Many People Cannot Boycott Corporate Tax Dodgers Like Walgreen's

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http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/donna-smith/57355/many-people-cannot-boycott-corporate-tax-dodgers-like-walgreens

Many People Cannot Boycott Corporate Tax Dodgers Like Walgreen's
by Donna Smith | August 4, 2014 - 8:46am

We sat in line this morning at the Walgreen's pharmacy drive up window picking up one of the many prescriptions my husband, Larry, must have every month. The news that has been reported about Walgreen's becoming a Swiss company through a tax loophole know as "inversion" is bothersome on many levels as we ponder their $2.5 billion in annual profits bolstered by customers just like my hubby. Seniors on Medicare, all the Medicare supplemental plans, and Medicare Advantage plans make up a huge portion of the pharmacy business upon which the Walgreen's 8,217-store empire thrives.

Some people are calling for boycotts of Walgreen's if the Swiss deal goes through and the drugstore giant moves its headquarters from Deerfield, IL, to Switzerland and thereby avoids a substantial portion of its U.S. corporate tax bill. The U.S. already loves its corporations and treats them with great deference in terms of our tax code and others perks of corporate personhood. But for some companies, that's just not quite enough.

When the pharmacy tech came back to the window, he said only one of my husband's prescriptions was ready as the doctor had not yet authorized the others, and the one we were able to pick up was being charged at a much higher amount out-of-pocket because the doctor's office apparently had not listed Larry's insurance plan as one in which they participate. Mind you, this is the same doctor and the same Walgreen's with which Larry has done business for quite some time. He's made no changes in his Medicare Part D drug coverage which he gets through the insurance giant Humana. His Humana Part D only allows Larry to use Walmart or Walgreen's for his pharmacies if he wishes to have coverage for his medications.

If he opted to pay cash for his meds as a boycott of Walgreen's and/or his Humana coverage limitations, well, then he'd have to go without. Without his meds, he could suffer severe health consequences and potentially die. This seems a heavy price to pay in order to fight an entire tax code and corporate structure that is already stacked heavily against most of us. Larry already pays a large percentage of his Social Security income for his health insurance premiums (Medicare, Medicare Part D and Medicare supplemental) and his out-of-pocket costs on medicine and other health needs.