I have learned through confidential, highly-placed sources that the same regime that recklessly poisoned the Flint water system killing eight people (Legionella) and permanently damaging tens of thousands are about to “fix” pharmacy in Michigan this summer.
If you look back in my blogs and Pencak Reports, I condemned a “pilot project” that Michigan politicians authorized allowing telepharmacy. I was very opposed to the legislation because I knew what the real intent of the pilot project was. The pretext the politicians used was a false claim that there were insufficient pharmacists in Michigan to serve our rural population.Fn2 And the solution was to have patients receive medication dispensed by robots while one pharmacist at a remote location skypes with patients to fulfill the counseling need. As long as the skyping pharmacist has a Michigan license he could be in any country on earth, being paid at the lowest rate.
Of course, the real politicians are only effectuating the plan of their corporate donor that wants to increase its profits by eliminating the cost of employing pharmacists and technicians. The fact that a thousand pharmacists will lose their employment in Michigan alone and that the public is in danger is immaterial. Don’t believe that statement? Good…as a health professional you are scientists and know that the essence of science is to prove or disprove a hypothesis in the real world. There are multiple, recent, reliable political science studies that validate the proposition that state and federal legislators do not take into consideration the needs of citizens but do implement the desires of large corporations or very wealthy individuals.Fn1
Why is it that an Ilitch, David Koch or a Dick DeVos can implement legislation and all of the pharmacists in Michigan cannot? The same reason that babies in Flint continued to receive poisoned water while Gov. Snyder spent our tax dollars to hook up a GM engine plant in Flint with pure water because the Flint water was corroding engines. The people got attention (but not pure water) one year later. An informal opinion from the 39th President of the U.S. Jimmy Carter: “the U.S.…is an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery”. President Carter opined that the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Citizen’s United “violates the essence of what made America a great country in its political system”.
We have politicians that believe a state should be run the same way as a corporation rather than as a government. Remember, the whole Flint water outrage started with a plan to save $100 a day. In a corporation human safety always takes a backseat to profit—think of GM faulty ignition switch and every Enbridge pipeline.
Pharmacists and prescription consumers are in danger if telepharmacy supplants brick & mortar neighborhood pharmacies.
Who will save us? A uniquely American trait is a belief that a white knight or Superman will come to right wrongs and save the innocent from the powerful wrongdoers. It is understandable, in that Hollywood actualized the concept. Arguably, the first silent-film era superhero was “Zorro”; a completely fictional superhero that protected Californian peons from the oppressive one percenters—landowners in Spanish California.
Europeans for example don’t believe in superheroes saving them from oppressors because good men and women actually fought the good fight against fascism in the 20th Century (1930’s) and lost in Spain. Fascist dictator Francisco Franco (with aid from Hitler) defeated the people in the Spanish Civil War of which Albert Camus wrote:
“Men of my generation have had Spain in our hearts. It was there that they learned…that one can be right and yet be beaten, that force can vanquish spirit, and that there are times when courage is not rewarded.”
I learned in my own life that if I need something I must obtain it. My philosophy is encapsulated this way…If it is to be, it’s up to me.
I won’t tell you what to do about this impending outrage but I will note the following, Zorro or Ironman is not coming to help. Why spend your hard-earned money on political contributions to any establishment politicians? The politicians receive tens of millions from special interests so why would they care about thousands of dollars?
So, if you don’t want telepharmacy in Michigan, it is up to you.
Fn[1] There is actually an excess of pharmacists for the available jobs in Michigan.
Fn[1] See for example e.g.: Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens, by Martin Gilens and Benjamin I. Page, Publication: Perspectives on Politics; Rich People Rule! by Larry Bartels, Publication: Washington Post; and Stacked Deck: How the Dominance of Politics by the Affluent and Business Undermines Economic Mobility in America by David Callahan & J. Mijim Cha