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Opinion: Protect Prescription Drug Affordability for California Families

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Opinion: Protect Prescription Drug Affordability for California Families


Prescription drugs
Prescribed drugs. Photograph courtesy CVS Well being

For me, well being care is private — it all the time will probably be. I used to be finding out to be a chemical engineer till I discovered that my great-grandfather had been recognized with Alzheimer’s illness. It’s a horrible illness with few confirmed remedies and solely a routine of supportive care.

I wished to know what I might do to assist, so I modified profession fields and turn into a pharmacist. For the previous 16 years, I’ve been supporting sufferers at each step of their care journey — from receiving information of a troublesome prognosis to serving to them handle a multi-year remedy plan.

I began at CVS Well being as an intern pharmacist and at present function a pharmacy supervisor working in Redlands. My workforce and I work tirelessly to make sure our sufferers with uncommon or continual circumstances, like hemophilia and sickle cell illness, have entry to the specialty medicines disbursed at our pharmacies.

In California, we now have not solely needed to take care of the COVID-19 pandemic, but in addition the wildfires that may make it troublesome for sufferers to entry the remedies and therapies they want. Every wildfire season my workforce and I monitor the place the fires are spreading to anticipate which of our sufferers is perhaps affected, primarily based on the place they dwell. We then decide when every affected person final obtained their treatment and get in touch with them to make sure they don’t expertise any gaps in remedy, particularly if they’re required to evacuate their residence.

My workforce and I lately helped a baby who suffers with childish seizures. When the hospital didn’t have the wanted treatment, we marshalled our sources to safe the treatment from our nearest specialty pharmacy and delivered it to the hospital, the place the kid was stabilized and later in a position to return residence the place remedy was continued. We had been in a position to cut back the household’s share of the associated fee for a $150,000 drug to solely a $200 co-pay and cut back the kid’s hospital keep.

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Whereas entry to those medicines is crucial, particularly for sufferers who’re managing complicated ailments, the excessive checklist costs of prescribed drugs is usually a burden for a lot of in California, particularly working households and members of underserved communities. In 2021, specialty medicines accounted for greater than half of all prescription drug spending.

CVS Caremark, the pharmacy profit supervisor (PBM) of CVS Well being, has made necessary good points within the combat for prescription drug affordability. In California, we proudly serve lots of the state’s employers, labor unions, well being plans, and public well being applications by negotiating with massive drug corporations to save lots of sufferers cash.

In 2021, we held prescription drug price development to simply 3.6%, and greater than 40% of our purchasers noticed decrease drug prices general than within the prior 12 months. We did so at the same time as massive drug corporations raised the costs of many medicines at, or above, the speed of inflation.

In California, and in statehouses throughout the nation, legislatures are weighing the worth of PBMs. As lawmakers in Sacramento consider proposals for addressing prescription drug pricing, it’s important that they remember the dear function PBMs play and the hurt that may come from proscribing the usage of PBM instruments to carry down prices. I urge our lawmakers to as an alternative deal with the true supply of rising prescription drug prices: the excessive costs set by massive drug corporations.

Caring for all members of our neighborhood will all the time be private for me. We should make entry to well being care extra inexpensive — and no more troublesome — by addressing the obstacles to affordability and the excessive checklist costs of prescribed drugs.

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Gregory Harrington is a pharmacy supervisor for CVS Specialty in Redlands.



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California Gov. Gavin Newsom says state will provide rebates if Trump removes tax credit for electric vehicles

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California Gov. Gavin Newsom says state will provide rebates if Trump removes tax credit for electric vehicles


California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will provide rebates to residents if President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming administration does away with a federal tax credit for electric vehicles.

In a news release issued Monday, Newsom said he would restart the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program, which provided financial incentives on more than 590,000 vehicles before it was phased out late 2023.

“We will intervene if the Trump Administration eliminates the federal tax credit, doubling down on our commitment to clean air and green jobs in California,” Newsom said. “We’re not turning back on a clean transportation future — we’re going to make it more affordable for people to drive vehicles that don’t pollute.”

The federal rebates on new and used electric vehicles were implemented in the Inflation Reduction Act that President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022. When Trump’s second term in office begins next year, he could work with Congress to change the rules around those rebates. Those potential changes could limit the federal rebates, including by reducing the amount of money available or limiting who is eligible.

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Limiting federal subsidies on electric vehicle purchases would hurt many American automakers, including Ford, General Motors and the EV startup Rivian. Tesla, which also builds its automobiles in the United States, would take a smaller hit since that company currently sells more EVs and has a higher profit margin than any other EV manufacturer.

Newsom also announced earlier this month that he will convene a special session “to protect California values,” including fundamental civil rights and reproductive rights, that he said “are under attack by this incoming administration.”

