Human Interest

Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar recently proposed sweeping reforms to Medicare. He hopes the changes will reduce the price of many cancer drugs and other advanced therapies. 

The proposal may accomplish that goal -- but at great costs to patients' health. The overhaul would stifle innovation and smother the cures of tomorrow.

The proposal targets Medicare Part B drugs, which include advanced cancer treatments, immunotherapies, and other medicines administered under physician supervision. 

Save the Date

Our national debt just exceeded 22 trillion dollars.  To pay this debt today each citizen owes $67,033.  Since children pay no taxes, nor do about 45% of our adult population, each taxpayer actually owes $179,908.  Our largest creditors in order are: Medicare/Medicaid $1,091,280,000,000, Social Security $1,005,651,000,000, Defense/War 676,814,000,000, Income Security (welfare) $293,531,000,000, Net Interest on Debt $350,206,000,000, and Federal Pensions $272,980,000,000 (

Missionaries Now Have More Options to Communicate With Families

See and hear wild swans in Utah

Free viewing event on March 9

Ogden -- Wild swans are winging their way through Utah.

Both tundra swans and trumpeter swans, which are more rarely seen, stop in Utah's wetlands for critically needed rest and refueling during their annual spring migration. The migration takes the swans from wintering grounds in California to nesting sites in Canada and Alaska.

You can see the birds, and learn more about them, at this year’s Wild Swan Day.
 

Wild Swan Day – March 9

Congress is poised to consider a bill that would allow Americans to import prescription drugs from Canada. The bill's authors -- Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) -- label their effort as a bipartisan push to "help Americans who struggle to pay exorbitant prices for medication."

It's noble of lawmakers to tackle prescription drug costs. Eight in ten Americans are concerned about the price of medicines, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey.

President Trump and every declared candidate for the Presidency want to lower drug costs. And, surprise, it's the President who has made a bold move towards a workable free market solution.

His new proposal cracks down on the price-gouging practices of middlemen in the drug supply chain -- Prescription Benefit Managers, the mega-corporations that insurers employ to administer their drug benefits.

        Frederic Bastiat, a French economist and member of the French National Assembly, lived from 1801 to 1850. He had great admiration for our country, except for our two faults -- slavery and tariffs. He said: "Look at the United States. There is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain: the protection of every person's liberty and property." If Bastiat were alive today, he would not have that same level of admiration. The U.S. has become what he fought against for most of his short life.