Federal Hypocrisy Over EpiPen: A Tale of Pot and Kettle

 

Aphorisms like "the pot calling the kettle black" persist because they keep being proven relevant. Such is the case with politicians' outrage over Mylan Pharmaceuticals' price gouging for its life-saving EpiPen: their price has risen from less than $100 for a two-pack in 2007 to $600 today.

The government ("pot") is loudly and very publicly calling Mylan ("the kettle") "black"-at fault-for something the government itself did.

The solution to the exorbitant price of EpiPen is not public shaming, such as claiming that Mylan is "just the latest troubling example of a company taking advantage of its consumers." The solution is not Mylan's proposed coupon program or its introduction of a "generic." Most definitely, the solution is not more government controls through regulation.

The answer lies in releasing market forces from government suppression. If government bureaucratic barriers were eliminated, sellers could compete, and the supply of goods would increase. If the government were not the third party payer for health care, that is, if consumers controlled their healthcare dollars, spending would drop. Prices would plummet from these market forces.

Read more...

Visit “Fixing US Healthcare” for more Info!! 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Will 2020 Americans Celebrate the Fourth of July by Repudiating 1776?

Image
  Before the American Revolutionary War, residents of the North American colonies were subjects of the British crown. They were entitled to whatever goods and services the aristocracy allowed. Their living conditions and daily activities were determined by government fiat. They paid taxes arbitrarily imposed by the crown.? In 1776, the founding fathers of the U.S.A. rejected centralized dominion and replaced it with a structure that took control away from the central government and gave it to the individual. The new Americans were free to make their own choices and accept the consequences of their decisions, good or bad. Without using the word capitalism, the founding fathers created a capitalist system. The new Americans were personally responsible and were entitled to nothing, except an open road. Entitlement is an integral part of socialism, an economic and political system where the means of production, distribution, and exchange is regulated by the government. The government i...
Read more

More coverage doesn't necessarily translate into better patient care

Image
Everyone believes that the purpose of a healthcare system is to get the right care on time to the most people, and everyone is right. Where common wisdom goes astray is the presumption that coverage equals care. Most people think that having health insurance guarantees getting healthcare, i.e., 1. Those who have coverage will get care, and 2. those who don’t have coverage won’t get care. Both statements are wrong. Ever since EMTALA (Emergency Medical Transport and Labor Act) was passed in 1986, U.S. hospitals have cared for millions of sick Americans who have no insurance. Care is provided to those with no coverage at all. Between Medicaid, Medicare, and other public programs, the federal government is by far the largest single U.S. insurer, covering 120 million Americans. Washington has given people the expectation of receiving care when and where they need it. But coverage does not lead to that happy result. In fact, as no-charge coverage has increased, care has gone down...
Read more

CoViD-19 Cost/Benefit Analysis Concludes: Let My People Go

Image
When the CoViD-19 (Corona Virus Disease, 2019) first broke out, there was little-to-no data. Without factual evidence, medical advisers had to depend on mathematical models such as the  MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis  from the Imperial College in London. With an estimate of more than 2 million American deaths, a draconian response was instituted with a nearly-complete cessation of social and commercial interactions. Most people are now functioning under a lock-down, travel ban, and infringement on civil liberties analogous to martial law. With five months data since the virus was identified in Wuhan, and with the entire globe focused on one subject only, there are now reams of data on CoViD-19, from its genome to its behavior and clinical consequences as well as daily reports of infected cases and deaths. With volumes of evidence now available, it is time to reconsider what we are doing. A cost/benefit analysis can help advise whether we should stay t...
Read more