Posted on 12/01/2019 3:37:11 AM PST by Kaslin
Over the years, Congressional Republicans have become hopelessly addicted. Like so many afflicted with similar dependencies, they are in denial. Repeatedly claiming they can quit any time they want. In the coming weeks, we will find out just how sincere those claims really are.
The addiction referred to is not to drugs themselves, but to drug money. They have grown hopelessly dependent on the huge donations served up by the pharmaceutical industry. It’s a hard habit to break. A growing army of Americans now see the unmistakable relationship between these large political contributions and Congressional failure to take any serious action to curb outrageous prescription drug prices, proving again the Lincoln axiom: You can’t fool all of the people all of the time.
Republican Congressional leaders, throughout the Schiff sham, have repeatedly claimed that Democrats should be working on things that Americans really care about, things like lowering prescription drug costs. They are about to get what they’ve been asking for. The Speaker has loaded HR 3 into the torpedo tube. She sees the GOP as a slow-moving cruise ship.
The news releases are already written. “Congressman (name here) had a chance to actually lower prescription drug prices with this important legislation. Sadly, he voted no. He had to chose between the fat cats at PhARMA and his constituents who are overcharged daily for the drugs they desperately need. Congressman (name here) chose to stand with the drug industry.” Heavy radio and social media ad buys to follow.
Chances of a GOP sweep next fall fade.
Oh, Leader McCarthy et al will trot out the PhARMA talking points. Mumbling things like “socialized medicine, markets, IP protection and competition." Good luck with that. Too many have already concluded that market competition and government protected monopolies are antithetical. Patents by their nature are government protected monopolies. We grant utilities monopoly status. We don’t allow them to charge whatever they want.
Can you think of another area where government grants monopoly powers to companies that have a product or service that is essential for life and then allows them to charge whatever they want?
Didn’t think you could.
Enter populist Donald Trump, who is a teetotaler. He is certainly not addicted to drug money. He has offered two common sense ideas: One, to have the Feds start collecting “reference pricing” from other industrialized nations. He would then use those prices to negotiate, getting better deals from drug companies for Americans. The second was to require price transparency. He wants drug companies to include their list prices in any advertising. Not surprisingly, the drug industry used their legal and political muscle to quash these common sense ideas.
Whether he is negotiating better trade deals or jawboning CEO’s to move manufacturing back to the USA, this is a president who daily demonstrates his America First commitment.
At his rally down is South Florida he upped the ante with a third idea. He loudly proclaimed that he stood with Governor DeSantis; Florida ought to be allowed to buy their Rx drugs from Canada. It’s not just Floridians who agree with that. Here in Minnesota that pot is boiling. Insulin-dependent diabetics know only too well that a vile of insulin sells for over $300 here. In Canada it’s only $50. That difference cannot be rationalized away.
Speaker Pelosi knows that the way you win in politics is to make your adversaries defend the indefensible. These enormous differences in prices for patented drugs are indefensible. Hence the armed torpedo in the tube.
Congressional Republicans could wisely choose to follow the lead of President Trump. They can negotiate a deal with Democrats creating legislation that could pass the Senate and actually be signed by the president. Failing that, at minimum they could offer the President’s three point plan in a motion to recommit. Or they can just vote no on HR 3 and foolishly defend the indefensible.
Foolish is hard to fix.
Never forget: addicts often do very foolish things to keep getting that next fix. The coming weeks will show whether they can break this addiction or take the incoming torpedo broadside.
A ‘vile’ of insulin? I can’t help it, I’m an author.
“The Dealer” is the K St lobbying industry
The Senators and Congressman should be required to maintain financial transparency and a meeting schedule available on-line to their constituents in their districts while holding elective office and for the equivalent of two terms after. Pay them well for their time on office doing their “public service”
Make illegal campaign finance contributions from outside their state or district.
There will be no need for “term-limits”
He is up against more Republican pet projects than just Big Pharma.
This is exactly why I do not trust the Senate. Sad, but I certainly do not trust them to hold an impeachment trial. They are owned on so many levels.
If gov’t can make or break your company, then you have every right to lobby them.
The author is also an ass. A patent is not granting a monopoly....it is granting competitive protection in return for developing an innovative product.
If the author knew anything about patent protection, he would know that you file the patent when you formulate the drug. It takes an average of 10 years before that drug is tested and approved by our loving and competent FDA, leaving 7 years to recover your sunk costs.
Oh, if the formulation fails to be approved, which happens more often than being approved, you still need to recover those costs. So the approved drug needs to recover its own costs, plus those of all the failed drugs.
Maybe some will understand why the prices are high during the patent protected period.
Take that patent protection away and new treatments and cures will never happen. Our medical progress will stagnate.
Then, these same morons will attack the industry for not developing new breakthroughs and that it is time to nationalize them under the caring and efficient management of the federal government.
Not one mention of liability reform, which is one of the biggest contributors to rising medical costs and something Democrats do not care about because they are owned by the lawyer lobby.
Democrats took plenty of money from health insurance and pharmaceuticals as they wrote Obamacare....that is why costs skyrocketed. But Republicans could not repeal Obamacare for fear of giving Trump a win and giving the Democrats something to fear-monger over.
Same here, common sense justice and due process does not apply at all. The judge, the prosecution, the defense, and the jury are being bought and paid for. They are all open to the highest bidder.
A vial of insulin starts at about $47.00 in the U.S...Canada is apparently overcharging!
So much focus on drug prices. Have any of these people seen the cost of hospital services lately?
Maybe some will understand why the prices are high during the patent protected period.
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Insulin, as mentioned in the story, is not a new invention. Why the extreme price differential?
Exactly...and those are being driven up by gov't regulations primarily and liability secondarily.
Get gov't out of medicine and health insurance and watch competition drop prices for everyone!
Trump is working on that, too, with the requirement that hospital fee schedules be published. This transparency will eventually result in lower prices.
I have no doubt that they will impeach and remove if they think they have the numbers. I don’t trust McConnell.
“A ‘vile’ of insulin? I can’t help it, I’m an author.”
For most Type 2’s that go Keto, the cost of a vile of insulin is ZERO, since they no longer need insulin. For about half of Type 2’s that go on Keto, the cost for ALL drugs is also ZERO, as they no longer need any.
For most doctors/nutritionists, they don’t want diabetics to know the above (for many reasons).
It’s remarkable that a so-called “conservative” who couldn’t develop a life-saving drug if you gave him 50 years and and unlimited budget to get the job done will sit there and pontificate about how much a drug developed by someone else should cost.
You read the same nonsense from a lot of people right here on FR who claim to be conservative.
Erik Latranyi ~ Exactly...and those are being driven up by gov't regulations primarily and liability secondarily.
Been in an Emergency Room lately? Packed solid with invaders who "can't pay" getting "free" medical care for mostly trivial issues.
People who "can pay" get charged double or triple what their services would normally cost to cover the "free" services to illegal aliens.
Actually a patent is a temporary legal monopoly. As a society we trade a temporary monopoly as a reward for and encouragement of, as you phrased it 'developing an innovative product.'
Protecting the innovation for 20 years from filing date provides a real economic incentive to do all the work needed to get a product to market. Protecting IP is a key driver of the ingenuity engine that drives our (and the world's!) economy.
(s) nully, who has several patents...
Exactly, read post 6.
We need to enforce our patents world wide.
This is why the difference in prices.
The rest of the world is getting a free ride on our research and development.
If they paid a little more, their "fair share", we would pay less.
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