NASW WI. Member Requests Change in State Policy on Stem Cell Research Funding

Wisconsin Update - NASW Wisconsin Chapter Newsletter
Autumn 2008

By now all of us are aware of Dr. Jamie Thomson’s human embryonic stem cell (hESC) discoveries at the University of Wisconsin. Wisconsin is now considered an international leader in bio-medical research throughout the world. Most health experts agree that Thomson’s discoveries will have a revolutionary impact on how medicine will be practiced in the twenty-first century.

No one should underestimate the potential impact that these discoveries will have on Wisconsin’s economy and on the health and welfare of Wisconsin citizens. Regrettably, to date, unlike in the State of California, there has been little discussion by John Q Public about how best Wisconsin should protect and use this lucrative multi-billion dollar resource.

For example, have you heard any discussion or speculation as to what impact our state’s good fortune could have in terms of our health care crisis and in making life saving and enhancing medications available to our elderly, low income and underserved population? Isn’t this a situation where meaningful revenue sharing between Wisconsin taxpayers and the bio-tech and pharmaceutical industry should be considered beyond the simplistic promises of greater job creation?

How should Wisconsin use this gold standard resource? Wisconsin now holds three broad human embryonic stem cell patents. It should be used to help assure that citizens with chronic and debilitating diseases have access to affordable cell-based drugs and therapies.

Undoubtedly this issue will be the number one social and health care issue of the twenty-first century. For more information on this issue and proposed policy see wiscellnow.org and citizensforcures.org.

Stem Cell Research “gold standard” resource in Wisconsin

Fall 2008
Advocate – Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups (CWAG)

Some of you may be aware of Dr. Jamie Thomson’s human embryonic stem cell (hESC) discoveries at the University of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is now considered an international leader in bio-medical research throughout the world. Most health experts agree that Thomson’s discoveries will have a revolutionary impact on how medicine will be practice in the 21st century.

No one should underestimate the potential impact that these discoveries will have on Wisconsin’s economy and on the health and welfare of Wisconsin citizens. Regrettably, to date, unlike in the State of California, there has been little discussion about how Wisconsin should protect and use this lucrative multi-billion dollar resource.

For example, have you heard any discussion or speculation as to what impact our state’s good fortune could have in terms of our health care crisis and in making life saving and enhancing medications available to our elderly, low income and underserved population?

Isn’t this a situation where meaningful revenue sharing between Wisconsin taxpayers and the bio-tech and pharmaceutical industry should be considered beyond the simplistic promises of greater job creation? How should Wisconsin use this gold standard resource?

Wisconsin now holds three broad human embryonic stem cell patents. It should be used to help assure that citizens with chronic and debilitating diseases have access to affordable cell-based drugs and therapies.

Undoubtedly this issue will be the number one social and health care issue of the twenty-first century.

Fortunately, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, Wisconsin’s leader in advocating for prescription drug reform, now has the opportunity to help spearhead this discussion in Wisconsin. At its recent annual meeting, CWAG adopted the following 2008-2010 Platform Priority: “Support legislation for federal and state funding of stem cell research, along with public healthcare safeguards, with benefits affordable to everyone.”

For more information on this issue and proposed policy see wiscellnow.org and citizensforcures.org.

Respectfully, William R. Benedict, ACSW
CWAG District 1

Wisconsin’s Stem Cell Initiative Needs Strategic Plan

On November first former UW-Chancellor, John Wiley, will assume his new duties as interim director of the public side of the Wisconsin Institutes of Discovery. Dr. Wiley has already said that he initially intends to attend to the “pre-operational” details associated with construction and staffing of this research facility set to be completed on the UW campus in 2010.

I hope Wiley will also begin the process of developing a comprehensive strategic plan to guide this stellar research ship through the storms of this next decade. What is critically needed at this juncture is a “Wisconsin Way” like strategic plan that is broadly conceived and community-based to include all the stakeholders in this journey.

All budgets, regardless of how important the mission, have fiscal and other resource constraints. For Wisconsin scientists to succeed they will need the support and input from every quarter including patient and consumer organizations, capital and material donor groups, and the aging and special needs communities to mention just a few.

Without measurable milestones to gauge our progress and identify our priorities Wisconsin’s premier stem cell research program will surely flounder. Taxpayers should encourage broad stakeholder discussions to identify alternative models of public funding, including revenue sharing, intellectual property, and licensing. All with the aim of ensuring that all Wisconsin citizens have access to affordable cell-based diagnostics and therapies.

Wisconsin campaign questionnaire results

Three watchdog organizations – the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, the League of Women Voters and Common Cause – have again come together this pre-election season to survey all our legislative candidates about where they stand with respect to Wisconsin clean government reform.

It seems to me that after this state’s caucus scandals and more recently the buying off of our State Supreme Court candidates via sham issue ads any respectable candidate running for public office in Wisconsin would want to put their best foot forward and if not actually support clean government, then at the very least, complete and return a non-partisan survey form.

But not in Wisconsin! Would you believe that nearly two-thirds of our state legislative candidates declined even to take a public stand on clean government reform issues. In fact to date only seven of the 25 senate candidates (28%) have even returned the questionnaire. Of the 243 candidates for state assembly, only 95 or 39% replied to the survey.

Do Wisconsin voters need any stronger evidence about what to expect when our new legislature reconvenes this January? As a former program evaluator, I am struck by the 33 percent return rate and how closely this figure compares with Wisconsin’s voter satisfaction index. Based on the above survey return rate is it any surprise that nearly 8 out of 10 Wisconsin citizens indicate that they are dissatisfied with their legislators and do not believe that they any longer represent their best interests.

Having worked with state legislators on campaign finance reform in recent years my best guess is that at least 75 percent of our legislators’ first allegiance is with the special interests that fund their election campaigns. I think this helps explain the low return rate and is a strong harbinger of what the citizens of Wisconsin can expect again during the next legislative session --- more deadlock and little if any clean government reform.

If you wish to find out how much your legislative candidate is invested in clean government reform in Wisconsin check the League of Women Voters’ web site. 

Consider fairness in stem-cell push

Wisconsin State Journal/Guest Column

Each person attending the World Stem Cell Summit held in Madison this past week left this conference with a great sense of urgency and personal responsibility to help speed up stem cell research. As a patient advocate who strongly supports state funding of stem cell research I wish to share with you my most important concerns.

