jgnat,
You wrote:
Here's another idea to reduce the cost of pharmaceuticals.
http://www.ted.com/talks/thomas_pogge_medicine_for_the_99_percent.html
http://healthimpactfund.org/
This speaker explains how the market system results in higher costs. Right now pharmaceutical companies waste a lot of money on marketing, patent registration, defending themselves against generics, and suing each other.
Boy oh boy, you certainly have a lot of videos to watch. I watched them both. The first one hit on something I agree with - the patent wars, so-to-speak. Thomas Pogge references the vast sums of money spent each year on pharma companies suing each other, spurred on by the various patents each owns company owns.
Also, I wrote my last post in a hurry. I should have waited, but I made the decision to hit Submit and then I ran out the door. When I said "the patent pool is fine", I wanted to add that they would work much better under the total abolition of patents. In fact I would expect to see pools as part of a market response. There have been patent pools in the past, mostly set up voluntarily by the free market as an attempt to get around deadlock created by patent law. They would provide a vehicle for inventors to get paid for thier inventions. But again, that's a market approach. What we need is a market, a true market.
I also would like to note that so far we have been talking about extreme cases in the healthcare industry (monopolies and patents). Even then, a market seems preferrable. This is not what the ACA is about. It is not just seeking to cover these drugs. It is a general law covering every facit of healthcare. I still do think that it will continue to cause prices to rise until rationing is put in place. These are real concerns, not just some knee-jerk reaction to the "evils" of socialism. For example, you were describing the town of Grande Cache, I believe:
We have a few doctors, and experiencing our first shortage in years. Wait time (other than emergency) is about a month. We have a hospital but no surgery. People requiring emergency surgery are airlifted out, and expecting mothers have to "book" their deliveries and hope nature lines up with their best-laid plans. Medical care all falls under Alberta Health Services (provincial). All medical care is "free", including the airlifts.
This amazed me. About a year ago I got pnuemonia. It started out like a really bad cold and so I stayed home from work, looking to wait it out, like I do for any common cold. I remember waking up in the morning and hearing some raspy sounds in my lungs. It was at this point I realized something was wrong, although I had no idea what it might be at that point. I called my doctor and was in within an hour. I had antibiotics within the next 30 minutes, and a chest x-ray within the next 15 min. I was home within a couple hours with all the medication I needed. Two days later, I was on the mend and went back to work. I paid $90 for the doctor office visit. $15 for the x-ray, and $7 for the antibiotics, all of which would rise in price under the ACA (and fall under a market). You might argue: "See, you had an inelastic demand! You needed to go to the doctor, and the doctor could raise the price to whatever she wanted." Well, she could try. But there is another doctor down the road. I could just go there. In fact, I drove past several doctors on my way to my current doctor because I am attached to the cost of my care via a high-deductible plan. I shopped around prior to this incident. Now, if I had an ACA-like bill covering my expenses, I surely wouldn't shop around, and my doctor surely would raise the price further, up and up and up.
MMM
