[bac]

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/nation/epaper/2007/03/10/m1a_DRUGS_0310.html

His bill would achieve two main objectives:

• Allow drugs manufactured in the United States and sold to Canada and other Western industrialized countries to be reimported into the U.S. as long as the Food and Drug Administration approves the "chain of custody."

Does anyone see a flaw/scam in this plan? If the goal is affordable perscription drug prices for Americans, how about a bill forcing the perscription drug industry to sell DIRECTLY to Americans at the same price level as every other country in the world? Would that not simplify the situation? I guess the "chain of custody" (read: money grab) has something to do with it.

How many more Americans have to die, or suffer needlessly because they cannot afford the medicines they need? Why does this administration allow the perscription drug industry to gouge the Amercan public with pricing twice as high as other countries?

Now, on to the REAL question: This administration has greatly opposed the purchase of perscription drugs from Canada. Can ANYONE defend this policy?

 

[blue]

Can anyone defend free-market healthcare? Yeah...

 

[bigpedaler]

while i have mixed feelings about the ability to import scrips (+side:lower prices, -side,outsourcing jobs), the idea of regulating the drug industry in the US has one fatal flaw -- every other industry is the country that was once regulated -- telephone, railroad, air traffic, to name a few -- have all been unleashed, the opposite of what is being proposed in the reply above. i've never been a fan of deregulation, as i've seen over and over the poor effects of it. it was pushed by the industry itself, mostly by standing up and claiming either a supply crisis or impending bankruptcy. so to go back in the other direction is unrealistic (unfortunately). too many people would see it as the vanguard of dictatorship, and shoot it down through fear.

 

[bac]

while i have mixed feelings about the ability to import scrips (+side:lower prices, -side,outsourcing jobs), the idea of regulating the drug industry in the US has one fatal flaw --

This isn't about regulating the perscription drug industry. Again, my question is this:

This administration has greatly opposed the purchase of perscription drugs from Canada. Can ANYONE defend this policy?

 

[Slugman]

Greed in this country will never reach a saturation point.

Having been in the medical field for over 15 years now I can tell you it will only get worse.

I have not been involved in the pharmaceutical side other than to know it through contacts I have, and as a patient.

If they have the option of curing a disease versus creating a treatment... they will create a treatment. "When you create a cure, you lose a customer"... that was the saying at a sales meeting one year.

They care more about your money than your health, never forget that.

 

[BurlyShirley]

Greed in this country will never reach a saturation point.

Having been in the medical field for over 15 years now I can tell you it will only get worse.

I have not been involved in the pharmaceutical side other than to know it through contacts I have, and as a patient.

If they have the option of curing a disease versus creating a treatment... they will create a treatment. "When you create a cure, you lose a customer"... that was the saying at a sales meeting one year.

They care more about your money than your health, never forget that.

Are you serious? That is an actual saying? Ethics be damned I guess.

 

[MudGrrl]

Are you serious? That is an actual saying? Ethics be damned I guess.

well yeah... it's like the light bulb that lasted something like 80 years. The company made them, the customers bought them, and they didn't come back. Company suffered.

 

[BurlyShirley]

well yeah... it's like the light bulb that lasted something like 80 years. The company made them, the customers bought them, and they didn't come back. Company suffered.

Yeah, but light bulb manufacturers and you know, doctors and scientists of the medical variety are supposed to think about more than just profits.
People will start dying eventually no matter how many cures you give them, and will still need treatment and drugs to keep them in business. Seems shortsighted, heartless and obviously wrong to be able to cure people and not do it.

 

[Toshi]

well yeah... it's like the light bulb that lasted something like 80 years. The company made them, the customers bought them, and they didn't come back. Company suffered.

i hate to question folk wisdom, but source?

 

[Changleen]

I used to work for OSRAM (lightbulb manufacturer) back at university, and it is totally possible to build a conventional (or at least a halogen) bulb that would last practically forever under normal operating conditions. It's just a question of component and manufacturing quality. Obviously the companies don't do it for the reasons above.

 

[Toshi]

I used to work for OSRAM (lightbulb manufacturer) back at university, and it is totally possible to build a conventional (or at least a halogen) bulb that would last practically forever under normal operating conditions. It's just a question of component and manufacturing quality. Obviously the companies don't do it for the reasons above.

and how much would it cost? does it make sense to have lightbulbs that last longer than most buildings stay erect? there are many non-sinister reasons out there...

 

[Changleen]

The cost would probably be around 2-300% of the current costs, the main thing you have to do is use more and higher quality tungsten alloy for the filament, (known as 'over-rating', some bulbs do this already - filament quality is already pretty good but you know how these things go exponential) and increase the quality of the gas fill in the bulb, again a case of quality control and time.

 

[MudGrrl]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centennial_Light

http://www.centennialbulb.org/palace-trib.htm

 

[Toshi]

ok, thanks for pulling up those links. i remember that fire station bulb from mythbusters. however, the existence of a few really dim (4 watt!) bulbs that have lasted a long time doesn't universalize -- on mythbusters itself, iirc, the asian dude said as much, that the reason the bulb lasted so long was because the filament was uber-thick and because it burned so dim/cold.

 

[Westy]

Yeah, but light bulb manufacturers and you know, doctors and scientists of the medical variety are supposed to think about more than just profits.
People will start dying eventually no matter how many cures you give them, and will still need treatment and drugs to keep them in business. Seems shortsighted, heartless and obviously wrong to be able to cure people and not do it.

Doctors take oaths corporations take money.

 

[Silver]

Doctors take oaths corporations take money.

The best part is that a lot of drug company R&D is subsidized through the NIH and Universities with your tax money...

 

[N8 v2.0]

ok, thanks for pulling up those links. i remember that fire station bulb from mythbusters. however, the existence of a few really dim (4 watt!) bulbs that have lasted a long time doesn't universalize -- on mythbusters itself, iirc, the asian dude said as much, that the reason the bulb lasted so long was because the filament was uber-thick and because it burned so dim/cold.

not to mention highly inefficient ergo contributing to global warming

 

[rockwool]

Isn't the Bush family major stock holders of a pharmaceptical company? I've heard that before some where..

 

[ohio]

Isn't the Bush family major stock holders of a pharmaceptical company? I've heard that before some where..

Any family of significant wealth is going to have large holdings in Health/Pharm, Energy, and probably defense. This is the nature of having significant wealth; it is invested in a market made of corporations, not stuffed into a mattress.