We (MUST) Keep Us Safe: An interview with a Long-Term, Anonymous Anarchist Comrade on Repression, Trauma, Security Culture, and Revolutionary Solidarity

WASHINGTON, DC – In 2022, Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), that includes lowering the cost of prescription drugs and healthcare. Large businesses will pay a 15% corporate minimum tax to defray this cost. The bill narrowly passed the Senate, 51 to 50, with all 50 Democrats voting for the bill and all 50 Republicans voting against it. Vice President Harris cast the tie-breaking vote. President Biden signed the bill. After the Senate first ratified the bill on August 7th, Biden told reporters, “When you sit down at that kitchen table at the end of the month, you’re going to be able to pay a whole hell of a lot more bills because you’re paying less in medical bills.”

America is the only developed nation in the world where a citizen can become financially strapped because of the high cost of health care. Oftentimes, hard-working Americans have to potentially compromise their health by spending their limited resources on food and shelter instead of prescription medicine.

Here are some of the health provisions of the IRA:

• Medicare negotiated the prices of 10 commonly prescribed costly drugs with pharmaceutical companies last year. The new prices will take effect in 2026. It is estimated that millions of seniors, people with disabilities, and other Medicare beneficiaries will save over $1.5 billion of out-of-pocket expenses in 2026. Taxpayers should save $6 billion. The cost negotiation will be expanded to more drugs in succeeding years.
• Out-of-pocket insulin costs have been capped at $35 a month, benefiting 4 million Medicare beneficiaries.
• Out-of-pocket costs for prescription medicines covered by Medicare will be capped at $2,000 for Medicare beneficiaries annually beginning on January 1^st this year. The AARP estimates that more than 3 million seniors will save money in 2025 and that almost one-half million people will each save more than $3 thousand. Patients taking high-cost cancer drugs should save a lot of money. The price cap will apply to prescription drugs under Medicare Part D. The cap was $3250 in 2024, its first year.
• Drug companies will offer rebates to Medicare and lower out-of-pocket costs to seniors if prescription prices outpace inflation.
• There is a three-year extension on the Marketplace subsidies that will benefit millions of Americans. More than 80% of people in the marketplace had a health insurance plan that cost only $10 or less each month. The number of people with ACA coverage almost doubled between 2021 and 2024 to a record-breaking 21 million Americans.

Listen to the full report below:

Contact: Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]

ASHEVILLE, NC – January 8, 2025 – There is a surge of respiratory viral infections, like COVID-19, influenza (the flu) and RSV (respiratory syncytial virus), as people spend more time indoors during the cold winter months and due to an increase in indoor gatherings and travel during the holidays. However, the COVID pandemic has made us aware that we can take steps to reduce spreading respiratory viruses. Therefore, we must protect at-risk groups, like older adults and the immunocompromised, who remain susceptible to getting severely ill.

The CDC’s COVID Dashboard for the week ending on January 3^rd shows:  

• Between 1-9 of the deaths in North Carolina were due to COVID, the lowest level of 6 groups.
• Emergency department visits for COVID-19 are minimal in North Carolina, representing 1% of all visits, and with a moderate increase since last week.

Wastewater monitoring can be used to provide early warning for COVID outbreaks. Due to the holiday schedule, the Buncombe & Henderson counties wastewater monitoring dashboard was not updated this week. Wastewater monitoring data for more respiratory illnesses will be obtained during the respiratory illness season. During the week of December 22-28, the level of RSV viral activity in the North Carolina wastewater, measured at 3 sites, was high.

The CDC’s weekly flu surveillance report for the week ending on December 28^th indicates that levels are either high or very high in 43 of the 48 continental states, particularly in the South and the West. North Carolina is at a high level.

The CDC reports that the weekly percent of positive tests for RSV in Region 4 (which are the states in the southeast U.S. including North Carolina) had climbed to more than 10% from November 16^th to the present, reaching a peak of more than 15% just before Christmas. The most recent report on the week of December 28^th shows that percent positivity is almost 15%. Positive test levels for RSV were above 10% last winter from October 7^th to December 9^th.

The weekly North Carolina Respiratory Virus Summary Dashboard was last updated for the week ending on December 28^th. Almost 15% of all emergency room patients had symptoms of a respiratory viral illness and these have increased since last week. There were more than 17 hundred hospital admissions from the emergency department for people who had a diagnosis, or symptoms, of respiratory viral infection and they have increased since last week. These are at the highest levels since last winter.

Listen to the full report below:

Contact: Dr. Dick Needleman, Health reporter, 103.3 AshevilleFM, [email protected]