Because Wisconsin’s stem cell research program has such extraordinary potential for advancing scientific knowledge that may result in therapies and cures for a wide range of chronic diseases and injuries it becomes an extremely important social justice and fairness issue.

It raises a host of moral, stewardship and health care issues along with critical questions of priority.

Should we prohibit or refuse to fund certain types of stem cell research? Which therapeutic stem cell applications should we choose for development? Will we invest in medical cures for the many or for elitist medical enhancements and longevity for the few? Will the novel therapies be fairly distributed and affordable? And most important, who is to decide?

For more than 100 million afflicted Americans and their families, stem cell research is much more than a health, economic and political issue. It is their No. 1 concern. It’s a matter of whether they have enough hope and energy to suffer through another day and whether real help will ever come.

It is heartbreaking when one discovers that clinical trials to bring this research into the clinic are happening all over the world while the work here lags far behind.

Resident and patient organizations will remain disengaged as long as our governor continues to counsel Wisconsin citizens to simply continue to sit back and leave these life-and-death decisions in the hands of the scientists.

A consensus on social justice and fairness issues should be attained through vigorous public engagement at every stage of the stem cell research process--- from the business and research design to product development and distribution.

All research operates in the context of a particular human being, institution, state and budget. It would be an injustice if all stem cell research objectives were framed only for their potential applicability and profitability.

A host of other issues should be brought to the table as well, such as the severity of the illness to be targeted, present gaps in existing therapies, public health needs and the needs of our most vulnerable citizens?

In publicly supported educational and research centers like our own UW-Madison, citizen groups must determine the best balance between direct potential clinical applications versus the longer term search for knowledge itself.

Too much emphasis on direct application alone will act to undercut the otherwise serendipitous nature of discovery and impose an authoritarian structure that is alien to the scientific culture.

When public funding dollars are involved, a social justice focus helps mediate an otherwise often greedy market-centered research enterprise.

Public engagement and consideration of these potentially contentious social justice issues can help mitigate further delay in the development of these cell-based therapies.

If Wisconsin’s stem cell research initiative is to succeed Wisconsin taxpayers must begin now to wrestle with these issues in a thoughtful and prudent manner.

World Stem Cell Summit - Time is running out for many Americans

Each person attending the World Stem Cell Summit held in Madison this past week left this conference with a great sense of urgency and personal responsibility to help speed up stem cell research. As a patient advocate who strongly supports state funding of stem cell research I wish to share with you my most important concerns.

Because Wisconsin’s stem cell research program has such extraordinary potential for advancing scientific knowledge that may result in therapies and cures for a wide range of chronic diseases and injuries it becomes an extremely important social justice and fairness issue.

It raises a host of moral, stewardship and health care issues along with critical questions of priority. Should we prohibit or refuse to fund certain types of stem cell research? Which therapeutic stem cell applications should we choose for development? Will we invest in medical cures for the many or elitist medical enhancements and longevity for the few? Will the novel therapies be fairly distributed and affordable? And most important, who is to decide?

It is often forgotten that the question of stem cell research is much more than a major health, economic and political issue. For over one hundred million afflicted Americans and their families it is their number one personal concern above all others and one that affects all their lives daily. For them it has to do with whether they have sufficient hope and energy to suffer through another day and whether real help will ever come.

Most of all, for these afflicted Americans it is the most urgent health and social concern of all. It is even more heart breaking when one discovers that clinical trials to bring this research into the clinic are happening all over the world while the work here lags far behind.

As long as our governor continues to counsel Wisconsin citizens to simply continue to sit back and leave these life and death decisions in the hands of the scientists, citizens and patient organizations remain disengaged. Rather than taking this advice, such social justice and fairness issues should be consensually derived through vigorous public engagement at every stage of the stem cell research process, from the business and research design to product development and distribution. This is so because all research operates in the context of a particular human being, institution, state and budget. It would clearly be an injustice if all stem cell research objectives were framed only for their potential applicability and profitability.

Rather than focusing only upon profit versus general welfare and quality of life considerations a host of other issues should be brought to the table as well, i.e., severity of the illness to be targeted; present gaps in existing therapies; does it meet a public health need, and the needs of our most vulnerable citizens?

Both for the sake of equity and for the welfare of our planet earth social justice and fairness also calls for wherever possible to share new research discoveries in an open and transparent manner and as broadly as possible.

Furthermore, in publicly supported educational and research centers like our own UW, citizen groups must determine the best balance between direct potential clinical applications versus the longer term search for knowledge itself. Too much emphasis on direct application alone will act to undercut the otherwise serendipitous nature of discovery and impose an authoritarian structure that is alien to the scientific culture.

When public funding dollars are involved, a social justice focus helps mediate an otherwise often greedy market-centered research enterprise. Hopefully, the grantee or entrepreneur will then be obligated to select areas of research that will yield the greatest increased welfare of its citizens.

Public engagement and consideration of the above potentially contentious social justice issues can help mitigate further delay in the development of these cell-based therapies. If Wisconsin’s stem cell research initiative is to succeed, Wisconsin taxpayers must begin now to wrestle with these issues in a thoughtful and prudent manner.

It would be fool hardy indeed to rely exclusively upon university faculty research oversight committees or intellectual property officials to make such complex life and death value decisions as well as decisions about the state’s future general welfare and economy. To counter such a possibility taxpayers and patient representatives should sit on university oversight and review committees; frequent, open and transparent stakeholder meetings should be encouraged; and alternative public benefit and intellectual property models welcomed.

This state will not likely confront any greater single issue in the twenty-first century involving its quality of life and economic future. Conservative market forecasts range from a fairly modest $100 million to as much as $10 billion by 2010. By 2030 stem sell research and development is projected to reach over 500 billion dollars. This figure does not include the potential trillions more saved by the elimination or amelioration of the most costly and debilitating diseases for more than one hundred million citizens.

Respectfully,

William R. Benedict

GAB acts to ban sham issue ads

I was privileged to attend the recent Government Accountability Board (GAB) meeting and was so proud and pleased to see that all six of these non-partisan board members seemed to me determined to put an end to sham issue ads.

