Unintended Consequences

Radio morning news made me chuckle while driving to work. The genius in charge of health care in our government decided that costs needed to be cut by reducing people’s expenses on drugs. So they issued a directive which forced drug companies to lower the prices of all drugs that were available for more than 15 years. And another directive which made large packages of drugs more expensive than smaller ones.

The thinking was, people would buy the cheaper (older) drugs and also smaller packages, thus reducing waste as well.

Predictably, market forces came into play: drug manufacturers, seeing they would have to sell the older drugs at a loss, simply replaced them with newer, more expensive ones. The old drugs were simply discontinued. And doctors just kept on prescribing large packets to their patients, because they needed them.

The result: even higher expenses overall, no efficiency gained… That’s what happens when you mess with a free market.

Oh, I don’t know about that. My family practioner pays $150 grand a year in malpractice insurance. That means, of course, I’m paying for that in my fees. His student pays $100 grand.

The other result this is going to have is that the limited supply of drugs that goes to Canada will all end up in America where they can get a higher price, leaving shortages for Canadians. Either way I think this will end up causing Canada more problmes than America, Canada will probably put a stop to this procatice themselves when it starts hurting them, which basic supply and demand says it will.]

The real result of these price controls that many of these countries have imposed is (tell me again children of the Chicago school, what happens when governments control the price of something?) that their citizens get less drugs. I’ve seen several studies that show that Canada, Germany etc,. have access to less than half of the drugs that we have in America, at any price. Germany has about killed it’s once thriving pharm. industry.

I say re-import away, the Canadian government will eventually stop it anyway.

Welcome! Great first post.

Sandy P,

Hilarious.

I am tired of subsidising our enemies militarily and medically.

I’d also like to see RN’s and PA’s given more responsibility, freeing up doctors for oversight and more demanding work. Why can’t an RN or PA apply stitches? Why can’t they prescribe common drugs? Isn’t it an incredible waste of a college education?