Enormous public frustration with the skyrocketing prices of essential medicines in the US has not yet led to any meaningful reform, writes Fran Quigley in Truthout. But a historic initiative on the November ballot in California, championed by health care and consumer advocates and fiercely opposed by multinational drug corporations, may finally rein in Big Pharma. Continue reading Disgusted With Sky-High Drug Prices, California Voters Take on Big Pharma
What Bernie Gets Wrong About the Soda Tax
“It stunned many progressives to hear Sanders attack Philadelphia’s plan to tax sugary drinks; he called soda taxes regressive and came out swinging”, writes Anne Lappé in Mother Jones. “Like health advocates across the country, I think Sanders got it wrong: These taxes in fact reflect the progressive values he holds dear. It’s the very communities Sanders says he’s trying to protect that have been at the beating heart of campaigns for soda taxes. As a resident of Berkeley, California, the first city in the United States that has passed a tax of this kind, and as someone who has been working to sound the alarm on the epidemic of diet-related illnesses for years, I have had a ringside seat at the battle against Big Soda. And I think that if Sanders had firsthand knowledge of the fight, he too might be moved to see these taxes differently.”
Corporations and Health Watch 