Walmart got to where it is by taking out the easy pickings competition in small towns. It does, as I have said, have more competition in other areas. The point is that, if you want to sell to Walmart you will take the prices they want to pay under theirs terms and conditions. If you want to buy things in a town dominated by Walmart, your selections are very limited.
These things happen in private industry which was my point. It is simply the reality of our life on this planet.
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No, you didn't expand from your original broad statement, you kept narrowing it in order to avoid admitting that your original statement was not supported by facts or even by reasonable arguments.
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Co-payments are a cost as are inconvenience, wait times and the general dislike of being in a hospital or doctor's office. We are not talking about a fun experience but one that is unpleasant to most people.
You are simply repeating your opinions and not providing additional support for them. Just because you keep saying that removing profit from an activity reduces investment and innovation doesn't make it any more true than the last time you stated that. What are you talking about specifically in the health care industry?
If you are talking about R&D, drug companies spend less on that than on marketing and advertising BECAUSE the easy pickings profits are in the marketing end. They would rather buy politicians to extend patent protection or go after generics or make deals with hospitals because there is more profit in this activity than in R&D.
What about the Toshiba scanners example did you not understand? It was a fairly simple observation that, having the government cut the prices of scans led to innovation in scanners. Why do you have a problem with innovations leading to lower costs?
You missed the point of this example entirely. The government cut the price they could charge for their scans so they were forced to innovate. What about this do you not understand? I wasn't talking about meeting their competition, it was an example of them meeting their customer's requirements.
Your comments about drug company R&D make no sense whatsoever. You are simply making up comments from thin air. Where is your backing for these statements about the size of R&D? Are you saying that drug companies are falsifying the expense of providing free samples? Does the IRS know about this?
Consumers can't change their prescriptions, that is up to the doctors. They might be able to get a generic but they don't have the power or the knowledge or the legal right to change their prescriptions. That is nonsense.
Drug companies are free to go out of business, sell overseas or meet the price set by a single payer system. No one is telling them what to do. They are, after all, already dealing with large government customers in other industrialized nations.
Why are we footing the bill for the world on this? |
