You're listening to bill Handle on demand from KFI AM six forty.
And this is KFI bill Handle on a Wednesday morningday, August fourteenth. A couple of things new post on Instagram. I met some new neighbors in my new house. I went and met neighbors and we videoed it. And there's a little seven year old girl that I probably have completely destroyed her mental health for the next twenty years.
So just go to at bill Handle Show and you can tune in on that one.
Also, podcast, a Bill Handle Show podcast is now up and running every Tuesday and Thursday. It drops as I end the show at nine o'clock. And this week you what yesterday was Project twenty twenty five and tomorrow Supreme Court cases that.
Will blow your mind going all the way back. Now, what is it? Friday is the two year.
Anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act. Tomorrow, the White House is going to announce what happened with the Medicare negotiations for the price of ten prescription drugs.
So let me tell you first of all how all of this works.
Medicare has been able to negotiate with hospitals and doctors and.
Device makers for decades.
However, Medicare has not been able to negotiate with big pharma, and people over sixty five take lots and lots of drugs. I, for example, just took my morning meds and it is a handful everything from blood while you know, I had heart surgery, everything but blood pressure medication to blood thinner, A lot of anti anxiety drugs, calmatives, lots and lots of those.
Like xanax.
Lamictel is my anti anxiety drug of choice. And are you ready for this? What le miickeel does to me is calm me down. I know that's hard to believe, but it calms me down. So what ended up happening is under the Inflation Reduction Act, the government for the first time is now allowed to negotiate and they started negotiations and only on.
Ten prescription drugs.
That's it, right, talking to major big pharma on ten drugs that are used by seniors and all of us. Why well, because well, I tell you what the drugs are. You've seen these commercials, for example, Jardians. You know it's you know, people dancing around is Chardian's commercial? Will they do that musical that looks like Glee if I'm not mistaken trying to remember all these commercials and what they do,
and then you have, of course the disclaimers. You could die, you know, your scrope could fall off, you know, just all of that stuff.
That they do on the disclaimer.
But these drugs, these are name brand drugs, and they cost hundreds, if not thousands of.
Dollars per month, and there are no breaks.
Now they tell you if you can't afford it, will help you out. Okay, that's one percent. We can make arrangements for you. If the insurance companies pay for it. You're off the hook, or you're mainly off the hook. I've got drugs that literally can cost and do cost brand name two thousand dollars a month, and I've been using a decades. Now. I'm a member of Kaiser and they negotiate because there's five million people on the Kaiser Plan.
So what is happening now is that the government before the law has changed and kicks in allowing Medicare to now be part of the negotiating process with Big Pharma, who had somehow excluded itself from negotiating with the government. Everybody else negotiates, hospitals, doctors, the vice makers. They alln negotiate, not pharmaceutical companies. That is changing and why is that? Why did they get away with it? Well, look at
the lobbyists, look at the power of big pharma. It is probably, if not the most powerful lobby that exists, among the most powerful lobby And so what is happening? And my favorite, absolute favorite response to the call for lowering the price of drugs, By the way, we pay in some cases ten times as much as.
Anybody else in the world pays.
And I'll tell you a story about France, I'll tell you a story about other governments and negotiations with big pharma and what's going to happen? And what the Pharmaceutical Association, I don't know what the National Association of Pharmaceutical Associations with all the pharmaceutical clubs belonged to. What they said to defend the prices, it's stunning, It is stunning what they said.
I couldn't even believe it.
And the Biden Harris administration now Kamala Harris wants fifty new drugs per year negotiated down. And of course big Pharma is has been just absolutely crazy fighting this, and not only that, Republicans are fighting this and you go, wait a minute, how is it possible that foreign countries pay a third in some cases the tenth that we pay.
For the same medicine.
Well, because of political clout of the pharmaceutical companies and the backing of most members of the Republican Party. So the government negotiating with these pharmaceutical companies is very different than your company or your insurance company negotiating. Story out of France, and this is what happens with single payer. France has nationalized government, nationalized medical care, and France, the country negotiates with pharmaceutical companies. Eli Lilly comes in and
is introducing a drug and they want to go into France. Okay, they're negotiating with the government of France to buy the drug and set the prices.
So there is a great story.
Out of France where one of the big pharmaceutical companies, I don't remember which one it came up with a new drug and they wanted to pry. They wanted to charge a ridiculous amount of money, and the government of France said, no, we're not willing to pay that much. And they said, well, there's no other drug out there. We have it and you have no chill. And the government said, you're right. If we wanted to have that drug,
you would you would have to get the price. So tell you what, not only are we not going to buy it, you're done in the French market for all of your drugs.
Get out.
Oh okay, let's redo, let's revisit that one.
Okay.
But that's because the government can negotiate. And in this case you got the You have the government of the United States negotiating with.
Pharma over these ten drugs.
And it's on behalf of three hundred and twenty million people or in the case of over sixty five let's say they're one hundred million or fifty million.
I don't know.
The stats changes everything, and they finally came to the table. And this is going to be part of Joe Biden's legacy because he's been working for this for years.
And as I told you.
