Good deeds happening in Lodi

Editor: There are good things that happen in Lodi. This one, in particular, occurred in the Walmart parking lot on Sept. 19.

After shopping, I arrived to my car only to find the battery was dead. It was plainly clear I could not drive away. Almost at that very time a gentleman, accompanied by his two young daughters, arrived and asked if I could use a jump start. Within a few minutes he pulled up his late model Ford pick-up, popped the hood, hooked up the jumper cables to both vehicles and started my engine. He only would accept my thanks. I want to thank him again for how he assisted me and for the good example he provided to his daughters. Good happens! ROSANNE CHRISTIE Lodi

Drugs are expensive and talk is cheap

Editor: When Americans get sick, pharmaceutical companies grow healthier. Their rapacious pricing system, thanks to a combination of factors, puts billions in the pockets of shareholders at the expense of the government as well as insurers and private individuals.

Sometimes big pharma’s happy condition is a patient’s direct cause of death. Autopsy forms don’t contain an entry for “too broke to live,” but they should.

The effect of unregulated drug prices in the United States is poisonous. Consider the case of a woman whose tale was related in a Jan. 25 report by Emily Miller for Drugwatch:

“Each month, Jane breaks the law. She does this to stay alive.

“Jane is a Type I diabetic, which means she requires insulin to keep living. The problem is a 10 mL bottle of insulin in the U.S. has a list price of about $450. Jane estimates it would cost her $3,000 a month to stay alive without insurance ....

“Jane buys her insulin illegally from Canada, where a comparable bottle of insulin costs about $21 ....

“Nineteen million American adults import medication to save money — that’s 8 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“List prices for U.S. drugs are generally the highest among all developed countries,” according to Margaret Labban, an analyst for the data analysis and consulting firm IHS Markit.

“A number of factors can impact drug pricing, such as the costs of research and development and the amount of competition in the marketplace, said Sandy Walsh, FDA spokeswoman. U.S. law prohibits Medicare from negotiating prices directly with drug companies .... ”

Jane’s importation of drugs is illegal. Concomitantly, is her survival against the law?

One action would save vast sums: Pass legislation permitting Medicare to negotiate drug rates. Once that Federal agency brings down costs, the private marketplace will follow.

Talk is cheap. Political action is expensive — as drug companies know, since they make massive donations to friendly solons’ campaigns.

Mandating reasonable rates for medications saves lives. Congress must direct Medicare to open negotiations on outrageous drug prices. LANGE WINCKLER Lodi