In a nut shell this process refers to the misuse of so called “issue ads” by the super-rich and powerful to anonymously attack and defeat a political candidate through a barrage of insanely costly negative TV ads especially in the last few days before Election Day.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimates that nearly eight million dollars was spend on such spurious ads during the last two Supreme Court elections. It is clear to this citizen that the Board has both the authority and the means to bring an end these corrupt practices. After all, this watchdog group has the statutory authority to fight corruption and/or the appearance of corruption, and to ensure the integrity of our election process.

How many of us really believe that our constitutional fathers ever intended for us to equate our so-called “free speech” rights with exorbitant corporate spending rights while the people’s right to peacefully assemble and speak out at political events erodes more and more each day. We can be sure that the Wisconsin Lobbyist Association and mistaken free speech advocates will continue to fight for the right to spend, spend, and spend and thus squander away and make more impotent each day the legitimate and true voice of the people.

Let all Americans who love our sacred liberties, follow the lead of these six courageous clean government watchdog officials and more recently John Wiley and the Epic Corporation, and stand up with them to the corporate lobbyists and the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Call the Board’s office at 608-266-8005 and commend them for their industry and fine work since beginning in January 08 and assure them that they have your support.

Respectfully, William R. Benedict

A public health care benefit for all Wisconsin citizens

Dialogue
Madison-area Urban Ministry
July-September 2008

By now we know that solving Wisconsin’s ever-growing home health care costs is a multifaceted problem and will not be solved by any single solution. And while there are many comprehensive solutions being proposed, none of them go directly to the core issue---monolithic and predatory health care pharmaceutical pricing practices.

In 2005 my partner and I were vacationing in San Diego California. While reading the San Diego Tribune I just happened to read about California’s 3 billion dollar stem cell research program and about the many health care stakeholder groups who all were fighting for something they were calling a “public benefit.”

I continued to read and soon learned what they meant by the words, “public benefit.” They wanted to make sure that medical breakthroughs and medicines developed through stem cell research, and funded by their tax dollars, would be available and affordable to every citizen in California.

When we weigh the billions and billions of dollars to be both made and saved through miracle cures of our worse most debilitating diseases and by such life enhancements as restored memory, increased mobility, regenerated body parts, and most of all, increased longevity, only then can we begin to appreciate the real scope and importance of the health care policy issue now before us.

Californians have learned their lessons well from our nation’s health care problems and have decided to go directly to the root of our health care pricing crisis. They are no longer going to pay twice for their health care: Once for the research and once again for the exorbitantly priced medications and therapies.

Wisconsin citizens should follow California’s lead and pass legislation now that supports federal and state funding of stem cell research in Wisconsin along with public health care benefit safeguards.

“Public health care benefit safeguards” can mean anything from requiring a successful grantee to return 25 percent of their profit back on their billion-dollar stem cell-based drug discovery to the state of Wisconsin to be put in a special patient health care fund.

Or a successful grantee would simply be required to submit a plan to ensure affordable prices for all Wisconsin citizens, especially the medium-and-low income and underserved populations.

The bottom line is that you and I as Wisconsin citizens can prove to ourselves and our grandchildren, and future generations, that we have learned our lesson from exorbitant health care pricing. We have learned not to give our money to people without first asking who they are, why they need it, and how they plan on using it. This new policy of asking the public-funded grantee to meet certain expectations and provide some return on our investment is better than writing a blank check and continuing with health care in Wisconsin as we now know it.

Now is the time for Wisconsin policy makers to decide whether the miracle cures promised will be made accessible and affordable to Wisconsin families with cell-based diseases.

The answer to this question must be reflected in the language of the state’s financial and tax research innovation incentives now being proposed.

Asking the grantees to do the right thing after giving away the farm is like asking the fox to cough up the chickens after giving him the key to the hen house.

Without grass roots action now by all Wisconsin citizens we should not expect that cell-based therapies and drugs derived from this research will eventually benefit all of us as health consumers and taxpayers.

Demand payback on biotech strategy

Wisconsin State Journal

Steven Clark’s recent guest column in the State Journal, “State needs biotech investment strategy” should make every taxpayer in Wisconsin --- and particularly families with chronic stem cell-based diseases --- sit up, take notice and act now. Clark found that Wisconsin’s biotech initiative has no clear overarching focus.

I was surprised to learn that Wisconsin has not placed its miraculous human embryonic stem cell (hESC) discoveries upper most in its strategic biotech initiative.

Wisconsin has already sold an inclusive license to one of the largest biotech companies in the world, which clearly cut taxpayers out of any special payback or affordable access to these products. Wisconsin families with stem cell-based diseases need to demand a full accounting of why this has happened now before any more of our intellectual property is compromised and squandered.

It also appears that the Madison biotech flagship needs to be expanded to include all the public and private biotech resources – both research and business - from throughout the state.

This is not the case. Wisconsin taxpayers and health care consumers ultimately will pay the price for our shortsightedness. As Clark notes, if research is not translated into businesses, it does nothing for the people or the economy.

Also, unlike in Wisconsin, the California taxpayers and stem-cell based consumers have been promised by state statute that they will receive a payback for any successful stem cell-derived commercial product.

That is, the state will receive a certain percentage of any revenue derived from the state-funded research, and low income and the uninsured residents will have equal access to the miracle health products that follow.

In Wisconsin, the home of embryonic stem cell research, there is little evidence thus far that any overall plan or policy exists to ensure that Wisconsin taxpayers will receive a similar payback and public access to affordable stem cell therapies when they appear in your local drugstore.

The bottom line: the Wisconsin biotech flagship is adrift without a rudder. Wisconsin lacks a clear mission and policy platform that would help guide it through what is projected as a $500 billion dollar industry in 2020 or sooner.

In a practical sense, this means that when your governor or the Wisconsin Department of Commerce awards a biotech company or scientist or entrepreneur a grant, you will not find any mission-driven clause or revenue- earned payback requirement in that contract.

I urge all taxpayers, especially those who are working for health care reform and families with stem cell-based diseases, to call your legislators and ask them what they are doing to make sure that Wisconsin’s investment in human embryonic stem cell research is protected from any further unraveling of this enormously lucrative “home-grown” resource.

Benedict lives in Madison.

State must protect investment in stem cell research

The Capital Times/Opinion, Madison, WI

As a Wisconsin taxpayer I am grateful and proud of Dr. James Thomson and UW-Madison’s bioscience community for their human embryonic stem cell (hESC) discovers. But as I study the funding issues relating to Wisconsin’s stem cell enterprise I have become increasingly concerned with how our state is managing the intellectual property associated with these potential lucrative discoveries.

