ObamaCare works ... already!
Posted on 05/15/2011 6:09:11 AM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
Doctors, hospitals and federal regulators are struggling to cope with an unprecedented surge in drug shortages in the United States that is endangering cancer patients, heart attack victims, accident survivors and a host of other ill people.
A record 211 medications became scarce in 2010 — triple the number in 2006 — and at least 89 new shortages have been recorded through the end of March, putting the nation on track for far more scarcities.
Some medical centers are rationing drugs — including one urgently needed by leukemia patients — postponing surgeries and other care, and scrambling for substitutes, often resorting to alternatives that may be less effective, have more side effects and boost the risk for overdoses and other sometimes-fatal errors.
“It’s a crisis,” said Erin R. Fox, manager of the drug information service at the University of Utah, who monitors drug shortages for the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. “Patients are at risk.”
The causes vary from drug to drug, but experts cite a confluence of factors: Consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry has left only a few manufacturers for many older, less profitable products, meaning that when raw material runs short, equipment breaks down or government regulators crack down, the snags can quickly spiral into shortages.
“It seems like there were a lot of things happening with consolidations and quality issues and more things coming from overseas,” said Allen J. Vaida. “It just reached a point where the number of shortages was slowly going up and up, and now we have a national crisis with this huge shortage of critical medications.”
No one is systematically tracking the toll of the shortages, but reports are emerging of delayed treatments, anxious searches for desperately needed drugs, devastating injuries from mistakes and less-adequate drugs, and even possible deaths.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
ObamaCare works ... already!
Welcome to the new age of Obamacare. Shortages, waiting lists, emergency room overflow, unavailable doctors. . . and the list goes on. . . One crisis after another. . .
What causes shortages? A planned economy. Not a free market. Repeal 0bamacare now!
A lot of this is the old problem of excessive corporate consolidation, which is affecting a whole slew of US industries. Recent decades have shown that oligopolies can be just as bad as monopolies in this regard.
One of the worst of these oligopolies is with “the media”, which is a good way to describe the small handful of companies that control TV, movies, radio, newspapers, magazines, book publishing, bookselling, and broad segments of the Internet.
And for all the breast beating about the breakup of AT&T years ago, everyone of us profited handsomely from the explosion of competition and technological innovation that happened because of it.
Yes, but the sheeple, encouraged by the libs, will blame big pharma and big insurance rather then recognize that government is the problem. What I do not understand is why people turn to government when government created the problems in the first place and more government will only make things worse?
Bfl.
Shortages create higher prices...Take a look at the earnings for some of the Pharm companies. My problem with them is that they likely write off HUGE phoney amounts for research...again and again and again....
It is obvious we need a stimulas.
Every time I turn on the TV, a lawyer is wanting you to call a “hotline” to sue some drug manufacturer.
Nutshell reasons.
If there were a true free market in pharmaceuticals, there would be no shortages. Government interference through regulations and other means is at the root of the problem. No business can create shortages or monopolies without government collaboration. This is why big business and big government are such great buddies, contrary to what libs say. They feed off each other and we are the ones who suffer for it.
“It is obvious we need a stimulas.”
Why, I’m having one right now!... a huge mug of coffee. :-)
The manufacturers must be nationalized to end the problem of market dominated supply/s
Crisis, it's such an under used term of late...
Pediatricians would rather saw off a patient’s leg than use these effective drugs any way.
“If there were a true free market in pharmaceuticals, there would be no shortages”
Yes, hospitals with foresight to ensure their supplies could use this as a competitive advantage.
What is not stated is the effect of consolidations due to low medicare/medicaid reimbursement rates that do not allow for two manufacturers - or even one domestic manufacturer to exist for certain drugs.
the “everyone gets everything and someone else pays” model breaks down when the “someone else” is not willing to pay the cost and there is nobody to shift the costs to.
Thats what causes this.
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