What when this came to being, when the government said that the big pharmaceuticals have a gri read to negotiate the price on ten drugs, and then more as the years now are increasing, Next year there's more, the year after that, there's more. Ann Harris wants fifty drugs per year negotiated down. Why is all of a sudden Big pharm is saying yes, Well, because they have no choice.
Governments said, tell you what, you don't do this. They've been in negotiations for a couple of years.
You don't do this. Okay, we're gonna pass a law that says we're gonna determine the price. Whoa, whoa, Okay, we'll talk to you. Not so much determine the price, just say you can't go above this price. They did that with insulin. If you are on insulin and you are a senior, you're not paying more than thirty five bucks a month.
That's it. You're done. And they used to charge three hundred, four hundred dollars a month and people couldn't afford it.
So, as I told you, how did Big Pharma? What was their position regarding drug prices going down? And this is the one that absolutely stunned me. They actually argued that seniors paying less money for drugs is good for them. They are better off paying less money. What how is that possible? Well, here's their rationale. It costs so much money to develop these drugs that if we don't get our full price.
We are not going to.
Be able to generate the amount of research that it takes to create the new drugs.
It's not going to make sense financially.
Therefore we need the money, and seniors won't get the benefit of new drugs that we would develop. Okay, I mean that's logical, that's logical. And then they come back with, then how come you sell the drug in den Mark or Norway or Mexico for a third the price.
Why don't you say the same thing to them?
Well, one thing, the government charge. The government negotiates the price in those countries. And two, well, the answer is the reason we charge them a tenth what we charge here is uh uh uh exactly because they can get away with it because it's private industry, because there's a fear of the government getting involved, because it's socialism. By the way, anybody you ask about socialist medicine, how horrible
it is. Just ask And by the way, when they hit sixty five saying don't accept, saying don't accept medicare because that's socialized medicine. Don't accept, just say no, I'd rather pay for insurance on my own. How many how many think would say okay, have you ever heard of even those that are against medicare, Conservatives, pro business, pro pharmacy industry, say I refuse to accept medicare. I won't do it because that's the government paying for it.
Yeah, raise your hand. I've had talks.
I mean, I've had people on the phone screaming at me about because I'm in favor of single payer. I am in favor of socialized medicine. Like the rest of the world. You know, we're the only industrialized country on the planet that doesn't have socialized medicine.
Maybe South Africa, but that's it.
Every other country has governmental involvement in.
Medicine is considered a right to us. It's not a right.
And so I've had people say I don't want it, I don't want it, but leave my medicare.
Alone, all right.
So the good news is now you're going to see the commercial Jordian's commercial with that gal who's about one hundred pounds overweight, dancing around and singing in glee, and you are going to be able to pay far, far, far less for your Jordians. Why because that's one of the drugs that the government has negotiated down. The announcement is going to come out tomorrow after the market's closed because of the.
Fear it's going to accept. It's going to affect the markets.
By the way, these pharmaceutical companies are saying they don't anticipate taking a big financial hit, they've already anticipated it. I don't know how because they're selling drugs that would go for four hundred dollars a month and now they're going to pay thirty They're going to get thirty five dollars a month, So I don't know how they're going to get away with it.
Now.
If you're on Social Security, it's tough. It is tough now. Every year raise last year I think it was five percent. Actually one year it was eight percent. Because that's based on inflation, and Social Security is supposed to keep up with inflation.
It hasn't.
It is tougher and tougher for seniors and people.
And I've talked about this over and over again.
Social Security was never meant to be the sole retirement fund. It was always meant to be that it was is going to augment whatever retirement you have.
So there are people and I get.
Calls all the time on the Saturday Show, people who are on Social Security who are living on eleven twelve hundred, fifteen hundred dollars a month and they get evicted?
Is there anything I can do? Bill? And it is.
It's very, very tough to know those people are well. A lot of older people are homeless, more so than ever before because they just can't afford it getting Social Security. And it's not keeping up with inflation. A couple of years of the last twenty years, it is kept up with inflation.
But let me tell you give you some stats.
Social Security benefits have lost twenty percent of their buying power since twenty ten. Those who retired that year would have needed a boost of three hundred and seventy dollars a month to keep up.
On average.
Well, let me tell you need three thousand, four thousand dollars three at least three thousand dollars a year if it's only Social Security.
And keep in mind, how far.
Does three thousand, excuse me, three thousand dollars a month? And how far does three thousand dollars a month go? Here in southern California where rent can be three thousand dollars a month, twenty five hundred dollars a month, who is it that I just talked to that moved and went to I think Texas or Arkansas, where a nice one bedroom in a very nice neighborhood is twelve hundred bucks a month, And if you're on Social Security, it's across the board. You live in Arkansas, you're getting the
same amount of money that you're getting here. Social Security is does not recognize geographical areas.
So it simply doesn't keep up. And next year's boost.
And it will be announced in October because they already know the figures. It goes back a year and then it goes back a year before that, and they do an average.
There's a whole formula.
