The UC Health team that contributed to my focal cryotherapy surgery and recovery in 2017Nubeqa- the ADT med that finally got PSA near zero - at a cost.
The midterms are now barely 29 days away and the benighted WSJ editors continue to pump out their malarkey of hyper-spending and scare-mongering Dems to try to save Trump's bacon - and Reepo House, Senate seats. We already saw how these nattering nabobs of negativity tried to pin the bogey of high prices on the Dems (instead of Dotard), e.g.
WSJ Editors Boff It Again, Claiming: "Dems Are Responsible For Unaffordability". Why These Nabobs Suffer From TDS
Now they are trying to confabulate "another Mediscare" to put on the Dems, e.g. 'Another Election, Another Mediscare' (WSJ, Oct. 5, p. A16,) babbling:
"Democrats create a phony scare whenever a government subsidy ends, and the Trump administrations recent elimination of a fillip for Medicare Part D plans is no different. Still, it's worth exposing how Democrats are trying to exploit problems they created in the Part D program."
This blabbery refers to the change the Biden administration made in Part D plans toward the end of 2024, i.e. to keep Part D premiums from spiking. Especially for much higher cost cancer drugs - two of which (degarelix, Nubeqa) I am now taking. The clueless WSJ nimrods complained:
"The Biden crowd panicked when insurer bids for providing basic Part D benefits surged to $179.95 for the 2025 plan year....Ergo, the Biden Administration funneled more money to Part D plans to keep premiums from rising. Surprise! Premiums are rising far less than Democrats warned this summer when the Trump team canceled a Biden subsidy."
However, I am glad the "Biden crowd's" Part D premium protections from 2024 were left in place. Which I discovered when I went to collect the official (beyond the sample) refill of the new ADT med (Nubeqa) last Wednesday. On collecting the bottle of 120 pills I was shocked to learn I had to pay $2,073 up front to cover the year, instead of monthly instalments.
So I had to pull out my credit card and pay because there was no way I was stopping this added ADT (taken daily as two 300 mg pills - morning & night), which had taken my PSA down to an all time low of 0.2. This is the lowest it's ever been, including after my initial brachytherapy treatment in Sept. 2012. That post-radiation PSA only reached 2.0 and then proceeded to go back up to 4.0 then 6.0, leading to a focal cryotherapy in June, 2017. Which then proceeded to rise again 6 months later.
To cut to the chase, I had to ask the medical dispenser at the urology desk why the cost was so high. He replied: "You can thank the move to keep Part D premiums down, because otherwise you'd be paying $15,000."
Yeppers, you read that right: $15K, or nearly $13,000 more than what I actually paid. I was the beneficiary of the Biden 2024 changes that provided for a 2026 Out-of-Pocket
Cap for Medicare Part D plans. These to have a maximum $2,100 yearly cap on
out-of-pocket spending for covered prescriptions.
But leave it to the entitled whiny WSJ editors to moan about the Biden Part D changes while ignoring the Reeps' H.R. 1 ('Big, Beautiful Bill"). An atrocity which has single-handedly made our entire health care system unstable and nearly unaffordable. This after making it much more difficult for people to stay on Medicaid by introducing work requirements and demanding people reconfirm their income and address every 6 months rather than every year.
And it's not just loss of Medicaid coverage leading to instability. As a TIME report ('The Coverage Crisis', Oct. 12, p. 11) notes:
"It's not just that H.R. 1 is projected to make more people lose Medicaid coverage, Congress also decided not to renew subsidies for the Affordable Care Act in 2026 - meaning thousands of families are seeing the cost of insurance skyrocket. They are dropping coverage instead of paying hundreds or thousands of dollars a month for it. All told, the Congressional Budget Office projects 10 million people to be uninsured by 2034."
Of course, this also impinges the rest of us. The reason is that the costs of treating all those additional uninsured patients will now be passed on by hospitals to the insured patients. As the piece notes:
"This isn't just a Medicaid problem. There's going to be a cascade of failure in terms of access. ...Everyone is likely to face longer waits, experts say, and fewer available services as hospitals and medical systems sag under the weight of more uninsured. We'll all be worse off for having let people get sicker and needing more expensive care."
Unfair? Not right? Blame Trump and his Reeptard Congress who supported this abandonment of the ACA subsidies, which the WSJ editors believe is justified. Oh, and Dems ought to stop spreading "Mediscare" stories. But here's the real Mediscare: Within 5 years our whole system will be on the verge of collapse because fools, poltroons and renegade imps would rather spend on a Trump war than on ACA subsidies. Now, thanks to the knock-on effects of H.R. 1 it is estimated employee insurance plans "will increase by 11 percent in 2027." (Ibid.)
