Patients for Affordable Drugs--fighting skyrocketing drug prices

Dear Supporters and Friends,

We are very excited to share with you the beginning of a new, patient-led effort fighting to lower the prices of prescription drugs. The news release kicking off the initiative is below. Many thanks to all of you who have helped. We hope you will share with your networks.

Best wishes,

David Mitchell, Founder and President

Ben Wakana, Executive Director

Patients For Affordable Drugs

202-744-7555 (office)

207-551-7415 (mobile)

Contact: Stories@patientsforaffordabledrugs.org

(202) 734-7555

New Independent Patient Group to 

Fight Skyrocketing Drug Prices

Patients For Affordable Drugs will share stories of Americans struggling to afford prescriptions and mobilize patients to fight a rigged U.S. pricing system

Washington, D.C.— A new independent organization called Patients For Affordable Drugs kicked off a nationwide effort to lower prescription drug prices today. The organization, founded by a patient with an incurable blood cancer, will amplify the voices of Americans struggling under crushing drug prices to make policymakers and elected officials see the heavy toll of high priced drugs. Patients For Affordable Drugs will educate, activate and mobilize patients in support of policy changes to drive down prices, and will issue analyses on drug pricing trends. Patients For Affordable Drugs will not accept contributions from any organizations that profit from the development or distribution of prescription drugs.

“Drug corporations tell us if we don’t pay their outrageous prices, they won’t develop the new drugs people need,” said Patients For Affordable Drugs founder, David Mitchell. “But that’s just a form of extortion as if someone put a gun to your head and said ‘give me all your money or I’ll pull the trigger.’ The fact is—between enormous profits and millions wasted on drug advertising and marketing—there is room to deliver innovation and new drugs at lower prices.”

Mitchell, 66, was diagnosed six years ago with an incurable blood cancer called multiple myeloma. Mitchell’s drugs cost $26,000 every month, and he is grateful they are keeping him alive. “But drugs should not come at prices that bankrupt people and ruin their lives when they are struggling to stay healthy,” he said.

Studies have documented that virtually every major patient group in the U.S. takes funding from drug companies. Patients For Affordable Drugs will stand alone—refusing donations from drug companies, their foundations, or any other organizations that profit from the development and distribution of prescription drugs.

“Most patient groups take the big drug companies’ money to do important work like patient education and support,” Mitchell said. “But on the issue of drug prices, they are not serving their members. We aim to fill that void.”

Patients For Affordable Drugs offers several solutions to the problem of high-cost drugs, including:

•       Breaking the monopoly power of drug companies by allowing Medicare to negotiate lower costs for patients.

•       Speeding generics to market to enable greater competition.

•       Requiring drug corporations to disclose how they set prices if a drug is invented using taxpayer funding.

•       Disclosing secret deals made by pharmacy benefit managers who run prescription drug insurance programs.

•       Setting prices based on the value drugs deliver to patients.

The new organization will be built around an organizing hub— patientsforaffordabledrugs.org. It will employ social media models used by advocacy groups to collect patient stories and amplify those stories to elected officials and policymakers. And it will gather email addresses to build a community of patients to stand up for change.

Patients For Affordable Drugs received a grant from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation. Mitchell donates his time, and he and his wife Nicole—a breast cancer survivor—also contribute to the effort.

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The "green thing"

Reprinted from FB / Debbie Donivan / Feb 5, 2016

Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic bags are not good for the environment.

The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."

The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."

The older lady said that she was right -- our generation didn't have the "green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:

Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.

Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by the school) was not defaced by our scribblings. Then we were able to personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad we didn't do the "green thing" back then.
We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks.

But she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.

Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing.

But that young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every room. And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity.

But she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the razor blade in a r azor instead of throwing away the whole razor just because the blade got dull.

But we didn't have the "green thing" back then.

Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a whole house did before the"green thing." We had one electrical outlet in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances. And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest burger joint.

But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?

Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.

We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much to piss us off... Especially from a tattooed, multiple pierced smartass who can't make change without the cash register telling them how much.

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Everything You Need to Know About Password Managers

Confused about password managers? They're simpler than you might think.

Reprinted from FB: Consumer Reports / Andrew Chaikivsky / February 07, 2017

If you haven’t gotten around to using a password manager yet—one of the top safety practices recommended by security experts—you’re not alone. Even Lorrie Cranor, the just-departed chief technologist at the Federal Trade Commission, who helped protect consumers from online crimes, only started using one in late 2016. “I’ve been advocating password managers for years but I’d never actually tried one,” Cranor says.

These services can help defend against criminals by generating and storing a different password—one that's long and complicated—for each of your online accounts. But deciding which password manager to trust with the keys to your online life may seem daunting.

The nuts and bolts are confusing, too. Consumers may wonder how to set up the service, where their passwords will be stored, how to share passwords with a spouse, how password managers work with smartphone apps, and more. (I had those questions myself.) Here's a detailed explanation of what you need to know.

What Are Password Managers, Exactly?

The vast majority of us either use weak passwords or reuse passwords on multiple accounts. This makes us more susceptible to crimes such as identity theft. A password manager will generate, retrieve, and keep track of super-long, crazy-random passwords across countless accounts for you, while also protecting all your vital online info—not only passwords but PINs, credit-card numbers and their three-digit CVV codes, answers to security questions, and more—with encryption so strong that it might take a hacker between decades and forever to crack.

And to get all that security, you’ll only need to remember a single password, the one you use to unlock your so-called vault. Your login data will be locked down and, at the same time, remain right at your fingertips.

You'll still want to take other security measures, such as setting lock screens on all your devices, using two-factor authentication on valued accounts, and only using computers that you trust.  

“Password managers are not a magic pill,” Lujo Bauer, a security researcher and associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University, says, “but for most users they'll offer a much better combination of security and convenience than they have without them. Everyone should be using one.”

Convinced, but don’t know which one to choose? Security experts say you shouldn't overthink it. “As long as it’s a name brand”—like 1Password, Dashlane, KeePass or LastPass, the four most popular options— “what password manager you use largely comes down to your personal preferences,” says Dan Guido, CEO of digital security firm Trail of Bits. “At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you find it easy to use so you’ll stick to it.”

If you try one password manager and don’t like it, it’s not a huge deal. Each of the big four password managers allows you to export all your data, so if you’re not feeling it, you can delete your account and go elsewhere.  

What Will One Cost?

You have to pay for some password managers, but not all. Dashlane charges $40 per year to sync one account across all your devices—your home computer, laptop, mobile phone, and tablet. (You can use Dashlane for free, but you won’t be able to sync changes after the first month.) 1Password will run you $2.99 a month across all your devices after a 30-day trial period.

Like other password managers, both of these offer strong security: AES-256 encryption, which is used by the federal government to protect classified information. But what you're really paying Dashlane and 1Password for is easy-to-use software with nifty features such as alerts when one of your sites or services has been breached, priority customer service, the ability to change your old passwords automatically on certain sites, seamless syncing, and a smart, engaging interface.

Other services are free. The cloud-based password manager LastPass recently waived its $1 monthly fee; it offers many of the same features as Dashlane and 1Password and will sync your vault across all of your devices. (You’ll still have to pony up $12 a year for features such as priority tech support, one gigabyte of encrypted file storage, and up to five users on an account, which allows for secure password sharing.)

Then there is KeePass (and its Mac-based variant, KeePassX), open-source software that is popular among tech enthusiasts. This option is completely free. It looks like something out of 1995, but that doesn’t mean it skimps on security. It protects your password vault with the same strong encryption used by fee-based password managers.

But there's a caveat. KeePass is a DIY password manager—only choose it if you’re willing to fiddle. You can find detailed instructions online to walk you through the basic setup, as well as more advanced features that require a mix of tech know-how and patience. But you can't call customer support if you run into problems.  