Here that's expected to be two point six percent based on inflation that was through June, and that's a formula two point six percent on Social Security. It is not keeping up with inflation, even though infation inflation has dropped precipitously. But inflation is going to be one of the big big issues with this presidential election coming up in November, because you will see the Republicans and Donald Trump talk about how inflation is out of control.
It's not inflation is now it's controlled.
The problem is it already has gone up so high that people don't recognize that it's flatlined. All they know is the price of restaurants, the price of food, the price of everything has in fact increase. And does it matter, Well, Neil, you talk about restaurants all the time where food has gone up so dramatically, and does it matter if it hasn't gone up in the last year.
Do you think anybody cares?
Well, the people are making money from it.
But I'm talking about the consumer.
You me going into a restaurant and you're looking at the prices and you're going, I can't believe that this entree. Well, Hamburger's write, fifteen bucks for a Hamburger would be at a high, high end restaurant. We'd go to Morton's down the street and take clients to lunch, and it'd be fifteen.
Bucks for a Hamburger. That was a lot of money. Now fifteen dollars nothing.
No, you find that anywhere, you know, which is what is causing a trend of people not going to fast food. They're going to sit down restaurants because they're going to pay for the same cost and get better food, and they'll sit down.
But the point I'm making is that prices went up so quickly that that increase is now in everybody's head, and it has become a legitimate political attack on.
Kamala Harris because it was under her.
Watch, Joe Biden's watch, that at prices increase so dramatically, And it really doesn't matter.
Now tell you who gets nailed big time. People are on.
Social Security because it's not keeping up with inflation.
Actually, wages aren't keeping up with inflation.
They will, I think because it has leveled off and there hasn't been an inflationary period like we've had for a couple of years now. But it doesn't matter seniors. I mean, it breaks my heart literally. I have phone calls bill I get sixteen hundred dollars a month and I'm paying twenty two hundred dollars a month for my apartment.
How do you do that? How do you do that? Well?
Family helps Now, I have fifteen roommates. My dumpster is nice and roomy. I eat cat food now. I make a lot of jokes about that, but I'm willing to bet that there are more than a few people that are homeless because and on Social Security because they just can't afford it. Really is heartbreaking. Okay, just a story about how you know your life is terrible. You know I do a lot of those, don't I. There's just
something about your life is horrible. You're going to die next week, You've gotten some strange disease that you will never be able to cure.
It's just part of it, you know. That's what the show is about.
Not that you do them because they are news stories. It's the joy you've take in them that's a little off, but.
You know that's probably true. Okay. Hey, there's a.
Thing going on this out of the Wall Street Journal, and that is a there's a trend of wearing shorts at work, and it has to do with it is becoming more and more casual, casual Fridays, which now don't exist anymore because it's Monday through Friday. Casual people wearing shorts. And I asked, and I'm thinking they've been asked, Neil and Ann. They've been wearing and I'm talking about management, even high management has been wearing jeans here for years.
Who the hell wears a tie anymore? I haven't seen a tie around here in years.
Yeah, they've slowly moved away from that.
They have even the other day Paul Corvino, who is our you know, the division president here. I mean, it's about as high end as you're going to get on the West Coast. There he is in jeans, open shirt, and so I'm thinking, and the story says that there is a move. Now there's a counter move saying, hey, you got to be professional.
People still expecting to be professional, and the.
Reality is when you see clients, then you wear a coat and tie. For example, tomorrow, I have a meeting with a client, perspective client, and I'm dressing up. I am wearing my shorts that don't have holes in them, and I'm gonna wear one of my Hawaiian shirts that I bought at Costco, and I'm gonna wear my mandals.
And that's expected.
And people around here, well, it's casual Monday through Friday, and it's just what's going on there.
And there is a counterpoint on this there actually is.
There are actually is a move against this because they're saying business has gone so informal that we sort of lost all formality, all professionality. So so i'd share that with you.
Because we're wearing shorts, you wear pants, You don't wear shorts, so you.
Neil, I do wear shorts around the house. I don't wear shorts to work, huh, very really, even on Saturdays when I go in to do the Foe Report. I don't know that I've ever worn shorts.
Yeah, you're not a short kind of guy, all right.
No, I like shorts, I just don't tend to wear them to work, all right, I do constantly.
Yeah, thanks for that.
Yeah, I just like the air flowing around. I don't want to get into that, all right.
Just a quick one.
Just Instagram is up at Bill Handle Show. I met my new neighbors and videoed it and you'll see what I did to a little seven year old girl.
It's very handlesque.
And the podcast, the Bill Handle Show podcast is now been running. It every Tuesday and Thursday at nine o'clock. A new episode drops yesterday it was Project twenty twenty five. Tomorrow at nine o'clock. It is supreme Court cases that will blow your mind. And since I don't listen to it, I'd love for you to share your thoughts unless you
hate the show. And then well, actually, if you hate the show, that's even better, and I'll probably respond and tell you to go pound sand and not in those words, because that's the Internet.
That's it.
We're done tomorrow more it starts all over again. Amy, wake up call five o'clock. Neil and I join Amy at six when we do the morning show Kono and and as I say every day, never go home.
And we are finished. Catch it tomorrow, everybody.
This is kf I Am six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app.
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