Posted on 09/20/2020 6:13:15 AM PDT by Kaslin
President Trump has pulled the trigger on actually lowering prescription drug prices. By ending arbitrary trade barriers he could save Americans over $50 Billion a year. Even staunch believers in free-market capitalism recognize that there are areas where the government is required to put on a striped shirt and play the referee.
Republicans going back to Teddy Roosevelt have understood that. Especially when companies have acquired monopoly powers. President Roosevelt ruffled feathers among Wall Street tycoons when he launched his effort to break up the trusts. Trusts that were abusing their market power, creating monopolies. American consumers were being harmed and economic growth stifled. The tycoons had figured out that it was easier to buy out or merge with competitors than to actually compete with them. Roosevelt understood that monopolies and free-market competition were like oil and water. The concentration of too much market power inevitably leads to abuse.
Donald Trump understands that as well.
When our Patent Office issues a new patent for a drug, we are essentially granting them monopoly power. They can sell that lifesaving drug (in the United States) for as much as they want. Insurance carriers try to negotiate better pricing. Pharmaceutical Benefit Managers came along promising to bargain on behalf of insurance companies and health organizations. The PBM’s quickly became part of the problem, consuming nearly all of the savings.
All of this led to finger pointing, creating a convenient smokescreen for the real reasons for runaway drug prices in the United States. Along the way, Congress has made matters worse. They don’t even allow Medicare (unlike the VA) to negotiate for better prices. The result is that Americans are forced pay much more for patented medications than people in any other industrialized nation.
The drug industry has framed the debate as a choice between socialized medicine and the free market. That’s a classic canard. Monopolies are antithetical to free markets. We grant utilities monopoly status. We don’t allow them to charge whatever they want. We regulate them. Try to name a monopoly that sells an essential product or service that is allowed to set their own prices?
The real question is how do we balance these competing interests? We believe in intellectual property rights. We need to continue to incentivize investment into new innovation. Bear in mind, however, much of the basic research that ultimately leads to new drugs is already underwritten by American taxpayers through the NIH and the CDC. And the drug industry now spends more on marketing and advertising than R&D. How do we protect those interests while keeping American consumers from being held hostage and treated unfairly?
Well, success leaves clues.
Maybe our policymakers should do a little serious research. How do other countries balance these competing interests? What are they doing that we might consider?
Canada is not that far away. Canadian officials would welcome a Congressional Delegation to show them how their system works. At the heart of it is the way they grant patents for new drugs. The drug companies deserve intellectual property protections. The Canadian government retains the right to protect its citizens from monopolistic, predatory pricing.
So Canada puts conditions on the drug patents they issue. They require companies to negotiate prices. The Canadians created the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB). It functions much like a state Utility Commission. Like their utility counterparts, this board does some spadework into the R&D and production costs. They allow for a reasonable rate of return. In negotiations, the PMPRB has a strong hand.
The drug companies call this price fixing. OK. Perhaps they will share just how profitable their Canadian operations really are? Remember in the last tax reform, companies were encouraged to repatriate profits with lower tax rates? American drug companies were holding over $300 billion offshore. Nearly all of it in nations that they claim have “socialized medicine price controls.” You can’t repatriate hundreds of billions in losses.
Facts are indeed stubborn things. It’s time to scrape away the veneer and find out just how the Canadian system actually works. Thankfully, President Trump has started the ball rolling. It’s time for Congress to pick it up and run with it.
I would not expect all of it, but my savings on the 2 brand name drugs I take would feel like 50 Billion (with a B)
I hope it happens soon. Dec 1 I go on Medicare and will be in the donut hole within 3 months. I am so scared. I have a supplemental plan but I’m still screwed.
I was accutulay looking forward to not be paying 500 every month for health insurance for a crappy plan.
I want to keep my crappy plan.
Between Rx drugs, insurance companies not competing across state lines, restrictions by the FDA on bringing things in... It is OBVIOUS that in the land of free markets, capitalism and of course the world’s greatest health care system that there is heavy influence by a few very powerful players when it comes to the verbiage of government regulations and the enforcement of them.
In America, when you go to the hospital, you’re signing a blank check, even of you have insurance. Not even the cliche used car dealer is allowed to pull the crap they do here when you seek medical care: 10 different bills, bills that you can’t decipher what they are for, out of network services, bills 6 months later... What a joke.
And all of that for a health care system that is government and insurance run, what’s the consumer only has the “illusion” of choice. The average consumer even with insurance does not have the financial resources to afford anything other than the standard of care. Doctors will not advice or even inform of alternatives in care and the consumer doesn’t really know the difference in most cases. Doctors won’t administer anything other than the standard of care also because of liability. Insurances won’t pay for anything other than the standard of care. And who defines the standard of care?
This country has a crappy health care system that is sold to the consumer really well, but the outcomes tell a different story. You have little choice, get jerked around and ripped off, and when it comes to pneumonia, corona virus, average life expectancy, infant death mortality... we are just mediocre.
I have noticed drug prices lowering although I’m not on a lot of meds due in part to my keto diet (mostly).
I still have my work’s healthcare plan but at the end of January I will be losing that coverage as I am planning on retiring from my main job that carries this plan.
Will have almost five years until I get to medicare. Looking into the sharing programs.
First we kill all the lawyers.
Tort Reform
USA stops getting singled out as the payor for the world.
The article in all its words says nothing directly about any Trump action. You would think that would be the first thing the author mentioned.
Do you use a book for the Keto Diet? ..or Internet?
Well we started off using Dr. Fung’s fasting after hubs had a health scare then went to avoidance of bread, pasta, etc. Seemingly hard to do as hubs is half Italian and I’m of French decent. LOL
Hubs has lost over 55 lbs in the last 3 months.
I’m looking into assistance from the drug manufactures. There is also a church organization, in this area, that assists with drugs.
I don’t think keto can help with epilepsy or copd but if it does I will try it. I don’t to lose weight though.
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