Hillary's Flu Vaccine Crisis

newsmax.com ^ | 12/13/03 | Carl Limbacher

[Mich0127]

December 13, 2003 Schwarzenegger: Terminates Hillary's Plans?

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With Carl Limbacher and NewsMax.com Staff For the story behind the story...

Click Here Hillary's Flu Vaccine Crisis

Newspapers are awash this week with headlines warning that the U.S. is running out of flu vaccine, just as the crisis reaches near-epidemic levels, with 11 children dead so far.

But as top radio talker Rush Limbaugh noted this week, the press isn't explaining how the most sophisticated health care system in the world was caught short by the flu crisis.

Perhaps reporters ought to ask New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, since one of the few health care reforms she managed to inflict on the nation during her co-presidency has now backfired by driving most of America's flu vaccine producers out of business.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal this week, "The reason for today's shortage - as well as seven previous preventive vaccine shortages since 2000 - is that there are just five vaccine makers.

"This lack of suppliers is partly thanks to Hillary Clinton, who as first lady turned government into the majority buyer of vaccines and pushed prices so low as to make business unsustainable."

Last summer the Journal noted that the problem goes back to 1993, when Mrs. Clinton's "Vaccines for Children Program" was first implemented.

Hillary's vaccine crusade was being pushed by her Children's Defense Fund mentor Marian Wright Edelman - even though U.S. child vaccination rates at the time were considered relatively high by medical experts.

But that didn't stop Sen. Clinton and her "reformers." She pressured Congress to back the disastrous plan in a bid to make vaccines more available to poor, uninsured and underinsured children. In the process she turned the government into the major purchaser and distributor of vaccines.

Oops! Unfortunately for the familles of the 11 children killed by the disease so far, things didn't quite work out the way Hillary had planned.

As noted by the Kansas City Star this week, the decision to force vaccine makers to discount their price resulted in "declining financial incentives to develop and produce vaccines."

What's more, the vaccination rate "barely budged" after the Hillary-Edelman brainchild was implemented.

Hillary's "reform" did, however, manage to leave the nation thoroughly unprepared to handle the current flu crisis.

[Mich0127]

As a historian, I can tell you that a socialist and a communist, and a nazi are all of the same things:
They have different doctrines, but they all follow the same patterns-Hope this helps a little bit
Democracy is the only alternative!


If you want me to get into this, feel free to Freep mail me! I will more than happy to explain it to you!

And remember from grade school: a silly question is a question that is not asked!

[Optimist]

We have decimated what was once the best healthcare system in the world.

Socialism is NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER the answer.

As with all government "plans" it starts with a basically good concept, but totally fails to take in the reality of our world.

Hmmmm,
(1) Buy big get bigger discount -a rule of economics
(2) Bigger discount means lower prices - the K Mart rule
(3) ... or bigger profits for the "manager"- the Enron Rule
(4) And let's you set your own buying price - the Wal Mart rule
(5) Which let's you decide who stays in the producing market - the Microsoft rule
(6) which ultimately means that you can decide how much you want to make available - the OPEC rule
(7) Until you find out that it wasn't as easy as you thought it was - the Gray Davis rule
(8) and have to pay more for what should have been readily available in the first palce - the California electricity rule
(9) Bringing us finally to the fact that government cant "control" the market, it can only affect it - the Crash of 29 rule.

[Mich0127]

Interesting analysis..rings soooo true!
All this will lead to is devastation in the end...we start with lower drug prices, but as competition falls out, the remaining companies will drive costs up...then try to get prescription meds!

[Mich0127]

would you say that Neanderthal is TK's trademark? And if so, where does it fall on the scale of distinctivness?
My take: generic: common descriptive name!

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks, and I agree.

[Mich0127]

You made a cogent, intelligent and thoughtful argument, and I commend you for it! Sadly, this is not evident to the people in power!

[DoughtyOne]

Thanks for the food for thought. Nice...

[expatpat]

The scum caused so many problems that it will take 10 years to straighten it out.

[DoughtyOne]

Thank you. And yes it is sad.

[Mich0127]

I think 10 years is a optimistic estimate. Try 25!