One of my questions has to do with why Wisconsin agreed to give exclusive rights to the Geron Corp. in Menlo Park, Calif., for using Wisconsin-patented stem cells to treat heart, diabetes and neurological disorders? My concerns have to do with both the nature of the diseases chosen and the potential economic and health care implications involved.

I am also concerned with the potential conflict of interest involved and exactly by who and why this decision was made and whose interests are best being served?

After all, the potential financial returns to the state of Wisconsin in terms of future health care costs are enormous, not to mention who it is who will ultimately control and most benefit from any cell-based cures in these three major disease areas.

As users of heart drugs and other therapies, I and many other Wisconsin citizens are very dependent upon medications. As both a taxpayer and patient I am concerned about how Wisconsin-funded cell-based discoveries are being managed. Are they being managed in a way that can best ensure Wisconsin families more effective and affordable heart disease, diabetes and neurological care?

Or, will my grandchildren also have to travel to Minnesota for their heart medications? Will nearly half of Wisconsin citizens still have to go without full access to medications and more affordable health care in 2020?

I urge all Wisconsin citizens, but especially those who are working for health care reform here, to begin to connect the dots between our basic biomedical research and development decisions and our existing health care crisis before it is too late.

The central question is: how can we move from our state funding policy of providing a blank check to biotech and pharmaceutical companies and scientists/entrepreneurs to routinely attaching health care payback safeguard to all our innovation grants and other tax incentives?

Perhaps the place to begin is with better and more accurate information about who really is paying for this research. We can begin by eliminating two major myths: that university funding for science discoveries is generally paid for by the private sector, and that public revenue sharing would discourage scientific research.

Wisconsin citizens need to consider who owns the university, who really pays for the laboratories, equipment, supplies, the buildings, utilities and the salaries of scientists and staff who work there? Who supports and sustains the gigantic and robust interdisciplinary and collaborative resources deposited there? It is the taxpayers, the students and alumni (you and me) who support and sustain this marvelous and successful research enterprise.

Ultimately Wisconsin taxpayers’ ability to deal with the above concerns successfully will depend in large part on how we as a statewide community make these value-based decisions in the full light of public scrutiny. Presently these decisions are being made in board rooms and by CEOs sitting on university-based patent-making non-profit foundations. What are called for at this juncture are less government and media assurances and much more public discussion based on much better information and transparency.

Legislature: commit on stem cell research

Wisconsin State Journal/ Your Views
June 26, 2008

A recent study suggests that stem cell programs that exist in a stable and favorable policy and funding environment are continuing to thrive. Conversely stem cell programs that are hampered by inadequate and sporadic funding are clearly underperforming.

So far Wisconsin has been blessed with a huge investment only in human capital. This has been contributed tirelessly and generously by Thompson and his UW colleagues. We cannot afford however to rest on our laurels and human capital alone.

What is needed is a bi-partisan initiative that goes beyond good will and provides for a secure and continuous public and private funding base. This support and funding must be accompanied by a message from the people of Wisconsin ---our state Legislature—that tells venture capitalists and committed scientists alike that Wisconsin means to be in the stem cell business for the long time.

Wisconsin legislators can no longer continue to sit by while Wisconsin citizens and families continue to suffer daily from debilitating diseases and an ever weakening economy.

Check legislators’ record before voting

Capital Times - Readers View

Thanks to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign all you need to do now is click on www.wisdc.org/pr042908.php and see objectively how your state senator and Assembly representatives voted on six major clean government bills during this past year.

I worked as a program evaluator for over thirty years. How refreshing it was to see that our state legislators are finally going to have to stand on their voting record instead of how much money they have to spend on their campaign.

The representatives, based on their votes, were divided into one of four categories based not on their promises, good looks or how big their smile is but strictly on their voting record for clean government.

Before voting this fall, you only need to know one thing about your legislator. What clean government category did he or she earn? The four include democracy defender, public ally, bystander and public enemy?

Wisconsin voters will know their votes really did count this time to help clean up the sordid mess in their state capital. You can take control of your government if you act now.

Tier 4 Insurance Plans Are a Pretext for What Will Follow

According to a recent New York Times article by Gina Kolata health insurance companies are cleverly adopting a new pricing plan for very expensive drugs, asking patients to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars for prescriptions for medications that may save lives or slow the process of serious diseases.

Now rather than paying a fixed co-pay charge for your prescription medications, patients will now be charged a percentage of the actual cost of certain high priced drugs up to as much as 33 percent. This new drug pricing scheme is called Tier 4 plans and is being touted by industry economists as a cost saving mechanism for health care consumers.

While the US government’s Medicare plan first conceived the 4-tier plan idea as a way of distinguishing between certain considered non-essential life-style or enhancement medications such impotence reducing products, the private sector, however, is now using such 4-tier pricing schemes to separate out the most seriously ill people whose illness or pain requires the most expensive bills.

Rather than spreading the insurance plan’s total cost out over the entire population served, this new pricing plan separates the most seriously ill consumers, often with the most pain, from the healthier who require less expensive medicines. If this is not health care inequity what is?

Some of the more common diseases that have now been moved into this category include multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Under these plans even the insured and more affluent people may not be able to afford the treatments they require.

What disturbs this writer is the industry’s audacity to inflict this costly and inhumane pricing system on you and me in spite of the fact that both pharmaceutical and insurance companies are already charging exorbitant prices and making such huge profits. This is occurring when over one-third of Wisconsin citizens have no health care insurance and many remain ill or are dying yearly because they cannot afford the high costs of medications.

Why would the industry want to provoke health care consumers more than they already are? The reason is because they want to be in a position when the stem cell medicine revolution era arrives to be able to serve both the average insured person and the very rich and powerful with even far more costly miracle cures and enhancements. The Tier 4 option will pave the way to allow such health inequities to co-exist while still allowing the existing very profitable system to continue.

If consumers allow such an inequitable drug pricing system to continue the far more costly future cell based miracle drugs both for diseases and increased longevity enhancement will be accessible and affordable only for the rich and powerful.

