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Show letters to the editor Thursday, Feb. Sun Advocate, 17, 1977 Price, Utah Medicine bill should pass editorial Editor: bill called the Generic Drug Substitution Act, H.B. 231, has been introduced in the Utah State House of Representatives. It allows the pharmacist to substitute a generic drug Electricity is going to get expensive. Utah Power and Light admits that its rates will go up about 15 percent per year, almost doubling electric bill that puts money into retained earnings and pays off shareholders and lenders. Bad news? Well, it's nothing to cheer about. But we can take comfort from one thing. At least the electricity will be there when we need it. That is, it will be there if we have sense enough to keep our eyes on the power People may complain that it is unfair to have their rates raised to put profit into shareholders' portfolios. There is nothing unfair at all. If a company does not get investment money from stock sales, it has to rely more on retained earnings. The result is the same higher rates. today's rates in tive years. business and our hands off. We ought to take a lesson from the natural the Midwest and East are excrisis gas periencing. The government for decades kept the price of natural gas artificially low. Rates reflected cost of production and distribution, but were not high enough to finance exploration and new construction. We may be scared enough by rising electric bills to ask our government to clamp a lid on them. This would only encourage more people to use more artificially low priced power. But we would not have new power plants to meet the growing demands Result: blackouts and brownouts in ten years or less. that homes and industry took advantage of bargain prices. Now the country faces horrendous price increases and shortages at the same time. The problems plaguing the gas industry could invade the electric companies if power rates are held at unrealistically low levels. It is clear that higher power rates will have to be a way of life for Utahns. Whether or not this translates into higher power bills is The result was another matter. mm how it will be financed. for the brand name prescription written by the doctor. If, in the opinion of the doctor, the generic drug should not be substituted, he will indicate on the prescription that no substitution is to be made. list of the drug products which are, or are not, potentially appears in the Federal Register of February 5, 1976 and will be provided to the pharmacist by the United A $2.22 to $12.18. Association of Retired Persons and the Mountain In Utah, the survey by the Plains Congress of Senior Utah State Coalition of Organizations. When this is Senior Citizens on the same law it will be very beneficial medications, showed a to the states that already difference in price of $1.24 have a Generic Drug to $6.28 per 100 tablets or Substitution Law. Having capsules. this bill passed in the Utah legislature will be very Nationally the American beneficial to the people of Association of Retired the state. It is by Persons made a study the Utah State supported Coalition of included which many more Senior Citizens, the Utah medications and on their State Senior Citizens results the difference was Legislative Council, the $1.50 to $11.00 savings in Utah branch of the buying the generic drugs American Association of instead of brand names. Retired Persons, the Utah There is a bill in the United States Congress for a Generic Drug Act, supported by the American Retired Teachers Association and individuals who are interested in the plight of those living on fixed incomes. You can help this bill pass by calling your representative on the toll free number to the Utah House of Representatives by calling the Governors hot line and by writing a note or post card and to it sending your Representative or Senator. If there is anyone who is taking medication regularly and would like to know the generic name of it, they can contact me at 52 North Pinehurst, Tooele, Utah, and I will see if it is on one of the lists I have. Sincerely, Noelleen Thomas States Department of Health, Education and Welfare. There will, no doubt, be some changes made in the bill as it goes through the legislative process. One provision that is included in such legislation in other states gives the pharmacist the right to advertise his This makes it possible for people to shop for their medications and save some money for other much needed necessities of prices. The prospect of paying twice as much for electricity in four or five years is bitter. But as we have shown, the alternative to higher rates is a shortage of supply. To see how this could happen, we should take a look at what expansion is needed and capsules, of A Power rate hikes Utah's necessary evil life. i Instead of cursing our fate, though, we ought to look at the positive side of the situation. Higher rates will enforce a conservation program this country has needed for a generation. UP&L spokesmen say the company will have to build one new power plant per year for the next ten years. They will have to do this to keep pace with the state's