[ReleaseTheHounds]

Let's see: Hillary's tampering with the market (government purchasing) with great price pressures forces most pharmaceutical companies out of the business (I read someplace that there were around 20 manufacturers in 1993, now they are down to 5). And Congress won't cut the pharmaceutical companies any slack on product liability (actually, we can thank Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Lincoln Chafee who blocked the exemption sought for vaccine makers to be spared from frivolous lawsuits brought by trial lawyers) -- no, we can't do anything that would upset Trial Lawyers -- so now we have 20 kids dead from the flu. As Peter, Paul and Mary used to ask: "When will we ever learn?"

[Mich0127]

You make a great point...they will never learn!

[ReleaseTheHounds]

And in this case, Hillary happened!

Let's remember the all-knowing Hillary response to the challenges small business would face under her nationalized medicare: "I can't be responsible for every under-capitalized business in America!" What a piece of work... or some other 4-letter word.

[Mich0127]

And we can't be responsible if we feel a need to throw stones at you whenever you are around....whoops...did I say that out loud ;)

If the undercapitalized businesses gave that poor excuse for a woman more power, she would never have said that!

[arasina]

Lest we forget:

"Buried in the National Archives, in the working papers of the Hillary Clinton healthcare plan, was the game plan in the event the Health Security Act went down in defeat. It was to implement another healthcare act that provided healthcare for children. They thought, no one would dare deny healthcare to children. Senators Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch introduced the plan in Congress, and the Health Security Act passed in 1994."

[arasina]

Doubtful if he is new to the political game in general. He is, however, extremely new to Free Republic. ;o)

[Mich0127]

very new! We'll give the newbies a chance, unless they prove to be DU-ites

[jonathanleebrown]

So you are saying that, though they believe in different ideals or strive to achieve different goals, they ended up the same way? It is interesting to ponder what factors could influence the ideologies to result in similar outcomes. Furthermore, could those same factors influence us with our version of democracy, or any form of government? I am inclined to believe that it is the human element, human nature, that has the greatest potential to be so destructive to any organization of man.

Here's my concern about our situation: We are fighting each other. Not just among Reps but among Americans; Rep, Dem and all. We don't seem to view ourselves as a union but as adversaries. And that is really scary. Why is that? Why is everybody mad? I know some people are mad because they feel like they are not represented as they would like to be. The fact remains that Bush did not win a majority of the vote. (http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2000/results/index.president.html) And yet he is in office. That, to me, indicates that our system is flawed. A two party system, as we have, makes change very difficult. (I call it "two party" here based on the election dynamics, elections don't work with more than two candidates. Or rather have the potential to fail.)

We can certainly agree that one man cannot rule a country alone. The president surrounds himself with many of the brightest people (not necessarily in the country, but in his party at least.) Perhaps we need a way to map election result to cabinet positions or better yet have a committee rule, representative of the actual vote numbers. Of course this wouldn't work in the real world. (right?) I am sure the thought is coming to mind right now, "partisan squabbling would increase more than exponentially!" Indeed that is likely; the human factor again.

Well now that my rambling is tiring even my own will connect with the intelligent inhabitants of this site, I guess I should come to a point: that no matter who wins any election, our point of view has to change, we need to stop fighting each other, and work on peaceful change. I will qualify this by point out that my analysis of the situation is not the most well informed and I lack much insight that I am sure many of you have. (Shall we say that I am still trying to forge my political identity?) So criticism and corrections are more than welcome. Also if there is a more appropriate place for this discussion I will gladly move. However I would like to keep it open, not limited to emailing.

Thanks!

[RippleFire]

bump

[Mich0127]

CNN reports what they want to report. They made it seem that Bush lost the popular election, but that is not the case. There were uncounted votes in the Florida panhandle, which would have allowed Bush to win the popular vote. Unfortunately, the Dems like to leave that bit of information out. If you are trying to forge an political identity, I would advise you to steer clear of CNN and other democratic information engines if you want to understand politics. I would recommend NewsMax and Fox News channel for a better take.
The problem that you notice with inter-party squabbling results from democratic childishness. They have no original points, but they feel a continued need to bash the Republicans.
Also, your ideas for government are utopian, and will never work. Peace between the faction is a nice dream, but will never happen. And we are not ruled by a single body, we are governed by three branches of government, largely elected by the populus.
Unfortunately, what you know so far from liberal outlets is skewed and flawed.

If you feel that you disagree with these points, Democratic Underground is a great socialist haven. But first reevaluate your position and seek the truth. The truth lies in the Republican party.