Many readers who read this article will wonder how it is possible for the government’s Federal Drug Administration and the federal insurance commission would allow licensed drug manufacturers and insurance companies the right to perpetuate such a pricing plan on the American public? There are two main reasons. One, of course is that it is the very pharmaceutical and insurances company officials that sit on the policy-making and governing sub-committees that write these rules. The second reason is that these two industries pay by far more for your representative’s re-election than either you or I.

Readers should contact their congressional representatives now and ask them to call an emergency session to stop such unjust drug and insurance pricing practices NOW.

Respectfully, William R. Benedict, Madison

Enough is Enough

Did you know that recent US government budget figures indicate that this administration has spent enough money in the prosecution of the Iraq war to give every Iraq citizen $150,000 and every Iraq family $500,000? This figure is based on Iraq’s population estimated presently at twenty-five million.

Based upon the three trillion dollar cost of the war to date, it has cost each US citizen $10,000 dollars. Of course the reality is that this war has cost you and me to date not one single penny. This total five year three trillion dollar debt has been borrowed and will be a burden on our children and grandchildren for many years to come.

At the present cost of 25 billion a month, two more years of staying in Iraq is another 600 billion of debt our grandchildren will owe our foreign sovereign creditors in China and the Middle East.

The entire three trillion dollars was given away through so-called “emergency supplementals,” meaning that your money was spent completely outside the normal budgeting process and without the normal budget caps. It is the equivalent of writing Uncle Sam a blank check.

These were quick and easy give-away dollars that our grandchildren will be paying interest on far out into the unforeseeable future. In other words three trillion dollars was given out in an un-scrutinized, undifferentiated and totally unaccountable fashion.

Contrast this administration’s shoddy spending and record keeping practices on the Iraq war with how it is presently dealing with the present home mortgage crisis. It has taken this administration since last August to help fewer than 2,500 of more than 2 million Americans staring at foreclosure this year.

While our defense department can pay over 150,000 private security contractors over $400,000 per person, plus expensive life insurance policies, compared to only $40,000 per US soldier per year, this administration has scrutinized and micro-managed to death assistance to struggling American homeowners.

For these prospective recipients saddled with foreclosed houses, the “appropriateness” of government loans or insurance is calculated down to the smallest detail including itemized tax returns and assorted eligibility requirements. When asked to help Americans in need here on the home front the issue of how much taxpayer money should be put at risk suddenly becomes this administration’s chief concern.

Since World War II it appears no longer necessary for the people’s national legislature – our Congress - to pass a formal declaration of war. Now it is also becoming increasingly popular for our congressional leaders to shirk their constitutional responsibilities by simply approving humongous blank checks to the President to fight his own personal wars.

Contact your Congress persons and tell them that you aren’t going to take it any more. Tell them that you no longer consider them responsible stewards of the peace nor sufficiently competent to manage the people’s finances. Tell them that you will be looking for a new representative to do the people’s business in Washington. Get out and vote in the upcoming election and write in the name of the person who you think will represent you and your country’s best interests.

After you have written your letter or made your call, visit your nearest library or bookstore and pick up “The Three Trillion Dollar War” by laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard economist Linda Bilmes on the true cost of the US Invasion and Occupation of Iraq.

Respectfully,
William R. Benedict, Madison

We Won’t Take It Anymore

I was saddened this week to read about the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s (FERC) release of REX’s latest Environmental Impact Statement and the commission’s staff ruling that the company’s plan be approved. In spite of this I am still hopeful that Indiana’s Governor or its two U.S. Senators and the district’s congressional representative will still stand up and tell the 5-member commission that the 37,000 southeastern Indiana residents are tired and just won’t take it anymore.

Meanwhile, I am so proud of the members of the Franklin County Area Plan Commission who recently voted unanimously to turn down the “special exception application” from REX. I am also proud of the county’s citizens who for months have written letters to this newspaper explaining why they were opposed to this project and arguing for its defeat.

Finally, I am proud of this newspaper’s editor, John Estridge, who in his most recent editorial so deservedly castigated Indiana’s congressional delegation and its Governor for seemingly caving in to the rich and powerful and in so doing putting 37,000 of our sisters and brothers and future generations of Franklin County residents at serious risk of their property and their lives.

As a former Franklin County resident with still deep roots in this community I strongly suggest that each person who reads this letter write or call their representatives and tell them that if and when the FERC approves this dastardly project they will no longer have your vote in the fall elections. Only by taking such action now can Franklin County residents stop the next great incursion on their rights, liberties and lives.

Most respectfully,

William R. Benedict

Let’s follow California’s lead on health care costs

Guest Column - The Capital Times
April 2, 2008

By now we know that solving Wisconsin’s ever-growing home health care costs is a multifaceted problem and will not be solved by any single solution. And while there are many comprehensive solutions being proposed, none of them go directly to the core issue---monolithic and predatory health care pharmaceutical pricing practices.

In 2005 my partner and I were vacationing in San Diego California. While reading the San Diego Tribune I just happened to read about California’s 3 billion dollar stem cell research program and about the many health care stakeholder groups who all were fighting for something they were calling a “public benefit.”

I continued to read and soon learned what they meant by the words, “public benefit.” They wanted to make sure that medical breakthroughs and medicines developed through stem cell research, and funded by their tax dollars, would be available and affordable to every citizen in California.

When we weigh the billions and billions of dollars to be both made and saved through miracle cures of our worse most debilitating diseases and by such life enhancements as restored memory, increased mobility, regenerated body parts, and most of all, increased longevity, only then can we begin to appreciate the real scope and importance of the health care policy issue now before us.

Californians have learned their lessons well from our nation’s health care problems and have decided to go directly to the root of our health care pricing crisis. They are no longer going to pay twice for their health care: Once for the research and once again for the exorbitantly priced medications and therapies.

Wisconsin citizens should follow California’s lead and pass legislation now that supports federal and state funding of stem cell research in Wisconsin along with public health care benefit safeguards.

“Public health care benefit safeguards” can mean anything from requiring a successful grantee to return 25 percent of their profit back on their billion-dollar stem cell-based drug discovery to the state of Wisconsin to be put in a special patient health care fund.

Or a successful grantee would simply be required to submit a plan to ensure affordable prices for all Wisconsin citizens, especially the medium-and-low income and underserved populations.

