Hoping medical science will find a cure for diabetes, Alzheimer's, or even obesity? Not going to happen under Pelosicare. That's because (Hat Tip Instapundit) drug companies are on the target list under health care reform. Jeff Stier and Henry I. Miller writing in the New York Post explain:
Democrats in Washington are out to cut health-care costs at the expense of the research-intensive (as opposed to generic) pharmaceutical industry . . .
And now Congress is out to make the climate for new-drug development significantly worse. The president has bragged that he intends to eke out huge cost savings at drug companies' expense: "The pharmaceutical industry has already said they're willing to put $80 billion on the table," adding, "We might be able to get $100 billion out or more." The industry was willing to "give" back its profits because it was told it wouldn't have a seat at the negotiating table if it didn't go along.
But now Pelosi has set up her own "negotiating table" -- nearly doubling the amount Washington would confiscate from the industry and planning vast cuts in what Medicare would pay for drugs -- a provision that the industry was assured was off the other table. Give 'em a hand, they'll take an arm.
In other words, the government will control the money drug companies get, money they need to develop new drugs. And since "Big Phrama" is the bad guy, the Democrats are going to make sure drug companies are starved for money.
Which is short sighted (not to mention just wrong). Drugs have helped people avoid medical expenses that they would otherwise have to pay.
Innovative new drugs have helped many patients avoid costly hospitalization, for example. From 1980 to 2000, the number of days in the hospital per 100 people fell from 129.7 to 56.6, a drop of 56 percent -- so that Americans avoided 206 million days of hospital care in 2000 alone, according to Medtap International, which provides health economics and outcomes-research services.
But "Big Pharma" must be punished in the Democrats world view, even if the persons hurt are patients and taxpayers.
Comments