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Liberals dare Trump to back their bills lowering drug prices

TU Curmudgeon

B.A. (Sarc), LLb. (Lex Sarcasus), PhD (Sarc.)
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From Associated Press

Liberals dare Trump to back their bills lowering drug prices

WASHINGTON (AP) — Challenging President Donald Trump to make good on his pledge to cut prescription drug prices, congressional liberals proposed legislation Thursday to bring U.S. prices in line with the much lower costs in other countries.

The Democratic bills stand little chance of becoming law in a divided government. But the effort could put Republicans on the defensive by echoing Trump’s pledge to force drugmakers to cut prices.

Democrats and Trump agree that people in the United States shouldn’t have to pay more for their medications than do those in other economically advanced countries.

The Trump administration has put forward its own plan for reducing drug prices, but industry analysts have seen little impact so far. The pharmaceutical industry said the Democratic bills would “wreak havoc on the U.S. health care system.”

COMMENT:-

This is obviously just more cheap showboating.

After all, how could the Democrats possibly expect the Republicans to support something that they said they supported and which Mr. Trump said he was going to do?

The Republicans would be quite correct to totally reject this proposal to institute **C*O*M*M*U*N*I*S*M** in the United States of America.

Right?
 
From Associated Press

Liberals dare Trump to back their bills lowering drug prices

WASHINGTON (AP) — Challenging President Donald Trump to make good on his pledge to cut prescription drug prices, congressional liberals proposed legislation Thursday to bring U.S. prices in line with the much lower costs in other countries.

The Democratic bills stand little chance of becoming law in a divided government. But the effort could put Republicans on the defensive by echoing Trump’s pledge to force drugmakers to cut prices.

Democrats and Trump agree that people in the United States shouldn’t have to pay more for their medications than do those in other economically advanced countries.

The Trump administration has put forward its own plan for reducing drug prices, but industry analysts have seen little impact so far. The pharmaceutical industry said the Democratic bills would “wreak havoc on the U.S. health care system.”

COMMENT:-

This is obviously just more cheap showboating.

After all, how could the Democrats possibly expect the Republicans to support something that they said they supported and which Mr. Trump said he was going to do?

The Republicans would be quite correct to totally reject this proposal to institute **C*O*M*M*U*N*I*S*M** in the United States of America.

Right?

More like Marxism but OK
 
Oh no! If medication prices didn't balloon out of control, you'd have more people able to afford them! :roll:

But as we saw in the Obamacare fight, we absolutely cannot have that. Far better to have an ultrarich elite telling the rest of us what basic components of civil society we should and should not have. /s
 
From The Hill:



Democrats aren't going to vote for this.

Knowing that the bill doesn't have a chance of even coming to a vote in the Senate, much less of being passed by the Senate if it did come to a vote in the Senate, and even more much less being signed by Mr. Trump if it was passed by the Senate, I don't see why they wouldn't.

After all, "We voted to keep medication costs down. The Republicans voted to preserve the profits of Big Pharma." makes for great campaigning.

"We voted to keep medication costs down, and the Republicans agreed with us - BUT Trump vetoed it so that the profits of Big Pharma would be preserved" works pretty well too.
 
Oh no! If medication prices didn't balloon out of control, you'd have more people able to afford them! :roll:

Medication prices are NOT ballooning OUT OF CONTROL, the drug manufacturers are in complete control of the increases.
 
Knowing that the bill doesn't have a chance of even coming to a vote in the Senate, much less of being passed by the Senate if it did come to a vote in the Senate, and even more much less being signed by Mr. Trump if it was passed by the Senate, I don't see why they wouldn't.

After all, "We voted to keep medication costs down. The Republicans voted to preserve the profits of Big Pharma." makes for great campaigning.

"We voted to keep medication costs down, and the Republicans agreed with us - BUT Trump vetoed it so that the profits of Big Pharma would be preserved" works pretty well too.

Because Canada's testing criteria is lower than that of The United States. Voting for this bill would be an outright rebuke of the FDA. Every pharmacuetical company in the country would move to Canada, taking those jobs with them.
 
