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Politics : A US National Health Care System? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TimF who wrote (13348)	2/9/2010 6:47:02 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 42652

If they could do that now, they would. To the extent the governments have monopsony buying, or even in a few cases explicitly price controls, or at least heavy political pressure and control on prices, the drug companies have little pricing power with other countries. Somehow the defense industry survives despite the government negotiating contracts/pricing... and they have equivalent R&D needs. Some how any number of companies survive that negotiate government contract in other industries. Why, in this one case, do you believe the manufacturers should just set whatever price the government will pay, without ANY competition? It's crazy. And it's lead to a huge distortion of the market. Governments have organized them in certain ways, that's a very different thing. Like it or not Tim governments are a HUGE percentage of the marketplace. It is what it is even if it doesn't fit your world view.