How Do I Set It All Up?

Except for KeePass, getting started with any password manager is roughly the same—and it’s simple. With Dashlane and 1Password, you’ll first download and install software and an extension for your browser. LastPass requires only a browser extension. You can also download an app for your mobile phone or tablet. It will all take just a few minutes.

To set up an account, you’ll use your email address and will need to come up with a master password—a long, random, complicated one. 

Next, you’ll have to let the password manager know about your various accounts. You’ll be able to either import passwords you’ve stored in your browsers or have the manager store your username and password the next time you log in to a site, or enter the information manually. 

Can a Password Manager Change My Old Passwords for Me?

Changing the old, weak passwords on your many online accounts to burly new, computer-generated ones can be a chore. Both Dashlane and LastPass have a feature that will automatically do this for selected lists of sites, but they are haphazard collections.

To change the majority of your passwords, you’ll have to do it yourself: Log on to the site, go to your account information, and let your password manager generate a new long, unique password. While you're at it, it's wise to change the answers to your security questions to nonsense strings of characters (which you can store in your password vault, too).

Replacing all your weak or reused passwords will take time, especially if you’re dealing with dozens of accounts. But you don’t have to do it all at once. Security experts recommend addressing your most high-value accounts first and then getting around to the other ones when you can. “Even if you’ve changed your password to only a few sites—like your email, your bank, cloud storage—you’ve significantly increased your security,” Bauer says.

As you add accounts to your vault, you’ll see that password managers also store the URLs for sign-ins, a very useful security feature: Many phishing attacks try to trick users into submitting account information by directing them to fraudulent websites with slightly different web addresses. Instead of clicking on links in a suspicious email, use the link stored in your password manager to sign in, or type the URL yourself.

Another nifty and potentially time-saving feature: A password manager’s browser extension can automatically fill in your user info. It can even automatically log you in to your account, though security experts warn that users should tread carefully here. It’s usually safer to disable auto-logins through the manager’s settings.

“Web browsers are huge pieces of software with complex functionality,” Bauer says. “With automatic logging-in, you’re effectively forced to trust web browsers not to trick the password manager into divulging your password. It is much safer to have a prompt so that you have to actively agree before your password manager sends a password to a website.”  

Where Will My Passwords Be Stored?

This is a big dividing line between approaches with password managers. It’s a matter of local vs. cloud-based storage—you can either keep all your passwords on a laptop or a storage drive at home, or remotely on a company’s servers.

By default, LastPass, 1Password, and Dashlane store your password vault on their servers, allowing you to easily sync your data across devices. As a second benefit, if your computer crashes you won’t lose your vault.

But some people just really hate the idea of storing all their passwords on one site in the cloud—no matter what the company promises about its security measures, there's probably a bulls-eye painted on its encrypted back. If that sounds like you, it's possible to store your passwords locally.

Dashlane lets you do this by disabling the “Sync” feature in Preferences. This will delete your vault and its contents from the company’s servers. Of course, any further changes you make to your vault on your computer won’t show up on your other devices.

Another option: You can purchase a software license from 1Password for a one-time fee of $64.99, which will give you complete control over where you store your vault. To transfer your data to a mobile device, you can upload your encrypted vault manually to a cloud-based storage service of your own choosing, such as Dropbox or iCloud. Then, for peace of mind, you can permanently delete your password vault from the cloud once you’ve moved the data to your phone or tablet.

KeePass is the pure local play. It parks your encrypted vault on your own computer, and you’re free to keep it wherever you choose. There are methods for transferring your KeePass password file so you’ll be able use it on your mobile phone. For instance, the iOS app MiniKeePass can send the vault to your iPhone via iTunes. 

How Do I Sign In to Apps?

Password managers work easily in a web browser on your laptop. But you probably want to log in to apps, too, from Facebook to banking sites. How you do this varies with the kind of phone you use. 

