Op-ed: Just who are the greedy people here?

This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2017, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

I heard Sen. Orrin Hatch's hatefully disgusting comments Tuesday accusing many Americans of being "on the dole" and accusing Americans of being greedy and claiming that "health care reform is necessary to push these greedy people off of welfare."

His comments hit a new low, even for him.

If anyone in America is on the dole, it is the health insurance and pharmaceutical industries.

I am a retired school teacher. I have ulcerative colitis, a chronic intestinal condition. For several years I have taken a drug called Balsalazide. It is actually a generic drug. For many years the monthly cost of this drug was $6. At the beginning of this year my insurance company informed me that it would now cost $100. That represents an increase of 1,570 percent.

My pharmacist explained that much of the cost of drugs in America is driven by a government-sanctioned network of middlemen that exists between the pharmaceutical manufacturers and our pharmacies. Each of these layers of middlemen add hefty profit margins to the costs of our medications. He sarcastically noted that this is part of America's system of free enterprise.

This economic abuse of American citizens exists only because it is permitted by laws created through the years by Hatch and other members of Congress. He explained that one of the reasons prices of the same drugs are so much lower in Canada and other countries is that they do not have that network of middlemen. He also said that many who work in health care professions are convinced that the big pharmaceutical and insurance companies have conspired to do all they could to sabotage the Affordable Care Act.

I was able to go to a pharmacy where low income Americans make take advantage of a government sanctioned program that allows certain pharmacies to bypass those middleman and go directly to the pharmaceutical manufacturers. These low-income Americans, who the senator has so cavalierly dismissed is sucking up welfare, simply cannot afford to help generously enrich the people who are really sucking up welfare — those middleman and others in the healthcare industry whose robbery of Americans has been enabled by actions of the senator and his congressional colleagues.

Thus, I was able to obtain a three-month supply of my medicine without paying ransom to the middlemen in the drug supply chain. Instead of being forced to pay $300 for three months worth of medicine, I paid only the actual cost. That turned out to be a whopping $14! To top it all off, the medicine I received was not the generic, but was actually the brand name drug.

The senator's comments betrayed how absolutely out of touch he is with the lives of most of his constituents.

I promise to do everything I can possibly do to see that when Hatch once again breaks that long-ago promise to serve only three terms, that he is soundly defeated and someone else is elected to take his place.

Luke Dalton is an American who happens to live in Ogden. As just an ordinary American, he's not at all important to those who hold power. But, like all Americans, he does have freedom to publicly express his concerns and hope that someone will listen. He wishes his neighbors would do the same. Google "Utah Indivisible" to learn where you may join others who are trying to make their voices heard by our lawmakers.