Posted on 12/25/2012 5:29:12 AM PST by DeaconBenjamin
Supreme Court prosecutor Yiannis Tentes has ordered an investigation into whether pharmaceutical companies or pharmacists have been complicit in creating a shortage of medicines in Greece on purpose.
Tentes has asked all of Greeces appeals court prosecutors to probe the allegations after SYRIZA MP Panayiotis Kouroublis brought up the matter in Parliament.
Tentes wants to know if patients have been unduly exposed to illnesses as a result of market players creating shortages of drugs.
Meanwhile, the Athens Medical Association (ISA) has filed an appeal with the Council of State, Greeces top administrative court, against the governments decision in November to make doctors issue prescriptions based on the active ingredient of the drugs the patients must take.
Greece is trying to increase its use of generic medicines to reduce its drugs bill in the public healthcare sector.
It was ever thus:
1. Socialists wreck the free market economy.
2. Socialists blame the free market for shortages.
Methinks they are trying to reduce their supply of old people on government pensions.
This was covered months ago. There is no “shortage “. The govt-run system is not paying its bills to the pharmaceutical companies. You can get all the stuff you want IF you pay cash.
What part of “WE BLEW ALL THE MONEY” do’t they (we) understand??
Ha ha ha! Might as well investigate why a shortage of anything else.
Since this case is solved, can we collect the money they were going to spend on this investigation? I'll split it with you.
The “investigation” can only reveal the failure of socialism, therefore they will simply play a blame game. Paging George Bush...
The purpose of the investigation is to find a scapegoat who will divert attention away from government failures.
Investigation over. You are the best.
Emmanuel Goldstein did it, of course....
Price controls by government.
Investigation over. Government is always the cause of shortages.
Drug shortages in the US are getting dangerous. Here is a list of the current FDA drug shortages:
http://www.fda.gov/Drugs/DrugSafety/DrugShortages/ucm050792.htm
Many of these are generic drugs with a low profit margin because they are out of patent. However, many are vital to those who need them.
A solution to this may be found at the state level, with a state offering incentives for “micro drug manufacture”, for the needs of the citizens of that state, with a small subsidy to provide them enough profit margin to function, and so that they cannot be put out of business by being undersold, just to put them out of business.
While they could also produce enough to export to other states, these would not be subsidized by their home state, but by those other states.
In effect, this would defeat the non-producing drug oligopoly, that insists on huge profit margins, and will kill other, smaller companies, but will not produce drugs with too small a profit margin.
The concept is based on intrastate gun and ammunition production. Importantly, the most states can do is to change the law to permit and encourage this, providing only a small subsidy to support it.
Wow, paging Sherlock Holmes on this one.
Who will ever solve this amazing mystery?
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