By Peter Pitts on 11.6.08 @ 6:05AM
Four areas of immediate concern.
Yesterday, Wednesday, I woke up, shaved, and drove to work. My EZ
Pass still worked.
Barack Obama is our President-Elect.
Please note the possessive -- "our" -- because he will shortly be
the new President of the United States. The whole United States.
Red states and blue states. He's our president regardless of
political affiliation or policy position. It also means he's
obligated to listen to the opinions of all Americans -- not just
those who agree with his agenda.
Here are a few things he should keep in mind as he contemplates
health-care reform.
First, drug importation is still an unsafe, unsound idea.
Contaminated heparin from China killed nearly 100 people earlier
this year. And barely a month ago, customs officers in Brussels
seized over 2 million counterfeit anti-malaria drugs coming from
India -- Europe's largest ever counterfeit drugs seizure. The
World Health Organization estimates that fake drugs now account
for 10 percent of all drugs on the world market.
The FDA is insufficiently funded to monitor all of the sites
where imported drugs are produced. Th
e Government Accountability Office reported that the FDA inspects
less than 10 percent of overseas facilities each year. At that
rate, each of these sites is inspected only once every 13 years.
That's a lot of time to produce and ship substandard medicines.
This is why it is terribly risky to legalize the importation of
foreign drugs.
Second, Part D is still a resounding success and the
non-interference clause, which prevents the federal government
from meddling with drug prices, should stand. The projected cost
of Part D to taxpayers over the next decade has dropped $117
billion since last summer -- from $915 billion to $798 billion.
An overwhelming 87 percent of Part D enrollees are happy with the
program, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll. This
because Part D was structured to allow private insurers to
compete without government interference -- and today enrollees
have a wider choice of drugs, better services, and lower premiums
than anyone ever expected.
The Department of Veterans Affairs stands in stark contrast. Its
prescription drug formulary contains less than 65 percent the
nation's 300 most-popular prescription drugs. The most popular
Part D plan, by contrast, covers over 90 percent of them. Even
the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has concluded that in
order to save money through direct price negotiations, Medicare
would have to limit access to drugs.
Third, the drug pipeline is not as dry as many argue.
Seven-hundred and fifty novel approaches to beating cancer are
currently under development, and over 277 medicines to overcome
heart attacks and strokes are undergoing testing. Considering
that just 25 years ago, the only treatment for a heart attack was
bed rest, drugs that can stop a heart attack represent an
enormous leap forward. Just a few short years from now, it's
likely that doctors will brandish an arsenal of new medicines to
fight hypertension and cholesterol.
Unfortunately, pharmaceutical innovation remains misunderstood.
Even though patent protections provide the incentives needed to
continue producing these life-saving therapies, many in
Washington seem intent on eroding patent protections as a means
of reducing drug prices.
Finally, Americans still cannot buy health insurance
competitively across state lines. This is something a McCain
administration would have pushed for, but that ship has sailed.
Expanding access to private insurance by eliminating state
boundary laws would increase competition among providers, driving
down costs and improving services.
It's now Thursday -- which means the weekend is within sight.
Let's take that opportunity to sit back and reflect on all the
work we need to do -- together -- to reform American health care
for all of us and with all of us as partners.
That's change we can all support.