Ranking member of the House Budget Committee Brendan Boyle of Pennsylvania contrasted the war's cost with the less-than $40 billion price of extending Affordable Care Act subsidies. (Time, op. cit. p. 14)
But the Journal editors would rather see the whole medical system crash and burn - except for the ultra wealthy getting their concierge care- than acknowledge Democrats did a good thing trying to preserve subsidies. All this huff and puff to try to protect the orange traitor in the Oval Office, who outdid himself in his high treason at a Nebraska rally last night. There, this orange fungal pus-wad invited Iran to "take out" two California (Dem) cities, Los Angeles and San Diego. Any words about that from the illustrious WSJ editors? Nope, not a peep. See no evil, hear no evil, but they damned well KNOW it's there and they're helping to protect it.
Oh, and also to protect his sycophant slaves in congress - only there to do his bidding- which is to protect the fecal fungus from any oversight, any investigations. But the outcome of the midterms may finally put an end to this nullification of checks and balances, and finally make the orange traitor accountable, whether the WSJ editorial nabobs like it or not.
See also:
Private
Medicare Plans Are Raising Costs And Forcing Millions To Find New Insurance -
The New York Times
Excerpt:
As enrollment for Medicare Advantage begins this month,
older Americans are confronting fewer options because insurers are
discontinuing coverage in many areas. Millions of people with private Medicare
coverage are being forced to change their insurance for 2027 and will pay
higher prices for prescriptions and medical care, prompting some experts to
warn that more older Americans will face greater financial hardship.
Major insurers, like UnitedHealth, Centene and state Blue
Cross plans, have shuttered plans that they viewed as unprofitable in certain
markets, leaving some people with fewer choices of policies, and even more
limited choices of doctors in 2027. In some rural counties from Oregon
to New Hampshire, older Americans shopping for private Medicare
Advantage plans will find that options have vanished completely or are
dwindling to just a few plans.
Overall, as open enrollment begins this month, roughly five
million people will be forced to switch plans because their current policy has
been canceled or is no longer offered in the county where they live, according
to an estimate from Duos, a health technology firm. Other estimates are lower,
but analysts who have been studying the issue said cancellations would probably
surpass the number this year, which was the highest on record.
Dependent on Social Security and other fixed incomes,
recipients also will be paying substantially more in out-of-pocket costs next
year when they need a prescription drug or go to a doctor or hospital.
The upheaval and confusion in some areas of the country are
in sharp contrast to the Trump administration’s claims that the Medicare Advantage program is “stable” and
that average premiums will be lower next year. Now that about 35 million older Americans are covered by Medicare’s
private plans, many will face an enrollment period that is likely to be
volatile, according to insurance brokers, industry analysts and experts.
And:
by Juan Cole | October 7, 2026 - 5:10am | permalink
— from Informed Comment
In a stemwinder of a speech in Nebraska, our mentally ill president joked around that if Iran took out Los Angeles and San Diego, it would be a small price to pay for keeping the rest of the country safe. Or at least that is what he appeared to say. What his slurred free association means is often anyone’s guess. The corporate media report on his speeches as if they are in any way coherent to stay on his good side, since he threatens people who disagree with him.
Angelenos and San Diegans reacted with outrage at their president’s blithe willingness to throw them under the bus. Ironically, San Diego is a major port for the US Navy, the sailors of which Trump is abusing by keeping them near the Strait of Hormuz for months at a time without a secure base for resupply or rest and recreation.
Trump is campaigning on how great an idea his abrupt war of aggression on Iran was. Although the president kept saying in summer 2025 that he had destroyed Iran’s nuclear enrichment program, he has made the now-crippled program his pretext for his war, which was instead transparently an effort to seize control of Iran’s gas and petroleum, as he had that of Venezuela.
» article continues...
And:
Brane Space: After Learning About New ACA Premium Hikes Americans Ought To Beg Dems To Continue The Shutdown
And:
WSJ Regular Pages Expose WSJ Editors' Claim of "Democratic Assault on Medicare Advantage" As Codswallop
And
Obamacare premiums are soaring as subsidies expire. Meet affected families. - The Washington Post
Excerpt:
Americans are coming face-to-face with the rising health insurance costs at the center of the longest government shutdown in history — and what it means for their pocketbooks next year.
Since open enrollment started Nov. 1, they’ve been able to buy health plans for 2026 on Healthcare.gov and state-run marketplaces created by the Affordable Care Act. Nearly all are finding they will have to pay more — some, significantly more — for their monthly premiums. Costs are soaring because health insurance is getting pricier and enhanced subsidies Congress approved nearly five years ago are going away.
The government is shut down because congressional Democrats won’t vote for a spending bill unless it extends subsidies beyond their Dec. 31 expiration date. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) said Friday his caucus would vote to reopen the government in exchange for a one-year extension of the subsidies, but Republican leaders dismissed the proposal.
The stakes of this standoff are now apparent to Americans looking to buy health insurance.
And:
All You Need To Know About The 'Big, Beautiful Abomination' - And Why It Must Be Slain In The House
And:
And:
WSJ Regular Pages Expose WSJ Editors' Claim of "Democratic Assault on Medicare Advantage" As Codswallop
