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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Johannes Pilch who wrote (658798)	11/8/2004 12:45:45 PM
From: ThirdEye	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Good luck getting through life with blinders on.

To: Johannes Pilch who wrote (658798)	11/8/2004 11:27:31 PM
From: ThirdEye	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

The two issues we've been batting about are inseparable because they are components of the same legislation-the prescription drug bill recently passed by congress. The ban on states importing drugs from Canada and the prohibition against volume discounts were measures used for one simple purpose: prevent price depression of prescription medication (otherwise known as protecting profits). In order to get what it wanted out of this legislation, the pharmaceutical industry pumped $23 million into the pockets of republican legislators(vs $6M to dems), with an additional $17M for TV ads for republicans engaged in close races. In 2000, they spent $65M for ads attacking democrats for wanting to reduce drug prices. In 2003, the drug companies also paid $90M !! for almost 700 lobbyists in Washington(7 lobbyists per senator) which included 26 former members of congress. They bought the bill they wanted. Even though the VA already negotiates discounts of up to 40%, the recent bill requires states to negotiate separately. What happened here is not unlike the drug copmpanies busting a union in order to be able to negotiate prices with a zillion separate entities(states and private payers) instead of 1 entity that speaks for 50-and which would have had alot more clout. The result is we all pay more for drugs-sometime as much as 6-7x more. It's a boondoggle for Pfizer, etc. Not only that, the Medicare "benefit" that pays those high prices out of our taxes(actually with clown bucks printed by the FED) will add significantly to the deficit over the next ten years($535B). No wonder the true cost was underreported to Congess by $135B. As for the safety issue, your faith in the pronouncements of the FDA is remarkable. I'm not in favor of uncontrolled internet drug traffic, but you presume that the FDA can, or will, monitor drug safety better than Canada. If that was the case, where are all the dead Canadians from fake drugs? On the other hand, Celebrex, licensed by the FDA, has been implicated in the deaths of 14 Canadians. This is my last post on this topic.