Android phones let you use Dashlane or LastPass to log in to your apps automatically, after making a few simple tweaks to your settings; 1Password can fill in your usernames and passwords with a tap of a key on a dedicated keyboard.

Apps on iPhones are a different story. Although a few hundred are supported for autofill with 1Password, Dashlane, and LastPass, chances are that many of the apps you use are not supported.

But this doesn’t mean you’re locked out of those apps. At worst, you’ll have to toggle between your password manager’s app and, say, your banking app, copying and pasting your username and password. It sounds onerous, but after only a few taps you’re logged in, and you’ll never have to type in a long, complicated password again. 

Can My Spouse and I Share Passwords?

While it’s good security practice always to keep your passwords to yourself, there are times when you’ll need to share one with a family member or coworker. Some password managers are better than others at doing this securely.

KeePass, for example, isn’t designed for discrete password sharing with a non-KeePass user. You can store a database of shared passwords in the cloud, but this means you might have to set someone up with KeePass.

1Password has a Families subscription option for up to five members at $4.99 per month (if you start with an individual plan you can migrate it to a Families plan later). You invite family members via email and can provide them with customized levels of access—like banking sites for the grown-ups only, gaming services for the kids, and streaming services for everyone. Family members will have to download 1Password onto their devices and establish their own master passwords, and your family’s vault will be stored on the company’s servers, with any changes synced immediately across everyone’s devices.

Both LastPass and Dashlane let you share as many individual passwords as you want with nonusers (although they’ll have to sign up for a free account to retrieve the login info) and your sensitive data will be encrypted throughout its journey. However, the nonpremium, free versions place limits on users—if you’re not paying for premium Dashlane features, for example, you can only share five items with someone.  

What If I Forget My Master Password?

Only LastPass will offer you a password hint (or a way to reset the master password, if you’re on a device you’ve used previously).

But for the other managers, forgetting your master password means you’re locked out of your vault forever. Which is bad news, but not the end of your online world—lock yourself out of your vault and you’ll just have to reset all of your passwords, account by account, site by site.

To be safe, write your master password down and store it away in a secure place.

C'mon, Can’t You Just Tell Me Which Password Manager to Use?

It really does come down to personal preference. While interviewing a half-dozen security experts, I found that one swore by 1Password, two were devoted KeePass users, one told me to “just use LastPass,” and one used Dashlane. There was no consensus.

So I decided to try out all four of them myself. Setting up 1Password, Dashlane, and LastPass and their browser extensions really was easy and quick. (I put off dealing with KeePassX because of all I’d read about it being for tech experts only.) But while the ease-of-use features like auto-fill and generating passwords were helpful, at times it seemed too frictionless, as if an invisible hand were reaching down into web pages, filling in boxes and logging into my accounts on its own. It was unsettling. 

Then there was the price. Sure, these services only cost a few dollars a month, and that's less costly than getting clobbered by an identity theft. But over a few years it would add up to $400 or more. And who wants to spend money on passwords?

Finally, I sat down to try to figure out Keepass. Five minutes in and I was ready to give up. Was I downloading the right version? Could this actually be malware? But after awhile I found a very helpful guide through Security in a Box, a project founded by two human-rights groups. It offered step-by-step instructions that made setting up Keepass about as challenging as putting together an Ikea bookcase.

To integrate Keepass with a web browser I would have needed a separate plug-in, but I already had all the features that I really wanted—strong encryption, a password generator, and one place to store account info, PINs, and security questions. Good enough for me. What’s more, I didn't have to trust someone else’s servers. While I have no doubt that commercial password managers are taking the most stringent security measures, I just feel much more comfortable keeping access to my vault completely in my own hands.

And there were other benefits. Once I got KeePass up and running, I not only had a great password manager, I also felt a hard-earned sense of tech-insider satisfaction. It didn’t cost me a dime.  

Only in NJ