Obama Declares War On Medical Innovation

I found this nifty little article today... (Sorry I dont have a link to share as you need a paid membership to view)

President Obama recently gave a speech outlining a framework for reducing the federal debt by $4 trillion over the next 12 years. There are many questions about the president’s budget plans.

But the most urgent one is: Why has he declared war on health-care innovation?

The president has made a number of proposals that could stop medical breakthroughs from happening in this country.

For starters, he wants to give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.

Both the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office and Medicare’s own actuaries have expressed doubt that the government has the ability to effectively negotiate lower drug prices in the program.

Left alone, Medicare’s prescription drug benefit, called Part D, employs market forces to give seniors more choices and drive down prices.

If the government steps in and starts negotiating, it would likely cause a shrinkage in the treatment options available to patients.

www.cmpi.org...

So you may ask how we know this will never work???

The Veterans Administration (VA) health-care plan negotiates drug prices directly. Its national formulary covers 59 percent of the 200 most popular drugs in the country. Medicare, meanwhile, covers 85 percent of those drugs, on average.

A study from Columbia University found that just 19 percent of all new drugs approved since 2000 were covered by the VA. And just 38 percent of drugs approved since 1990 were covered.

What’s happening is that VA negotiating tactics are driving out some drug providers from the program, leaving patients with fewer treatment options—and lower quality of care.

The president is also proposing to restrict intellectual property rights on brand name drugs to expedite the development of generics. This move would undermine pharmaceutical innovation...

Everyone hates these big drug companies but it that very lucrative carrot that drives new innovations... with out competition that drive dies on the vine...

Lasty we have this...

Obama is looking to strengthen the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB). Created by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, IPAB consists of 15 presidential appointees and is empowered to make cost-cutting recommendations for Medicare. The panel’s recommendations automatically become law without congressional action.

IPAB is basically a group of unelected bureaucrats with an immense amount of power. There’s already a major lawsuit, Coons v. Geithner, challenging the constitutionality of IPAB. Making IPAB stronger puts even more power in the hands of people that largely don’t have to answer to American public. That’s simply dangerous....

so what do you all think?

I think id like to buy my drugs from Canada at 2/3 of the price in the US.

reply to post by DaddyBare


Not sure this constitutes war on medical innovation although lifting a ban on stem cell research is just the opposite. Pushing drugs is pushing drugs and innovating is... well not that.

Combine the mans reported deeds with news of his frivolities and this Obama sounds to be either a highly-functioning schizophrenic or else he has a twin

Perhaps Obama is reading this site and listening to all the people who hate coporations. This is what happens when you take the "Elite" out of the game.

He has not declared war on a thing as this is TPTB trying to stifle innovation and growth so that only their people are allowed to have these cures and options available to only their people.

reply to post by DaddyBare

"For starters, he wants to give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.....................give seniors more choices and drive down prices."

What's wrong with that? Trying and lower the cost of medicine so more people can afford it is a bad thing?

What's scary about this story is that companies are actually willing to harm the American public by threatening to withold medication in order to punish the government for trying to make medication more affordable to the public. The fact that they're willing to put profit before people is what scares me.

Love it or hate it, but its a fact. Big Pharma will not invest their money in research nor in expensive processes to produce, test, and market new technologies if they don't have their patents protected for the time it takes them to recoup their research dollars. Pharma spends a lot of money developing many technologies, and finding only a few that work.

Many of the newest developments are complex molecular structures, that have to be produced and refined to create the 'left-handed isotopes'. Man-made, and some naturally occurring non-organic compounds may have both isotopes. Organic compounds are always one or the other, but not both. The structure of the molecule has to match the target to be effective (example - antibiotics that attach to receptors of cells have to have a distinct molecular structure, and many compounds made of symmetrical molecules have a 'right-handed' isotope and a 'left-handed' isotope - and only one will fit the intended molecular targets in the body).

I hate the expense. It is crippling to many that cannot afford them. But take the money away from Big Pharma, and development will be limited to government research controlled by political whim.

I don't think having all drug research in control of government is a better option.

Originally posted by lifeissacred
reply to post by DaddyBare

 

"For starters, he wants to give Medicare the power to negotiate drug prices.....................give seniors more choices and drive down prices."

What's wrong with that? Trying and lower the cost of medicine so more people can afford it is a bad thing?

What's scary about this story is that companies are actually willing to harm the American public by threatening to withold medication in order to punish the government for trying to make medication more affordable to the public. The fact that they're willing to put profit before people is what scares me.

Life,
The answer to that is simple as they want to continually charge hundreds of dollars for generic scrips which keeps people poor. Typical strongarm tactic that I've personally seen one too many times. Blame Big Pharm for the cost of scrips.