Author Topic: “Cold” Medicine: Canadian Drug Imports Will Cost Americans  (Read 637 times)

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Offline Hoodat

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“Cold” Medicine: Canadian Drug Imports Will Cost Americans
The solution to drug prices is ending freeriding, not buying Canadian.
Mackenzie Bettle     |     November 22, 2019


In the hopes of lowering the cost of prescription drugs for Americans, the Trump Administration announced plans in late July to draft a proposal for the importation and sale of prescription drugs from Canada. The announcement was overshadowed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s drug pricing bill and the bipartisan package before the Senate in September—but is a cause for concern, nonetheless. A dozen states, Congress—even the Trump Administration, despite initial opposition—are now considering such legislation.

If “buy-Canadian” doesn’t sound like a policy consistent with Trump’s platform of putting Americans first, that’s because it isn’t. Importing drugs from Canada is an ineffectual and counterproductive policy. President Trump had it right the first time. The prohibitive drug prices that Americans deal with are not solely caused by pharmaceutical companies; they are primarily the product of a failure of government policy.

Instead of artificial fixes, the Trump Administration should directly address the global freeloading and regulatory glut that’s costing Americans—both in dollars and lives.  .  .  .

https://humanevents.com/2019/11/22/cold-medicine-canadian-drug-imports-will-cost-americans/



Very informative.  As a general rule, anything government gets involved with turns to crap.  This explains how much government has messed up the pharmaceutical free market.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

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Offline Hoodat

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Re: “Cold” Medicine: Canadian Drug Imports Will Cost Americans
« Reply #1 on: December 02, 2019, 11:33:54 pm »
BUY-CANADIAN IS A DOOMED OPTION

As the Trump Administration takes on the issue of drug prices, they should pay close attention to a recent report by the Healthcare Distribution Alliance (HDA) detailing the disastrous implications of a “buy-Canadian” policy. Implementation of a “buy-Canadian” policy would present innumerable regulatory hurdles, costing us $1.1 billion to implement the required federal oversight alone. Even still, these drugs would likely fail to meet essential federal safety and quality standards. “It is clear that the risks and costs of prescription drug importation may outweigh any perceived benefits,” the HDA concludes.

On top of that, legislating the coordinated importation of medicine for an entire nation is very different from individuals intermittently crossing the border to make their own purchases. Canada has a population of roughly 37.7 million—less than California. It’s little surprise then that Canada perceives this move by the Trump Administration as a “clear and present danger” to their already-overburdened healthcare system.

Canada is already unable to maintain an adequate supply of medicine to meet the demands of their own citizens. If even half of America’s elderly population began purchasing their prescriptions from Canada, their supply of essential drugs would rapidly deplete within a couple months.

Moreover, drug companies who depend on U.S. sales profits are likely to notice that medicine sold to Canada is being rerouted and may threaten to end or condition sales on the drugs not being exported to the U.S. This casts substantial doubt on the purported benefits to importation, while the consequences would be formidable.

Economically speaking, there is little difference between price controls and drug importation. Just as wage laws control the price of labor, importing drugs is the government artificially lowering the cost of drugs below the market’s naturally occurring equilibrium price. And an artificially created price ceiling will inevitably create an excess in demand and a shortage in supply.
If a political party does not have its foundation in the determination to advance a cause that is right and that is moral, then it is not a political party; it is merely a conspiracy to seize power.

-Dwight Eisenhower-


"The [U.S.] Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals ... it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government ... it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizen's protection against the government."

-Ayn Rand-

Online bigheadfred

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Re: “Cold” Medicine: Canadian Drug Imports Will Cost Americans
« Reply #2 on: December 02, 2019, 11:56:02 pm »
No worries. The Chinese will take up the slack.
She asked me name my foe then. I said the need within some men to fight and kill their brothers without thought of Love or God. Ken Hensley