The bottom line is that you and I as Wisconsin citizens can prove to ourselves and our grandchildren, and future generations, that we have learned our lesson from exorbitant health care pricing. We have learned not to give our money to people without first asking who they are, why they need it, and how they plan on using it. This new policy of asking the public-funded grantee to meet certain expectations and provide some return on our investment is better than writing a blank check and continuing with health care in Wisconsin as we now know it.

A Public Health Care Benefit for All Wisconsin Citizens

This presentation was given by William R. Benedict at the Wisconsin Coalition for Aging Groups District 1 Spring Senior Issues Forum

I too want to thank you for being here and for giving me this opportunity this morning to speak to you about the most important and neglected health care policy issue now facing our nation and the State of Wisconsin.

In 2005 my partner and I were vacationing in San Diego California. While reading the San Diego Tribune I just happened to read about California’s 3 billion dollar stem cell research program and about the many health care stakeholder groups who all were fighting for something they were calling a “public benefit.”

I continued to read and soon learned what they meant by the words, public benefit. They wanted to make sure that medical breakthroughs and medicines developed through stem cell research, and funded by their tax dollars, would be available and affordable to every citizen in California.

I learned that the baby boomers and our children’s lives will be literally transformed in terms of the eradication of our most debilitating diseases – Parkinson, diabetes, Alzheimer, cerebral palsy and heart disease, to mention just a few.

When we weigh the billions and billions of dollars to be both made and saved with such life enhancements as restored memory, increased mobility, regenerated body parts, and most of all, increased longevity, only then can we begin to appreciate the real scope of the health policy issue now before us.

Californians have learned their lessons well from our nation’s health care issue and have decided to go directly to the root of our health care pricing crisis. They are no longer going to pay twice for their health care: Once for the research and once again for the exorbitantly priced medications and therapies.

I propose that each of you and this Coalition adopt the following simple policy statement that will set in motion a major policy shift in how health care pricing practices are viewed in Wisconsin from this day forward. .

“The Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups supports legislation for federal and state funding of stem cell research along with public health care benefit safeguards.”

“Public health care benefit safeguards” can mean anything from requiring a grantee to return twenty-five percent of their profit back to the state of Wisconsin to be put in a special patient health care fund. Or a potential grantee could simply submit a plan to ensure affordable prices for all Wisconsin citizens, especially the medium and low income and underserved populations.

The bottom line is that you and I can prove to ourselves and our grandchildren that we have learned our lesson from exorbitant health care pricing. We have learned not to give our money to people without first asking who they are, why they need it, and how they plan on using it. This new policy of asking the public funded grantee to meet certain expectations and provide some return on our investment is better than writing a blank check and continuing with health care in Wisconsin as we now know it.

A Stem Cell Funding Health Care Benefit Safeguard Is Proposed

Recently Federal Trade Commissioner, Jon Leibowitz wrote, “Getting health care costs under control is a daunting and multifaceted challenge.” As a family member with several stem cell diseases Leibowitz emphasized that there is no one solution to fixing our health care crisis.

He then went on to report how pharmaceutical companies collude with their competitors to keep lower generic alternatives to prescription drugs off the market and how the commission plans to ban such “pay-for-delay” settlements.

Leibowitz is challenging all citizens and health care consumers who are waiting for a single payer universal health care plan to arrive must meanwhile continue to take steps to bring about more accessible and affordable health care to all our citizens. In this spirit I want to propose another simple approach that would save health care consumers billions of dollars annually.

To date we have been promised only indirect trickle-down economic effects, including more jobs and a higher tax base from our support. While this is a worthy and much needed economic benefit, it alone is far too narrow and short sighted. If Wisconsin is to effectively manage its ever escalating and exorbitant health care costs we must act now.

A genuine public health care benefit for public funding of stem cell research can range from a percentage of biotech profits beyond a certain threshold to simply ensuring that drug costs and other stem therapies in Wisconsin will be managed and made at reasonable costs to all our citizens. Other public interests policy concerns have to do with whether medication discounts are to be given to low and medium income patients and other underserved groups?

Will Wisconsin taxpayers have any say to help ensure that such stem cell funding targets prioritized disease groups such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes and sickle cell anemia versus pursuing products that have only short-term commercial and cosmetic benefits?

Millions of our state tax dollars have already been spent and more have been added to this year’s biennium budget without any such consumer safeguards. State innovation grants, tax credits and a host of other public financial incentives are being invested and now are in the state administrative pipeline.

Asking grantees to do the right thing after giving away the farm is like asking the fox to cough up the chickens after giving him the key to the hen house. If these stem cell policy concerns are not already on your civic or health care organization’s radar screen and advocacy agenda such neglect could be catastrophic for Wisconsin health care consumers.

The fundamental policy questions that you and your organization should be asking is should your organization support legislation for federal and state funding of stem cell research with public health care payback safeguards?

Respectfully yours,

William R. Benedict,
Madison.

Wisconsin State Funded Stem Cell Research

An Open Letter to Health Care Advocate Organizations

As a senior citizen of the State of Wisconsin whose family is suffering from three serious cell-based diseases and who has been working for both private and public funding for stem cell research, I am writing to your organization for support.

As a key stakeholder organization I believe that your group can play a critical advocacy role at this early stage in Wisconsin’s stem cell research initiative. As a large non-profit organization who advocates and serves people with serious current and/or future health needs you know that every effort must be made to ensure that these and all Wisconsin citizens have equal and fair access to affordable medications and other health therapies.

Many organizations like your own have been fighting long and hard for your members so that they will have more reasonably priced drugs and other treatments. Many of you already support federal health insurance programs and favor more universal health care for all of our citizens. Unfortunately there is still no assurance that this goal will be realized.

While we must continue to deal as quickly and directly as possible with the immediate health care crises, meanwhile we must also look beyond the present health care crisis and take action to make stem cell discoveries more affordable to all Wisconsin citizens. To do so citizen membership groups like yours need to support a more lasting and equitable solution to our nation’s health care problems.

Stem cell research is still in a nascent state and suffering from moral controversy and consequent funding gaps. It’s fair to say that in many respects Wisconsin has been treading water while California, Connecticut and other states continue to advance.

While Wisconsin hopes and waits for wider community support our state legislature offers no direct funding or policy platform that would ensure that you and I and all taxpayers will receive any tangible public health care benefit whatsoever from any Wisconsin stem cell research discoveries.