More like Marxism but OK

Two of those proposals are things Trump explicitly campaigned on (reimportation and Medicare negotiation). The other creates a new generics market for expensive drugs.
 
Two of those proposals are things Trump explicitly campaigned on (reimportation and Medicare negotiation). The other creates a new generics market for expensive drugs.

It wasn't Marxism until the dems touched it.
 
Medication prices are NOT ballooning OUT OF CONTROL, the drug manufacturers are in complete control of the increases.

Riiiiight, unregulated capitalism is the best way to control health care costs. Tell me, TU, why is it that the US has such higher medication costs than most other industrialized nations?
 
Because Canada's testing criteria is lower than that of The United States.

Thank you for your input.

Now, with specific reference to Canada's Food and Drugs Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. F-27), Canada's Food and Drug Regulations (C.R.C., c. 870), and the Canadian Service Standards for Drug Submission Evaluations (Pharmaceuticals and Biologic Products) under the Food and Drug Regulations - Health Canada please point out where the lower testing criteria are.

Please note, if you are unable or unwilling to do so, I will rate the appropriate level of respect and consideration that your reply deserves accordingly.

Voting for this bill would be an outright rebuke of the FDA. Every pharmacuetical company in the country would move to Canada, taking those jobs with them.

The last time I looked into the matter, the FDA did NOT set the retail prices of pharmaceuticals in the US.

Am I wrong?

PS - You do realize that the regulations would apply to imported medications as well, don't you?

PPS - Is what you are really trying to tell me that the American drug manufacturers will do ANYTHING in order to keep their profit margins as high as they are - regardless of what effect that has on the average American?
 
Riiiiight, unregulated capitalism is the best way to control health care costs. Tell me, TU, why is it that the US has such higher medication costs than most other industrialized nations?

Because the US companies can charge whatever they feel like charging (which is not, in and of itself, a bad thing) and because the laws of the United States of America prevent the largest purchaser of medications in the US from actually bargaining effectively with the drug companies over medication prices.

BC has a "Pharmacare" program under which the absolute maximum that a FAMILY has to pay in medication costs in one year is $10,000 and to reach that level the FAMILY has to have a taxable income of around $300,000. If the family income is $30,000 or less, then the FAMILY maximum is $0.00. You can check to see what your family would pay HERE.

Of course, that only refers to the drugs that are on the "approved list" (primarily generics) but the BC government manages to negotiate quite a good price for those drugs since it is (in effect) the major purchaser of about 99% of them and if it isn't buying your product then (essentially) no one is.

In this case the "supply" in "supply and demand" is market and that lets the supplier "demand" a square deal.

Oh yes, and another reason is that the drug companies tell you that they have to charge so much because they have to make up for the lower prices that other customers are paying. Since none of those drug companies are actually selling the drugs BELOW cost, what is being "made up" is the profits that the drug companies could have made if their other customers were willing to pay more.


By analogy, if it costs me $10.00 to put a meal on the table of my restaurant, and I want to make $10.00 on each meal that I put on the table of my restaurant, I have to charge everyone $20.00 per mean. That much is obvious.

But if I charge the first two people who come in only $10.00 then I'm going to have to charge the third person $40.00, aren't I?
 
Because Canada's testing criteria is lower than that of The United States. Voting for this bill would be an outright rebuke of the FDA. Every pharmacuetical company in the country would move to Canada, taking those jobs with them.

Where did you get the idea that they'd allow non-FDA approved drugs to be imported for medical use?
 
Where did you get the idea that they'd allow non-FDA approved drugs to be imported for medical use?

If they import drugs from Canada, the drugs will not be FDA approved.

If the drugs that are imported from Canada have to receive FDA approval before hitting the US market, you can forget about the drugs being cheaper than domestically produced drugs.
 
Thank you for your input.

Now, with specific reference to Canada's Food and Drugs Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. F-27), Canada's Food and Drug Regulations (C.R.C., c. 870), and the Canadian Service Standards for Drug Submission Evaluations (Pharmaceuticals and Biologic Products) under the Food and Drug Regulations - Health Canada please point out where the lower testing criteria are.

