Blog Archives
Protect Community Pharmacies Receive Additional Support Against Express Scripts/Medco Merger
On Capitol Hill Tuesday, the Preserve Community Pharmacies Access NOW! (PCPAN) coalition and other local groups joined with Reps. Joe Courtney (D-Ct.) and Thomas Marino (R-Pa.) to voice their opposition to the merger of Express Scripts, Inc. and Medco Health Solutions, Inc., two of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits management companies. There is a push to urge Congress and the Federal Trade Commission to oppose the merger.
This merger could go into effect, if approved, in early 2012. Several elected officials, attorney generals of dozens of states, pharmacy service providers, consumer advocates, and patient advocacy groups have questioned the merger.
During their visit, the coalition expressed concerns that the merger would mean that the new mega-PBM would control the supply line of brand-name and generic drugs, as well as hurting health care quality and limiting access to community pharmacies driving prices through the roof.
Kelly Williams, past president of the Virginia Dental Hygienists’ Association said, “The merger would make it difficult for smaller community pharmacies to keep their doors open, resulting in reduced competition, and reduced competition means cost increases for the public.”
Joining Williams to express concern about the pending merger was William Towler, who owns Grove Avenue Pharmacy in Richmond. If this merger goes through, there would be a detrimental impact on Towler’s business and other small community pharmacies across the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Virginia: Most Pro-Business State in America
Pollina Corporate recently released their top 10 pro-business states for 2010 rankings, and they named Virginia as the most pro-business state in America. The nomination came based on the findings from a study that examined states on 31 factors, including: taxes, human resources, right-to-work legislation, energy costs, workers compensation laws, economic incentive programs, etc. Among those filling out the top five include: Utah, Wyoming, South Carolina, and North Carolina.
Governor Bob McDonnell released the following remarks regarding the rankings.
“Pollina has pointed out what we’ve known here in Virginia for a long time—that we are the best state in America for business. That’s no small feat in such a tough economy. Pollina clearly recognized the pro-business atmosphere and first-class educational system we have built here in Virginia. And that work is ongoing. This past General Assembly Session, we were able to secure a robust package of economic development incentives which we’re using around the state, country and world to create jobs for Virginians. In addition, we will continue to take an ‘all of the above’ approach to our energy future to work towards Virginia becoming the energy capitol of the east coast. This too will create the high-skill, high paying jobs that Virginians need.”
“Over the past six months, our team has announced 131 projects in Virginia, creating nearly 8,000 jobs with a capital investment of $1.3 billion. This is a great start, but it’s just a start. The more announcements we make, the more jobs we create for Virginians. By keeping taxes and regulation and litigation at a minimum, we are ensuring that major employers, like Northrop Grumman, will continue to invest in the Commonwealth, bringing with them jobs and opportunities for all our citizens. Just this week we announced that another major Virginian employer, DuPont, would reinvest in a new $20 million facility Chesterfield. It’s a great honor for Virginia to be named the most pro-business state in America. We are going to do all we can to ensure that we stay there in the years ahead.”
Congratulations to the Commonwealth of Virginia for this honor. Hopefully, they can continue this trend.
Penn Jillette's Tribute to the Hummer
So, the Hummer is about to die…big deal! After all, President Obama bailed out GM, and with oil prices soaring once again, there is no one willing to buy the Hummer brand to continue manufacturing a known gas guzzler. C’est la vie!
Comedian Penn Jillette had a great take on this in his recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, when he said that while there would be some sadness with the loss of a business, the Hummer vehicles have added up to nothing but gas guzzlers. Jillette also pointed out that government rules are also taking away from our freedoms too.
But if any part of the Hummer going belly-up are those government rules we’re putting in on miles per gallon, or us taking over of GM, then I’m not just sad, I’m also angry. Lack of freedom can be measured directly by lack of stupid. Freedom means freedom to be stupid. We never need freedom to do the smart thing. You don’t need any freedom to go with majority opinion. There was no freedom required to drive a Prius before the recall. We don’t need freedom to recycle, reuse and reduce. We don’t need freedom to listen to classic rock, classic classical, classic anything or Terry Gross. We exercise our freedom to its fullest when we are at our stupidest.
There’s a lot of bad stupid around. Really bad stupid. But we can’t stop the real horror by stopping just-plain-stupid stupid. We’re not going to stop overseas wars by stopping people from driving big stupid cars. As long as we think that “nation building” is part of our destiny, no amount of independence from foreign oil is going to stop us from getting into meddling, expensive, immoral foreign wars. As long as we let terrorism fill us with terror, we’re not going to get our nonstupid freedoms back. Our government declaring that we need alternative energy sources, and betting our money on who might get a smart idea, is not going to give smart people smart ideas. It’s really easy to see stupid all around us, but I don’t think we want to be too quick to stop it. We need to protect other people’s stupid to save freedom for all of us.
I have to admit that Jillette’s response to the Hummer and the fact that our freedoms are constantly being destroyed by the government are spot on.
Virginia ranked as Top State for Business
CNBC has rated Virginia as the top state for business. This marks the third time that Virginia has received this award.
Virginia offers lower corporate, income and sales tax rates for business. Additionally, the quality of the work force, cost of doing business, and the support for innovation.
Following Virginia, Texas, Colorado, Iowa, and Utah all ranked as great places for business.
