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To: TimF who wrote (183412)	2/3/2006 3:01:14 PM
From: GVTucker	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 186894

My one OT comment on this: Most of us would agree, I think, that our patchwork combination of government control and a partially free market isn't the optimal way to distribute drugs in this country. I personally think that a full and open free market would do this most efficiently. Most people, though, disagree with this notion, they don't trust free markets as well as I do. And they might be right. Given that we should go one direction or the other, and the the free market option is not one that is going to be supported by nearly enough people to be a viable option, the only thing left for us to do is go to the single payor (i.e. the Federal government) option and live with the inevitable dead weight cost.

To: TimF who wrote (183412)	2/3/2006 3:10:01 PM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 186894

re: You implied that the fact that prices are relatively low in some markets with heavy government control of prices to indicate that the drug market for these countries was an example of efficient markets. The fact that low prices can result from many different things shoots holes in your argument. The fact that in this case the government control of prices resulted in lower prices shoots even bigger holes in your argument. Government control of prices isn't an operation of a free market its the opposite, its government control. Where did you get all that? I'm talking about governments as customers. The drug market has organized itself in that way for a reason... they can negotiate the lowest cost of goods by buying for the largest number of people. The US has decided not to participate in the open market... with obvious negative results. John