Please note, if you are unable or unwilling to do so, I will rate the appropriate level of respect and consideration that your reply deserves accordingly.



The last time I looked into the matter, the FDA did NOT set the retail prices of pharmaceuticals in the US.

Am I wrong?

PS - You do realize that the regulations would apply to imported medications as well, don't you?

PPS - Is what you are really trying to tell me that the American drug manufacturers will do ANYTHING in order to keep their profit margins as high as they are - regardless of what effect that has on the average American?

The cost of getting approval sets the retail price.

I know this will sound crazy in your little communist mind, but pharmacuetical companies are in business to make a profit.
 
Knowing that the bill doesn't have a chance of even coming to a vote in the Senate, much less of being passed by the Senate if it did come to a vote in the Senate, and even more much less being signed by Mr. Trump if it was passed by the Senate, I don't see why they wouldn't.

After all, "We voted to keep medication costs down. The Republicans voted to preserve the profits of Big Pharma." makes for great campaigning.

"We voted to keep medication costs down, and the Republicans agreed with us - BUT Trump vetoed it so that the profits of Big Pharma would be preserved" works pretty well too.

One of the interesting things being in NJ is the insight I've gotten from the people whom I've met in the pharmaceutical industry. This industry is pretty much untouchable in the state because they're such a massive presence and influence. Democratic senators in the state talk tough, but don't act on it when they have to.
 
If they import drugs from Canada, the drugs will not be FDA approved.

If the drugs that are imported from Canada have to receive FDA approval before hitting the US market, you can forget about the drugs being cheaper than domestically produced drugs.

You are under the impression that this is a separate class of drugs that have never been in the US. That’s your source of confusion.
 
You are under the impression that this is a separate class of drugs that have never been in the US. That’s your source of confusion.

Link?
 
Knowing that the bill doesn't have a chance of even coming to a vote in the Senate, much less of being passed by the Senate if it did come to a vote in the Senate, and even more much less being signed by Mr. Trump if it was passed by the Senate, I don't see why they wouldn't.

After all, "We voted to keep medication costs down. The Republicans voted to preserve the profits of Big Pharma." makes for great campaigning.

"We voted to keep medication costs down, and the Republicans agreed with us - BUT Trump vetoed it so that the profits of Big Pharma would be preserved" works pretty well too.


You seem to approve of that kind of political bull**** game playing. Do you? I mean as long as it's your side doing it?
 
Drug makers don’t price at cost.

Of course, they don't - no (for profit) business does that. Few non-profits do that or they could not grow. The sad fact is that it takes low friends in high places (government cooperation) to maintain truly obscene levels of profit and limit competition.
 
The Democrats do not have a good track record of lowering costs on anything. After you add the red tape and the increased size of Government to push the red tape the cost savings are gone. Remember the affordable care act. It had a title that sounded like it was going to be cost effective; used car salesmen. But in reality it was anything but affordable.

Democrats leaders are clueless when it comes to being cost effective. Name me one thing that the Democrats proposed that actually saved the tax payer money? This bill will go nowhere since it was written by two faced politicians who would use a new government agency to shake down big Pharm, for even more campaign donations.

Pharmaceutical companies, physicians and health professionals are the largest source of federal campaign contributions in this sector. During the 2018 election cycle, members of this industry gave $225 million to federal candidates, outside money groups and parties. Health care professionals make the most contributions to individual candidates, PACs and outside spending groups. In general, donors from this sector tend to support Democrats rather than Republicans. So far, in 2018, Democratic federal candidates and incumbents have received $63 million from this industry, while Republicans have received $49 million.

Trump should say he will sign the bill, if the Democrats make a pledge not to take any donations from big Pharm. If they renege, they agree to resign in disgrace, or else be thrown in jail until they pay it back.

Obama Care was so complex because it is designed like a treasure map for lobbyists. Their drug proposal has the same design.
 
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