Posted on 03/03/2016 7:01:49 AM PST by Sean_Anthony
A lot more than just getting rid of the lines
I mentioned on Facebook yesterday that I am not that big a fan of election years, and here’s a case in point. At this moment, #NeverTrump is all the rage among conservatives, and there’s a tremendous push to get Republican primary voters united against one remaining Trump rival to take the nomination away from him.
My job is to write what I think about whatever happens on a given day. It’s not to only write what I think will result in a certain outcome. So when I tell you that Donald Trump’s new seven-point health care reform plan is excellent, some of you are going to say: Don’t say that now! It’ll help Trump! #NeverTrump!!!
But my job is not to care one way or the other about who it will help or hurt. It’s to say what I honestly think. And what I honestly think is that the plan Trump released yesterday is as good as I’ve heard from anyone in the race - if not necessarily better - for how to replace ObamaCare. I’m going to excerpt the seven points entirely from Trump’s web site:
HSA right now have to be spent each calendar year. He is for allowing them to accumulate and be part of your estate.
I think you're confusing that with an FSA, Flexible Spending Account. FSAs are only good for the year and if you don't spend the money in it then you lose it. For HSAs you can roll money over to the next year. FSAs are also not transferable. HSAs can follow you from job to job.
I have an FSA because I have a low deductible insurance plan through my work. You can only have an HSA if you have a high-deductible insurance plan. My company does not offer an HSA because it does not offer a high-deductible option on any of the three health plans we have to choose from.
You're just dead wrong on that one. There is simply NO monopoly in the pharmaceutical industry.
HSA right now have to be spent each calendar year. He is for allowing them to accumulate and be part of your estate.
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That is not accurate.
FSAs, Flexible Spending Accounts cannot carry over.
HSA’s can and do.
It's $3350 for individuals and $6550 for families. And his plan doesn't say if that will change.
“...There is simply NO monopoly in the pharmaceutical industry...”
Perhaps I shouldn’t describe the constraints on my access to lower cost medicine as a monopoly. So, instead of “monopoly”, you can choose a more appropriate descriptor for the reason I can’t legally buy prescription pharmaceuticals internationally and avoid paying big-pharma’s rates.
It's called a 'patent'. US laws prevent importing of patented drugs. You have to understand that the production cost of most drugs is near zero. Almost all of the cost is in the FDA approval process. US drug manufacturers must price their products to recover that cost, as well as the costs of drugs that are not approved. They can also make a little profit from selling their products in price controlled countries outside the US. These prices are far below what the price would need to be to recover their FDA approval costs. So they price their drugs in the US to recover their US approval costs, and they price their products in other countries to make a little profit. Allowing reimportation of these drugs would eliminate the chance of recovering their FDA approval costs.
Once the patent expires (which is usually only a few years after the FDA approval is granted), all this goes away, because the FDA approval process also requires them to tell exactly how they make the drugs, so anyone can make them once the patent expires.
You have me misdiagnosed. I am not anti-Trump. I am a Trump skeptic. He is a self-described chameleon who changes to meet the occasion. There are contradictions in his political history that have not been resolved to my satisfaction. If he is the nominee, I will easily pull the lever for him as the (potential) "devil I don't know" over Hillary, the devil herself.
Well said. Those are my sentiments as well.
I like what he had to say, so the question remains “is he bald face lying” to get the nomination - like the liars McCain and Romney turned out to be?
“...You have to understand that the production cost of most drugs is near zero. Almost all of the cost is in the FDA approval process...”
Oh, I understand it just fine. But the effect is the same. Sell to a captive market that is artificially denied access to other valid markets licensed by the same Pharma manufacturer and source govt. That smells like monopoly to me, whether it’s induced by govt or Pharma makes no difference to the consumer.
Once upon a time, a patent was used to constrain the manufacture, sale or use in the manufacture or sale of a product — not to prevent the *consumer* buying from an otherwise perfectly valid, licensed manufacturer or seller. If the consumer bought the drug from an unlicensed seller/manufacturer, the patent holder (and the govt) should have a problem with the unlicensed seller/manufacturer, not the consumer. But that’s not how it works, is it? Hence, artificial monopoly, “patent”, whatever you want to call it.
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