The American Spectator

SC Mike| 3.22.10 @ 7:23AM

The conservative way to whack PhRMA is through anti-trust, requiring that prices charged within our borders are consistent with prices that foreign governments / medical systems pay. There’s no question that it’s the foreigners who demand the lower prices, but PhRMA has little incentive to fight for reasonable rates that reflect R&D, FDA (and other nation’s) testing regimens, etc. So let’s give them a big one.

Becky| 3.22.10 @ 9:14AM

Can they now quit advertising for drugs where the negatives take longer to list that the benefit does to explain? Ever notice that all drug ads say to "ask your doctor"......... usually about a drug that you don't know what the purpose is, they just know you will want it like the latest fashion.

The largest reason health care costs are so high, is the one that has been encouraged under this bill: third party payer. The least culpable are the private insurance companies. The most culpable are the insured. Insured persons are also the least informed group of the insurance, doctor, Pharma/medical device world.

I recently read the book "The Last Well Person" by Nortin Hadler, and overall it was a relief to find that what I have been thinking or suspecting had some merit. If you find a copy, it is worth reading, for if anything, it may give a lot of those who are worried some reassurance about the ability to make decisions starting with when to go to the doctor.

Like my elderly mother says; she is tired of going to the dr., because they always seem to find something wrong that they want to treat that she didn't know she had. She now has a basket for her pills.

I went to a lecture by an art professor a year ago, and in tribute to her father (who had passed away), she produced a set of ceramic plates that were embedded with the pills her father took in his last years of life. The pills were fired with the clay. Interestingly, the vitamins did not dissolve. Since I saw that, I have not taken a vitamin.

Roy| 3.22.10 @ 9:19AM

Yep..third party payer just got worse..which means get ready for costs to skyrocket even more than they already have.

Grant1863| 3.22.10 @ 9:49AM

Thanks for some gallows humor this sad day. Never give up.

Barry Loberfeld| 3.22.10 @ 3:15PM

"For about a hundred years, America has been a nation of accumulating medical controls. Each new regulation was passed with the same justification made for the previous one: This measure will sufficiently correct the failings of the free market and thus save the free-market system. And the result? Today's "crisis in health care" -- as the welfare statists themselves call this iatrogenic disease. The more band-aids are applied, the more wounds appear! And with nothing but band-aids in their bags, these "liberals" (often the same aging advocates of past regulation) can now prescribe only covering the patient head to toe -- i.e., the final move to the outright socialization of all medicine. What this says about the microcosm of medicine is obvious; what it means for our mixed economy is ominous."

From "Liberalism: History and Future" at ABCDunlimited.com/ideas/liberalism.html

Nikki| 3.23.10 @ 1:29AM

So true, PhRMA is only in it for the money. Your annotations were perfect!

Interesting move that the market backed government control. Usually its the opposite.

PhRMA is not really interested in curing people of what ails them, only in acquiring life-long customers. But really, look at their incentive. Money. Still, people are ever-hopeful that a pill or procedure will protect or cure them from age or disease. Sometimes we are all dumber than a pen full of turkeys.

Nevertheless, I am glad that millions more Americans will now have access to some sort of health safety net. I would far rather open my wallet to provide chemotherapy for a terrified, uninsured American than pay for an idiotic trumped-up war, another yacht for a slimy Wall Street creep, or a private jet for an arrogant auto executive.

If people have had no health care coverage at all, then how can they say their health care choices are being diminished? Perhaps the real point is, wealthier Americans don't want to share the health. Fair enough. But if that's the way you feel, then how can you blame PhRMA for being a big money-grubbing monster?

Sometimes I think maybe Obama should have began this whole healthcare thing by mailing a first-aid kit to every American. That would say, "Hey, we want to do the right thing but we have absolutely no idea how to go about it, so meanwhile, here are some band-aids and free condoms." I mean, George W. Bush gave everyone $300. We really didn't care for George W. but now we have a $300 cabinet in our house that we fondly refer to as the George Bush cabinet. It's stuffed full of papers and crap.

Nikki| 3.23.10 @ 10:38PM

Nevertheless, I am glad that millions more Americans will now have access to some sort of health safety net. I would far rather open my wallet to provide chemotherapy for a terrified, uninsured American than pay for an idiotic trumped-up war, another yacht for a slimy Wall Street creep, or a private jet for an arrogant auto executive.

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