% reduction in pharmaceutical research and development. Likewise, the Congressional Budget Office estimated eight fewer new drugs over the next thirty years as a result of the IRA, and University of Chicago scholars estimated 79 fewer new drugs over the next 20 years.

report produced by the health consultancy firm Vital Transformation, which was cited by the House Budget Committee, estimated there would be up to 139 fewer new therapies over the next ten years as a result of the legislation.

“One of the reasons why senior citizens are living longer in retirement is the fact that the United States is the leader in biomedical research and breakthroughs in new therapies,” Moffitt said. “When we are going to have fewer approvals for new medicines for patients battling neurological diseases or cancer or certain types of infectious disease, that is going to affect people on Medicare.”

The Congressional Budget Office estimated eight fewer new drugs over the next thirty years as a result of the IRA, while a policy brief produced by scholars at the University of Chicago estimated 79 fewer new drugs over the next 20 years. A report produced by the health consultancy firm Vital Transformation and cited by the House Budget Committee estimated there would be up to 139 fewer new therapies over the next ten years as a result of the legislation.

A 2022 survey from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a drug manufacturer trade association, found that 78% of its members were expecting to cancel some of their drug development projects. The survey also found 95% of PhRMA members expected to develop fewer new uses for medicines following the passage of the IRA.

“One of the reasons why senior citizens are living longer in retirement is the fact that the United States is the leader in biomedical research and breakthroughs in new therapies,” the Heritage Foundation’s Bob Moffit told the DCNF. “When we are going to have fewer approvals for new medicines for patients battling neurological diseases or cancer or certain types of infectious disease, that is going to affect people on Medicare.”

The Cato Institute’s Michael Cannon argued the IRA represented an improvement over the status quo and would likely lead to lower drug prices for seniors. He pointed out that, prior to the IRA, Congress would determine what Medicare paid for drugs, arguing the new negotiation system, with its enforcement mechanisms, would likely yield lower prices for seniors.

Cannon was still critical of the IRA, however, saying that “the best thing we can do is to get the government out of the business of buying drugs.”

While drugs covered under Medicare Part D would become cheaper, Cannon said treatments not covered under the program may become more expensive as a consequence of the IRA and that research and development funding for new drugs could dry up.

UnitedHealth did not respond to the DNCF’s request for comment.

AUTHOR

ROBERT SCHMAD

Contributor.

RELATED ARTICLE: AARP And Drugmaker Lobby Battle It Out Over Trump Administration Rule Aimed At Helping Seniors

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


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Clinic Funded By Biden Administration Distributes Crack Pipes To Addicts Outside A ‘School’

A “harm reduction” clinic that received grant funding from President Joe Biden’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is distributing crack pipes to addicts in New York City, the Daily Caller confirmed Wednesday.

New York Harm Reduction Educators (NYHRE), a part of OnPointNYC, was awarded nearly $400,000 in grant money from the Biden administration in May to further its services for drug addicts, government records show. Biden officials denied reports that the grant money could fund distribution of crack pipes, but a visit to NYHRE’s office revealed that the organization still offers the smoking paraphernalia to addicts.

OnPointNYC operates two drug use sites, one of which NYHRE runs in East Harlem. After spending about 10 minutes on paperwork with basic information Wednesday evening, staff at the facility provided a Daily Caller reporter a smoking kit containing a crack pipe, condoms and lubricant.

A second Caller reporter returned Thursday and yet again, within minutes, staff provided another crack pipe. A staffer directed the reporter to back rooms for addicts to use drugs under supervision, where the reporter witnessed individuals smoking and injecting various substances.

CLICK HERE FOR A PHOTO OF: A condom and crack pipe acquired from New York Harm Reduction Educators. (Daily Caller)

A second Caller reporter returned Thursday and yet again, within minutes, staff provided another crack pipe. A staffer directed the reporter to back rooms for addicts to use drugs under supervision, where the reporter witnessed individuals smoking and injecting various substances.

The reporter, citing claustrophobia, asked if she could step outside to smoke. A staffer denied the request because the facility is located next to a “school.”

The facility is directly across the street from the Association To Benefit Children, a childcare facility for underprivileged kids in the New York area.

Prior to those visits, the Caller reached out to NYHRE and OnPointNYC on multiple occasions to ask if the organization was still distributing crack pipes, receiving no response. A PBS segment aired December 2021 highlighted that the organization was distributing crack pipes at the time, before the latest Biden grant.

NYHRE provides other services aside from harm reduction, including HIV and hepatitis testing, safe sex education and counseling services. It has received various government grants dating back to 2001 for some of these other services, a review of HHS grant documents shows. This year’s grant is the first “harm reduction” grant the group has received as part of a new administration initiative under Biden’s American Rescue Plan to support “harm reduction” efforts. The so called “safe smoking kits” are a key plank in “harm reduction” efforts across the country.

In addition to the drug and sex paraphernalia, a staffer at NYHRE gave the Caller an ID card after registering personal information. According to that staffer, an individual caught with drugs by police in the city could show that card to avoid punishment.

The Biden administration denied in February that it was giving grants to fund distribution of crack pipes, following a Washington Free Beacon report that HHS had closed applications for funding to do so.

“No federal funding will be used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to put pipes in safe smoking kits,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said in a statement.

“The goal of harm reduction is to save lives. The Administration is focused on a comprehensive strategy to stop the spread of drugs and curb addiction, including prioritizing the use of proven harm reduction strategies like providing naloxone, fentanyl test strips, and clean syringes, as well as taking decisive actions to go after violent criminals who are trafficking illicit drugs like fentanyl across our borders and into our communities.”

An HHS spokesperson told the Daily Caller the funds from this grant are still prohibited from being used for any federally illegal activity or equipment, including drug paraphernalia like crack pipes. NYHRE has not yet tapped into the grant money they were awarded, and once they do so, the organization must provide specific details on how the money will be spent so HHS can approve it.

“No federal funding is used directly or through subsequent reimbursement of grantees to purchase pipes in safer smoking kits. Grants include explicit prohibitions of federal funds to be used to purchase drug paraphernalia,” the spokesman said. “As the United States confronts record overdose numbers, the Biden-Harris Administration is focused on a comprehensive drug control policy focused on stopping the illicit flow of drugs like fentanyl and evidence-based policies that reduce overdoses and save lives.”

The administration has embraced “harm reduction” — which can include supplying drug paraphernalia and in some cases drugs themselves — as a strategy for treating addiction. The effort facilitates drug use in a safer setting for addicts than they might otherwise use, and offers clean equipment for drug use to prevent the spread of disease.

In total, the SAMHSA grant awarded almost $10 million to 25 different organizations. The grant recipients are disproportionately located in New York and California, not areas within the rust belt hardest hit by the overdose epidemic. Six of the 25 grants went to harm reduction groups in New York state. The Daily Caller has not confirmed which of the other 24 organizations have provided, or still provide, safe smoking kits or crack pipes to addicts.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), which awarded the grants, did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Daily Caller, including questions about whether the agency knew NYHRE distributed crack pipes when it awarded them the grant or how it is ensuring that taxpayer funds don’t go to the distribution of smoking equipment.

AUTHOR

DYLAN HOUSMAN

Healthcare reporter. Follow Dylan on Twitter

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