population and industrial growth. The industrial growth is essential if the children of today are to have jobs when they grow up. The cost of new plant construction We use electricity for as many ridiculous uses as we can think of. We use it to power toothbrushes, to open cans and to raise garage doors. We keep empty houses heated to 72 degrees. is staggering. Company economists say a conservative estimate of total cost could hit $2.5 billion. This money is going to come out of our pockets. In short, the American lifestyle encourages a mass waste of energy. Higher electric rates can do much to cure this waste. of The power company gets about its construction money from retained earnings. These earnings are the money left over after paying for coal, salaries, rent, loans, and delivering dividends to shareholders. one-fourt- h This is because electricity use has what economists call Flexible demand as well as inflexible demand. The other' three quarters come from sale of stocks and bonds. Stockholders put down their money and take their chances, but bondholders make loans that must be paid off no matter how well or poorly business is. Inflexible demand is the electricity we'd have to use no matter what the price was. We have to light our homes and heat them, for example. Nobody wants to freeze in the dark. the advocates devil about my Daily Interest at I'm just thinking HSB! power rates go up, the flexible demand is going to go down. Good riddance. Even if these rates double, our bills will stay at or near the same if we exercise a bit of common sense. It may be that we'll all be a little better off it we stop wasting so much. Editors note: If youre the tars and feathers country sort who takes everything editor. Ben Vereen as John too Serfustini, Marcel Marceau including yourself want to as news source. seriously, you may skip todays column. 9 p.m. Television is too oneAirport 77 sided. All the series and Channel 2 - Trouble begins (Drama) programs take place in big when flight instructors run cities. I think its about time someone paid attention to out of Kimbies and Roy Roger and Dale small town life. Maybe the networks could devote one Evans as the Kepplers, instructors as night a week to portrayals Flight of the places and people we themselves (nobody else would take the parts) know around here. a Heres sample Channel 4 Movie (Conschedule: tinued) AAAA V The difference in cost is considerable. In the six states in the Mountain Plains area, which includes Utah, a survey of the five drugs most used by senior citizens, showed a dollar savings on 100 tablets, or When by john serfustini WW W W extend this savings, the patient should request their doctor to prescribe if drugs generically, possible. The doctor usually prescribes brand names instead of generic names. If the doctor is not familiar with a medicines generic name, ask him to write or generic equivalent", on the prescription. To Flexible demand is the frivolous uses of electricity. We can probably do without the kicks we get from watching garage doors open at the push of a button or seeing our store's name blazing away in the night on a big neon sign. the final analysis, though, all the money for power plant construction and operation comes from consumers. It's the monthly In n. . 7 p.m. small, prehistoric city. James Stewart as Walt Axelgard. 10 4 Passic (Police - Sheriff Passic, on Streets of East Carbon (Drama) - Mystery 5 begins when 14 men and five women claim ownership of gun advertised in lost and found section. t 8 15joz. Channel 5 Documentary What ever happened to look sanity? - An at the Four Comers Mental Health Center. Narrated by Woody Allen. Channel Poloni (Police 2 Police put down drama) jail riot which begins when TV breaks down. Henry Fonda as Art Poloni, Charles Bronson as Price Police Department. Channel 4 Friday Night Chuckies Town Movie, (Comedy) - Delightful story of town run from the back of drugstore. (Drama) 5 - The Back Page Vigilante group :t h 't 0 rt te i4 News 2 4 4 News 5 News tjrt I $ ff-j- .A 4 . r j p.m. Channel 2 Saving your money is not just locking it away, it is sentencing your hard earned dollars to hard labor in the interest mines. State Why not sentence them to daily solitary at Helper Bank, where we parole your earnings each quarter. Tonight Show brings back vaudeville with Hector Chiara subbing for Johnny Carson. Odd Squad 4 - (Drama) Channel i. I Channel p.m. Channel 10:30 hi LIBBYS RAGU p.m. drama) a routine goose hunt, breaks Channel up a cattle rustling ring. Telly Savalas as Albert Channel Passic. Channel Friday and Saturday -- Dinosaur Walt Channel 2 Tire salesman (Comedy) tries his hand at running a Channel 3 Narcotics dealers forced into hills around small town after Daily Interest Compounded Quarterly! break raids massive connections. downtown Robert Blake as Everett Johnson, special guest star Paul Scofield as Ron Boutwell. Channel People The Movie, 5 Real Sophisticated comedy about the people of a rural county who discover that its fun to laugh at themselves. TRADING POST Main Street Kenilworth Helper State Bank Helper Price member FDIC Starring Carbon County as itself. i Green River S |