Thomas Frank, who’s left of center, writes for the Wall Street Journal:
What’s dragging the Democrats down in the health-care debate isn’t confusion about details. On this the president and his supporters have proven themselves the ablest of technocrats, easily identifying each plan’s particulars and its shortcomings, laying everything out on nice flow charts.
It is the big questions that are tripping them up. Concerns about the size and role of government are what seem to leave reformers stammering and speechless in town-hall meetings. The right wants to have a debate over fundamental principles; elected Democrats seem incapable of giving it to them.
In his first hour of today’s radio show, Dennis Prager talks to Jeff Stier, associate director of the American Council on Science and Health. They discuss Big Pharma, lead in toys and e-cigarettes.
Jeff: The Obama administration wants to pay for healthcare on the back of the pharmaceutical. They’ve already gotten $80 billion in givebacks (money Big Pharma have earned through innovation) and Congress wants a $100 billion. Why not take it all away?
The best way to lower healthcare costs is to provide new innovative life-saving medicine that keeps people out of hospital.
Yesterday the head of the Gates Foundation said that drug companies should give away vaccines. They shouldn’t have to. The reason we have so much innovative drug development in the United States is not because Americans are so much smarter than everyone else but because America has a free market where people can take risks and make profits. Almost all drug development takes place in countries with a free market.
Many Republicans agree that pharmaceutical companies should pay for more healthcare.
Is there a level of profit where you would save pharmaceutical companies are making too much profit? No. If they make what economists may call "excess profits," competitors will enter the industry and drive down prices. The more money they make, the better, because it means they are making new drugs.
Jeff’s articles:
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Something to Chew Over (from the Wall Street Journal) |
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Bitter pill for FDA: law on herbal supplements |
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New Lead Law Poisons Housing (from New York Post) |
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| Health Facts and Fears | |
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Congress Votes to Ban Genetic Discrimination |
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Sick Kids Misused in Smoke Ads |
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Mandatory Calorie Counting Struck Down by Judge |
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