The new social welfare bill.
Bernie says: Let’s talk about lowering the age of Medicare eligibility from 65 to 55.
Okay, where are the funds to handle this going to come from? The reason Medicare is in trouble is that it is trying to do exactly what Sanders is trying to put in. The “public option” he is talking about is that the ones that prepared and did what was needed to get to the point of self-sufficiency, are expected to pay for those that didn’t. That basically means that when the money runs out from those that are getting by, and the list of free rides increases, no one will have an option except dependency on the government. And their efforts to control heath care will have come full cycle. And government health care at this level and amount, can’t sustain itself.
Bernie says: Let’s deal with the greed of the pharmaceutical industry.
In a Harvard Medical School study, they found a few reasons why prescription drug prices are 5.8% higher in the US than the rest of the world.
1. Drug manufacturers in the U.S. set their own prices, and that’s not the norm elsewhere in the world. But letting the federal government establish a price for a finished product that took millions of dollars a year to test and produce to a level they determine as safe or workable, is not only not a free market and places the government in charge of health care, but it will financially destroy the industry.
An example of what the government has been “selling” to the public for years is that the price of a drug in Canada is cheaper than the same drug in the US. That’s only half true. Without any form of oversee, to include public scrutiny, Canada only uses a partial amount of the drug they advertise in comparison to what the US is demanded in selling inside its borders. You get half a drug, you pay half price. (And maybe get well) And God know what they are cutting it with.
2. The FDA takes a long time to approve generic drugs.
Self explanatory here. Copying drugs can get expensive and counter productive to purpose of the drug. Can increase side effects.
3. Sometimes, state laws and other “well-intentioned” federal policies limit generics’ abilities to keep costs down.
More fingers in the pot, more expense to the maker.
The average cost of creating a new drug to meet profiles established by uncle sugar now exceeds $2.5 Billion according to the TFTS Center for Drug Development. Tack on the price of creation, marketing, and delivery when the price of gas is so ridiculous, and the companies need for funds to go on to the next drug, there is little wonder why they are so expensive.
But you notice, Bernie doesn’t talk about these points, he just plays the blame game when he’s got some that are stuck in the middle of government takeovers of the field to control health care. This was their second effort to blame the health field so they could get control. The first was the lying about HMO’s.
red
A lot of people forget that the US capitalist system is the reason we have new drugs, medical equipment and procedures. Very few of these things are developed outside of the US.
A drug company might be working on 20 new drugs. Of them, only 10 might turn out to be feasible. They spend millions sending them through testing. Only a couple of them will pass the testing and some of them might end up not being financially viable because a competitor has a cheaper or better version. Once the new drug is developed, the company has to spend millions on marketing it in order to get physicians to prescribe it. The US consumers end up paying for the development of the drug, as well as the development of the failed drugs. Without a profit-incentive, there’s no reason to risk hundreds of millions on new drugs.
Other countries get the advantages of the new drugs without all the overhead involved.