To date we have been promised only indirect trickle-down economic effects, including more jobs and a higher tax base from our support. While this is a worthy and much needed economic benefit, it alone is far too narrow and short sighted. If Wisconsin is to effectively manage its ever escalating and exorbitant health care costs we must act NOW. If we have the will, we will end the disenfranchisement of our most vulnerable and needy citizens of their basic human right to good affordable health care.

A genuine public benefit in Wisconsin for the funding of stem cell research can range from legislating patent royalty rights and a percent of biotech profits beyond a certain threshold, to simply ensuring that drug costs in Wisconsin will be managed and made reasonable and affordable to all citizens.

I urge your organization to carefully consider the following stem cell policy issues:

Will Wisconsin stem cell discoveries be made available to the public at reasonable prices and in sufficient quantities to all Wisconsin citizens? Will discounts be given to low and medium income patients and other underserved groups?

Are policies needed to ensure that special preferences be given to biotech companies that target their cell based inventions to families with cell based diseases and the underserved groups in Wisconsin regardless of income?

Are policies needed to ensure that state supported stem cell companies will pursue research and development into prioritized disease groups such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes and sickle cell anemia versus pursuing stem cell products that have more immediate commercial potential for large markets? Or will Wisconsin citizens spend tax dollars to pay for cosmetic and other personal enhancing products for the rich and powerful while seniors struggle to pay for their most basic health care needs?

Are policies needed to ensure that companies who use state funding direct their research into the widest ranges of illnesses, not just for the most well-heeled disease advocates?

Other policy alternatives and variants are possible to serve the unique public health care needs of Wisconsin citizens but we must begin NOW.

Millions of our tax dollars have already been spent and more have been added to this year’s biennium budget.

State innovation grants, tax credits and hosts of other public financial incentives are being invested and are now in the state’s administrative pipeline. This money is being spent without any policy guidelines or payback conditions whatever. Someone has said, “Asking grantees to do the right thing after giving away the farm is like asking the fox to cough up the chickens after giving him the key to the hen house.”

If these stem cell policy issues are not currently on your organization’s radar screen, and do not now appear on your two year planning priorities list, this neglect could be catastrophic for your members and for Wisconsin patients down the road.

I am asking your board of directors to read this letter and weigh its importance to your membership and other health care stakeholders. The biggest mistake you or your organization could make is to simply do nothing. At the very least put this discussion on your executive committee’s agenda NOW. I urge you to ask your board and your membership to consider this basic question. Do you believe that Wisconsin citizens should receive a direct public health care benefit from any state supported stem cell research in Wisconsin?

For more information on state funding of stem cell research in Wisconsin, see my published articles on my blog: danecountyalmanac.blogspot.com and on the Wisconsin Stem Cell Now, Inc. website

Comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform Legislation

Public Hearing
Testimony

My name is William R. Benedict. As a proud citizen of Wisconsin, it is a privilege to have this opportunity to testify before the Senate Committee on Campaign Finance Reform and Rural Issues and Information Technology.

I am a retired social worker who is now working full time as a citizen advocate for campaign finance reform and state funding of stem cell research. My special constituency is myself, my family and the citizens of the State of Wisconsin.

I am here this morning because I sincerely believe that our body politic is sick at the core and it is urgently in need of comprehensive campaign finance reform. Our legislature has a systemic and insidious disease so strong that it infects our most dedicated public servants. Wisconsin voters know deep down in their soul that their vote no longer counts. They believe that you have sold them out to those who pay for your elections term after term and now have put in jeopardy their sacred political freedom.

It hurts me this morning to have to say that I believe you have prostituted your office in order to have your election campaigns paid for by the rich and the powerful.

Not until every Wisconsin citizen can run for public office regardless of how much money they have will we have a state government by the people and for the people. I urge you and all of your Senate and Assembly colleagues to take the strong medicine needed to cure this terrible sickness. Please pass Senate bills 12, 25, 171 and 463.

Make Wisconsin pure and clean again!

Thanks again for this opportunity to speak.

Governor’s speech misses mark on stem-cell innovation

Wisconsin State Journal
Op-Ed – Guest Column

As a senior citizen of the state of Wisconsin whose family suffers from three serious cell-based diseases and who has been working with both private and public officials in support of public funding for stem cell research in Wisconsin, I was deeply disappointed when my governor in his State of the State address looked our legislators and the citizens of Wisconsin in the eye and boasted that Wisconsin has stayed at the forefront of stem-cell innovation “because we kept politicians out of it.”

I have to assume that the “we” was referring to you and I the citizens of Wisconsin. Or did the “we” refer to his Administration? In either case, I predict that there will be a time in the not too distant future when the taxpayers and the health consumers of this state will deeply regret that the people and their representatives acquiesced and remained disengaged while the most critical health policy issues were left unaddressed.

How can the citizens of this state and our policy makers remain disengaged around a human health concern having to do with the essence of life itself?

If not us – the citizens through our legislature - then who will decide? While I support our free market place and the critical role that private enterprise including venture capitalists and foundations will and must play if Wisconsin’s stem cell programs is to succeed, as a citizen I am not about to support anyone who advocates that citizens and their policy makers withdraw from the public square on this or any other vital public issue.

As much as I admire Dr. James Thomson and his team of talented and dedicated scientists, neither they nor UW research community nor the biotech/pharmaceutical industry can be left to mind the people’s business relating to how best to fund stem cell research and to ensure that the taxpayers and future health consumers of this state’s needs and interests are fairly represented.

The media are trying to distract us from this issue by framing it primarily an economic answer to all our problems. They would prefer that the citizen see the chief public benefit for their investment in terms of the trickle down effect and the promise of future job creation.

While this benefit is worthy, it is far too narrow and short-sighted.

Further allocation of public tax incentives and innovation grants must be accompanied with accountability and public benefit requirements, including intellectual property rights (ownership rules), public disclosure and conflict of interest safeguards.

To continue to focus primarily around job creation outcomes and ignore the State’s present health care crisis is short sighted and irresponsible.

Now is the time for our policymakers to decide whether the miracle cures promised will be made accessible and affordable to Wisconsin families with cell-based diseases.

The answer to this question must be reflected in the language of the state’s financial and tax research innovation incentives now being proposed?

Asking the grantees to do the right thing after giving away the farm is like asking the fox to cough up the chickens after giving him the key to the hen house.

