Posted on 01/20/2008 4:25:45 AM PST by Aristotelian
Right. You will not be in the business to produce drugs for Canada. Right now the only reason companies are willing to do so (I imagine) is as a sort of loss leader. This situation can exist because Canada's population is small relative to the U.S. In the worst/extreme case, if the price controls became effectively applied to the whole U.S., I imagine drug companies would not sit idly by. They would, by one legal means or another, label their drugs "not for sale in Canada".
Thus destroying Canada's price controls.
So I don't see the problem.
As an American I’m angry I am subsidizing the drug costs of Canadians.
Then let's stop letting them leech off us. Start laundering through their idiotic system, and break it.
You want the price of the drugs to go down, you force the Canadians to purchase the drugs at the price necessary for the firms to recover their investment.
Exactly! Bingo!
Only way to do that is to eliminate their protected system, by taking advantage of it till it breaks.
What breaks is the firms ability to produce the drugs. Perhaps they don’t stretch and try to develop more marginal drugs (those that would have a higher cost of capital), or they slow the rate of development, or the reduce quality, any number of things can happen.
Unfortunately, given the current state of the American people, your proposal to break the Canadian system by using it would only result in the US adopting it. A quick survey of the leading Dem candidates confirms that would be their desired outcome.
Furthermore, I told the Court (and John McCain also) why? My article, "To the Supreme Court: I Quit," was published widely, including on FR.
I urge all my friends and colleagues on FR to seek out a candidate on the Republican side who is NOT an enemy of the Constitution. (And I haven't brought up many of McCain's other defects, including amnesty for Mexican criminals in the US, etc.)
IMHO, there are better options remaining on the Republican side.
Congressman Billybob
Wouldn't that be a Democrat in the White-house either way.
I'd rather lose this election on my Conservative principles than moderate them to appeal liberals who call themselves moderate Republicans.
A lot of people seem baffled by the drug re-importation issue. It is something that will never happen.
American drug companies spend huge amounts of money on product development, and charge high rates to American consumers get back their investments. “Leftover” sales to smaller countries (e.g., Canada) go mostly to profit because American consumers are the ones who pay to recoup development costs.
If we reimport from Canada, do you think the drug companies are so stupid as to increase sales at the lower rates? As rational business thinkers, they will only sell more product for reimportation at higher rates. Thus, reimportation will not make economic sense. For the drug companies to do otherwise is to commit suicide.
McCain-Ben Nelson of Nebraska. I would think that Ben is the bigger conservative...yes even for a democrat.
we will hear about the wisdom and power of the Florida voter.
And what wisdom and power will these folks speak?
You don't want to end it you just want to change the ratio of spoils you divide amongst yourselves. That's the reason both parties are so muddled now, it's so hard to tell the difference between them.
FYI
“Supercalifragalistickexpealidotious Tuesday.”
You don’t have your spell checker turned on do you? LOL
You forgot to mention that Bush would have signed that bill.
Why is it a “far-right” position to hate that McCain dumped on the first amendment with his campaign finance debacle?
Thompson was one of the original sponsors of McCain-Fgold. Yet he is still beloved by conservatives. And oh yeah, didn't Bush sign that into law?
McCain might not be the most conservative candidate, but he is as conservative as Bush, and more conservative than Romney.
Frightening, isn’t it? I have a friend in the UK who waited a year and a half to have gall bladder surgery, and she was on the “urgent” list due to the severity of her symptoms. Not only that, but she said that most of her doctors were Arabs or Indians.
Folks, this is coming to us. God help us!
You don’t have your spell checker turned on do you? LOL
No, I don't. FR spellcheck did not highlight the word, or offer any alternatives, so it must be right until somebody proves it wrong.
Condor my old FRiend, I hate to be the one to tell you this, but our sensible lil centrist from NH signed up on FR in January of *last* year.
Somewhat new he may be, but he’s not exactly a ‘newbie’.
Unlike the biblical leopard, John McCain changes his spots on a regular basis and you never know which way they’re going to to next.
All of these assumptions involve (in the extreme case) every pharamaceutical firm in North America sitting back as Canadian price controls effectively take effect across North America, and saying "well, gee, nothing we can do about it, I guess that's the price". But surely this is incorrect. Static analyses are usually the province of the left.
What's more likely and realistic is that firms would implement a "not for sale in Canada" policy, like I said, so that Canada would be effectively locked out of buying all but the junkiest of drugs, unless/until they relaxed their price controls. This would harm Canada, perhaps, but not us.
Unfortunately, given the current state of the American people, your proposal to break the Canadian system by using it would only result in the US adopting it.
This really would limit R&D and I'd be opposed to it. But I don't agree that it would be an inevitable result of allowing reimportation through Canada.
And since you're a relative Newbie yourself, maybe you missed the Bug Zapper threads where scores of 'moderates' (liberals) got the zot. Many were looooong time Freepers too, like from 1998.
*** our sensible lil centrist from NH signed up on FR in January of *last* year. Somewhat new he may be, but he’s not exactly a ‘newbie’. ***
He hasn't hit his 1st 'birthday' yet (though close), so = Newbie.
And how many 'centrists' got the Zot on those bug zappers threads a while back. I lost count around 50.
;-)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.