by William Clark II

Created on: June 14, 2007

Begrudgingly, I write in favor of patients paying the cost for new drugs, because no matter what, we will have to,either by directly paying out of pocket,paying higher insurance premiums,or by paying higher taxes. The Pharmaceutical Industry is large,powerful and know that our very lives depend on them. Because of this,they have no incentive to lower the cost of new medications, nor will they unless compelled to.

If the government stepped up to the industry, and demanded that they stop inflating the price of drugs, and enforced fair price control, we would all benefit. First off you need not worry that the pharmaceutical company would stop making new drugs, or continue to research new and better ones, because the very nature of capitalism would ensure that someone else would fulfill the demand. Thus breaking the monopoly of the conglomerate's and opening the door to smaller companies that would be more cost efficient.

Once a monopoly is broken, the larger corporations are forced to become competitive,meaning they would have to lower their prices to retain customers and revenue. Just as any other industry does, and would have to keep on producing quality products.

By breaking the monopoly, the United States citizens could pay far less in their prescriptions each month, regardless of lack of insurance,or whether you have Medicare or Medicaid, and it would actually make insurance and government subsidized premiums lower, thus saving everyone money.

This would not be an easy task to do, because it would take a lot of pressure being put on our government to even make this feasible. With so many politicians being dependent on Pharmaceutical money to fuel their campaigns, they have a vested interest in keeping things just how they are, and the legion of lobbyist that work for the Pharma's. help ensure that their industries interest are being catered to.

Without the intent of sounding condescending towards other nations in any way,what so ever. The reason why most other Industrialized Countries can afford to pay all or part of their citizens pharmaceutical care is because the American people, have already paid for the research,development,advertising and manufacturing of the drug. From then on out the manufacturer can then sell to other countries at a substantially reduced rate. Couple that with governments that are not "In bed." with the industry, and so set a price control,in which they negotiate the price from the manufacturer,in order to receive a fairer price for

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