Today, about one in 26 Americans have cancer, thats less than 4% of us. Tomorrow, in 2020, roughly on in 19 will have been diagnosed with cancer, thats over 5%.
More important then the number of individuals who contract cancer is the age at which the contract it.
The National Cancer Institute reports that 77 percent of all cancers are initially diagnosed among those older than age fifty-five. Data from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) program indicate that nearly 60 percent of all new cancer cases are diagnosed among those age sixty-five and older
This means, of the 5% who will contract cancer by 2020, 3% will be age 65 or older. In other words, less than 2% of all living within the US will contract cancer before the reach age 65.
Profits by drug companies
Overall profits of Fortune 500 companies declined by 53% in 2001, while the top 10 US drug makers increased profits by 32% from $28bn (20bn; 31bn) to $37bn, according to Public Citizen's analysis of the Fortune 500 data. Together the 10 drug companies in the list had the greatest return on revenues, reporting a profit of 18.5 cents for every dollar of sales, eight times higher than the median for all Fortune 500 industries, which was 2.2 cents.
2005 gov stats
44,014,000 americans earn over $50,000 annually
400,000,000 the us population
9.088017449% earning above $50k
Average salary of those working in pharmaceuticals $78,608.78
Employing over 733,476 individuals
Total number of working americans 153,993 mil civilians
So, BIG PHARM employees less then 1% of the total US workforce whose personal earning are in the top 10% of all americans and are paid by the more than 90% of employed citizens earning less then 50k per.
BIG PHAR more than a 1/4 trillion dollar a year industry run by those earning more then 90% of all Americans employing less the 1% of the total US workforce.
The real story
According to the CDC the average life span in
1900 47
1950 68
2005 77
Ah, those early years
Merk was not the only pharmaceutical executive to begin investing in science. Between 1920 and World War II, many of the nations pharmaceutical manufacturers opened their fist scientific laboratories and worked hard to gain the trust of academic scientists they hoped to hire.
It was the president of the pharmaceutical giant Merck George W. Merch Merk who in December 1950 gave a speech at the Medical Collage of Virginia who stated "We try never to forget that medicine is for the people" and "It is not for the profits. The profits follow, and if we have remembered that, they have never failed to appear."
By the 1940s some fifty-eight thousand scientists, up from only a few thousand in the 1920s, worked in the industry's research laboratories.
ten years have been added to man in the last 50 years
So is it reasonable for us to think we need coverage against the less then 2% probability of anyone of us contracting cancer before age 65. Is it reasonable for us to think that an industry whose participants earnings are in the top one percent of the nation and profits 8 times more than other companies is acting justly and honestly.
They are free agents and can charge what that want but we are free agents and can chose not to participate. Retain your power of choice and control of your wealth by not participating in coverage based solutions or government controlled monopolies.
SOURCES
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2007-03-13-cancer-boom_N.htm
http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/full/hlthaff.w3.189v1/DC1
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2008/06/10/medicare-costs-...
http://www.actupny.org/treatment/PharmcoProfits.html
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lifexpec.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hus/hus08.pdf#026
http://books.google.com/books?id=npjUj83hFZgC&pg=PA115&lpg=PA115&...
www.glassdoor.com/Salary/Pfizer-Salaries-E525.htm
http://www.jobs-salary.com/salary-of-pfizer-inc.htm
www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/ocs/liheap/guidance/SMI75FY09.pdf
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_average_income_per_person_in_US_in_2009
http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032006/perinc/new01_001.htm
Loading...
4:24Cancer Statisticsby ginaluv4eva632 views
Link to this comment:
All Comments (0)