“Whether it be our fundamental civil rights, reproductive freedom, or climate action — we refuse to turn back the clock and allow our values and laws to be attacked,” Newsom said on X on Nov. 7.

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

This isn’t the first time California will be taking action against the Trump’s administration concerning clean transportation legislation.

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In 2019, California and 22 other states sued his administration for revoking its ability to set standards for greenhouse gas emission and fuel economy standards for vehicles, The Associated Press reported.

California sued the Trump administration over 100 times during his first term, primarily on matters including gun control, health care, education and immigration, the Los Angeles Times reported.



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45 Years Later, California Murder Mystery Solved Through DNA Evidence

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45 Years Later, California Murder Mystery Solved Through DNA Evidence


A 45-year-old cold case of a 17-year-old girl brutally raped and murdered has been resolved, bringing closure to the family. On February 9, 1979, Esther Gonzalez walked from her parents’ home to her sister’s in Banning, California, roughly 137 km east of Los Angeles. She never arrived. The next day, her body was discovered in a snowpack near a highway in Riverside County, California. Authorities determined she had been raped and bludgeoned to death, leading to an investigation that spanned decades.

The lab was able to match the DNA to a man named Lewis Randolph “Randy” Williamson, who died in 2014. Williamson, a US Marine Corps veteran, called authorities on the fateful day to report finding Ms Gonzalez’s body. At the time, he claimed he could not identify whether the body was male or female. Described as “argumentative” by deputies, Williamson was asked to take a polygraph test, which he passed, clearing him of suspicion in the pre-DNA era. He had faced assault allegations in the past but was never convicted of any violent crimes, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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Despite limited leads, the Riverside County cold case homicide team didn’t give up. A semen sample recovered from Ms Gonzalez’s body in 1979 was preserved but remained unmatched in the national Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) for decades.

In 2023, forensic technology finally caught up. The homicide team collaborated with a genetic lab in Texas that specialises in forensic genealogy. A sample of Williamson’s blood from his 2014 autopsy provided the DNA match needed to confirm him as the 17-year-old’s rapist and killer.

The Gonzalez family had mixed emotions—relief at finally having answers and sadness knowing Williamson would not face justice, as he died in Florida ten years ago. Ms Gonzalez, remembered by her family as a shy yet funny and mild-mannered young woman, was the fourth of seven children. Her oldest brother, Eddie Gonzalez, wrote on Facebook, “The Gonzalez family would like to thank the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on a job well done. After 40 years, the Gonzalez family has closure.”

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“We are very happy that we finally have closure,” Ms Gonzalez’s sister, Elizabeth, 64, shared with CNN. “We are happy about it but, since the guy has died, a little sad that he won’t spend any time for her murder.”




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Bird Flu Virus Identified In Raw Milk Sold In California

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Bird Flu Virus Identified In Raw Milk Sold In California


The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has detected the avian influenza or “bird flu” virus in a sample of a raw milk product. The product which was for sale at retailers at the time of the testing has now been recalled by the producer after the state of California requested it’s withdrawal from sale.

The affected product is cream top, whole raw milk produced and packaged by Raw Farm, LLC of Fresno County with lot code 2024110. The best buy date of the batch is 11. Nov, 2024 meaning consumers could still have it in their homes. No illnesses have currently been reported from this batch of milk, but people can take several days to develop bird flu after exposure. According to the World Health Organization, most people develop symptoms within 2-5 days, but can take up to 17 days to develop.

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According to the CDC, bird flu symptoms may include fever or feeling feverish or chills, eye redness or irritation, and respiratory symptoms, such as cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, muscle or body aches, headaches, and tiredness.

Customers should not consume any product matching the description above and should return the product to stores or dispose of it. The CDPH is also in the process of informing re also in the process of informing retailers about the infected product to notify them to remove it from their shelves. The CDPH has since visited both locations of the company’s farms and has found no further evidence of bird flu. The CDPH will continue to test the farm’s milk twice a week.

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The CDPH stresses that there is no risk of consuming pasteurized milk as the milk is heated to temperatures which inactivate bacteria and viruses. However raw milk does not go through this process, meaning any bacteria or viruses in the milk can be transferred to the consumer. Public health departments, as well as the CDC have long warned against the dangers of consuming raw milk, which has been responsible for outbreaks of Listeria, E. coli, Campylobacter and Salmonella, among other microbes.

California has been hit with bird flu outbreaks in both dairy cow herds and poultry farms with over 400 dairy herds affected as of 22. November. Twenty-nine human cases have also been recorded in the state, mostly individuals who have had close contact with infected livestock. The numbers of infected individuals are likely to be under reported and very little is known about the severity of disease in humans so far. Just two days ago, the CDC confirmed a case of H5N1 bird flu in a child in California with no known contact with livestock.



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