Kearns was one of about a dozen people who spoke at a forum hosted by U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett, a liberal Democrat from Austin. Doggett probably doesn’t need convincing but the delay in a Senate vote has given opponents an opportunity to mount more resistance to the legislation. Doggett billed the event as a Medicaid town hall. Keep Reading

Re: “Americans pay for research, can’t afford resulting drugs,” Lloyd Doggett, Other Views, June 7: You laser focus in on the true vulnerable point: these Big Pharma corporations don’t plow their profits into research as their public statements claim. We pay the research bill, and I suspect they are working on ways to divert this research money into more “rewards for managerial effectiveness.” I applaud your stand and your commitment to your constituents. I only wish that I were in your district, rather than next door in District 21, whose representative unfortunately holds the opposite view. Keep Reading