If
you're wondering, like most Americans are, why drug prices are so high
these days, consider the fact that our pharmaceutical giants spent at
least $80 million just on this fall's election.
That's
$80 million that will have to be made up by the rest of us -- especially
the elderly among us -- when we go pick up our next prescription at
the pharmacy.
It
appears, though, that for the drug giants it was money well spent.
The
Republicans held onto the House and at worst will have 50 of the 100
seats in the Senate. And if George Bush really does become the next
president, Katie bar the door.
As
the Wall Street Journal reported last week, by helping Republicans hang
onto the majorities in the House and the Senate, the pharmaceutical
makers reduced the odds that Congress would pass the kind of Medicare
prescription drug benefit they oppose.
That,
of course, is the benefit that Al Gore favored -- having Medicare pay
for the drugs or, in effect, establishing some governmental control
over the price. That's not such an outlandish idea, despite what the
drug cartel says. Canada, Mexico and most European countries have done
it for years and, as a result, their citizens enjoy much lower drug
prices.
Instead,
the pharmaceuticals were able to neutralize the drug issue through their
intense advertising campaign. Chances now are that if anything at all
comes out of Congress, it will be the George W. Bush plan, which would
subsidize insurance companies and HMOs to offer drug policies to folks
on Medicare.
The
insurance and HMO scenario may initially help seniors pay for their
drugs, but there will be absolutely no incentive to hold down prices.
Rather, most economists predict, drug prices are likely to spin even
further out of control.
The
$80 million spent by the drug firms is the most ever spent by a single
corporate interest in an American election.
Much
of the anti-Gore, in particular, and anti-Democrat, in general, campaign
spread the myth that the high prices are needed to finance research
and development of new, miracle drugs. The truth is that much of the
R&D cost is actually borne by the taxpayers through grants to universities
from the National Institutes of Health.
The
drug giants know better than anyone that the real incentive for the
higher prices is for the benefit of Wall Street, not for the beleaguered
consumer.
Copyright 2000 The Capital Times
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