If Wisconsin truly is to remain at the forefront in its stem cell initiative, like California and many other states, we will set about immediately to fill the policy gaps referred to above.

Without legislative leadership we should not expect that cell-based therapies and drugs derived from this research will eventually benefit all of us as health consumers and taxpayers?

I hope a year from now when our governor again gives his State of the State address he will be able to thank your legislators and mine for building a policy platform that will match the genius of our science and insure that Wisconsin’s stem cell program remains at the forefront of both stem cell and health care policy innovation.

Weigh Hillary’s sex like Obama’s race

Your Views
Wisconsin State Journal - Opinion Page

Thursday guest columnist Dan Wohl acknowledged Sen. Barack Obama’s race is “a huge part of the equation “for his decision to support him.” But I wondered whether he and his demographic feel similarly about the political significance of Hillary Clinton’s gender. Couldn’t this also be a legitimate reason for young people to support her?

After all, hasn’t sexism had a much larger destructive political influence in human history than racism? This has probably been the case in American history as well. Certainly all Americans can be proud to see two such wonderful Americans running for President of the United States. And like Wohl, I think both candidates are similar in policy and other respects.

I lean toward Clinton, however, because she has much more international experience. And because she is a woman she is more likely to have a broader, inclusive, compassionate and generous world view. It is way past time that we give the other sex an opportunity to lead our nation, and world peace should transcend all the other issues we now face.

When I weigh Mrs. Clinton’s life experiences and her character and integrity as a person, I have to believe that she has been called to lead our nation. Her daring posturing toward the right of center, for better or worse, is calculated only to secure her election in an otherwise polarizing political environment.

Unlike Wohl, who wrote that if Obama loses Wohl will feel devastated, as a 72-year–old life-long Democrat, I will be happy if either Democratic candidate wins in November.

The Stem Cell Initiative - The Public’s Business

As a senior citizen of the state of Wisconsin whose family suffers from three serious cell-based diseases and who has been working with both private and public officials in support of public funding for stem cell research in Wisconsin, I was deeply disappointed when my Governor in his State of the State address looked our legislators and the citizens of Wisconsin in the eye and boasted that Wisconsin has stayed at the forefront of stem-cell innovation “because we kept politicians out of it.”

I have to assume that the “we” was referring to you and I the citizens of Wisconsin. Or did the “we” refer to his Administration? In either case, I predict that there will be a time in the not too distant future when the taxpayers and the health consumers of this state will deeply regret that the people and their representatives acquiesced and remained disengaged while the most critical health policy issues were left unaddressed.

How can the citizens of this state and our policy makers remain disengaged around a human health concern having to do with the essence of life itself? If not us – the citizens through our legislature - then who will decide? While I support our free market place and the critical role that private enterprise including venture capitalists and foundations will and must play if Wisconsin’s stem cell programs is to succeed, as a citizen I am not about to support anyone who advocates that citizens and their policy makers withdraw from the public square on this or any other vital public issue.

As much as I admire Dr. James Thomson and his team of talented and dedicated scientists, they nor UW-Madison university research community or the biotech/pharmaceutical industry CEOs, can be left to mind the people’s business relating to how best to fund stem cell research and to ensure that the taxpayers and future health consumers of this state’s needs and interests are fairly represented.

Corporate media is trying to distract us from this issue by framing it primarily an economic answer to all our problems. They would prefer that the citizen see the chief public benefit for their investment in terms of the trickle down effect and the promise of future job creation. While this sexy public benefit policy being dangled before us is very compelling and worthy indeed, it is one that is far too narrow and short-sighted.

Further allocation of public tax incentives and innovation grants must be accompanied with accountability and public benefit requirements, including intellectual property rights (ownership rules), public disclosure and conflict of interest safeguards. To continue to focus primarily around job creation outcomes and ignore the State’s present health care crisis is short sighted and irresponsible.

Now is the time for our policymakers to decide whether the miracle cures promised will be made accessible and affordable to Wisconsin families with cell-based diseases. The answer to this question must be reflected in the language of the state’s financial and tax research innovation incentives now being proposed? “Asking the grantees to do the right thing after giving away the farm is like asking the fox to cough up the chickens after giving him the key to the hen house.”

If Wisconsin truly is to remain at the forefront in its stem cell initiative, like California and many other states, we will set about immediately to fill the policy gaps referred to above. Without legislative leadership we should not expect that cell-based therapies and drugs derived from this research will eventually benefit all of us as health consumers and taxpayers?

Hopefully one year from now when our governor again gives his State of the State address he will be able to thank your legislators and mine for building a policy platform that will match the genius of our science and insure that Wisconsin’s stem cell program remains at the forefront of both stem cell and health care policy innovation.

Submitted to the Wisconsin State Journal 2/1/08

New Media and the Election

Wisconsin State Journal - Forum

‘New media’ enhance citizens’ involvement

The “new media” will greatly enhance the process of electing our next president because bloggers, MySpace and YouTube and single issue group e-mail listings have become important vehicles for generating political awareness and involvement.

This was seen in 2006 when non-partisan citizen groups organized to soundly defeat the attempt by corporate America to extend media consolidation. This successful citizen protest was carried out on a shoestring compared to the combined corporate resources arrayed against it.

These new media mechanisms have already begun to transform our democracy. While the traditional print media simply copy corporate-produced political news into the local newspaper like a template, this new media allows thousands of bloggers and citizen journalists to investigate and report.

Bloggers have both the freedom and tenacity to stay long enough with a single issue until its truth or falsity is clearly made known or public action is taken. Unlike the traditional press, which regularly editorializes on only one political perspective day after day and allows only a paltry number of differing citizen opinions, the new interactive journalism is a beehive of conflicting political news accounts.

Dr. Dhavan Shah, UW-Madison professor of journalism and political science who was quoted in Sunday’s Forum column could not be more wrong when he alleges the new media “doesn’t have the normal filters of political journalism.” Quite the opposite is true. The new media has thousands of filters for each and every political story while mainstream journalism increasingly presents only one view. This was best seen with the unanimous pro war perspective that traditional journalism provided the American people leading up to the Iraq War.

Those who are still have doubts only need to consider Ron Paul’s amazing presidential candidacy. Thousands of ordinary citizens have financially invested in Paul’s campaign. Thanks to the new media and the internet, the not-so-rich and the powerless can take heart about their new political fortunes.