Blog#83-9/24/21
WE ARE PAWNS IN A DEADLY GAME
By
Richard Davis
The American people have become pawns in a deadly game being played between the pharmaceutical industry and Washington politicians. This should not be news to anyone who has to pay for prescription drugs, especially those who struggle with medications such as insulin and other life-sustaining drugs that they have to ration in order to pay all their other bills.
News of this horrific situation is surfacing again because there are a few legislative initiatives in Washington aimed at lowering U.S. prescription drug prices. Our drug prices are the highest in the world because we do not allow negotiation for prices with the drug manufacturers.
According to the Center for American Progress, “Legislation such as H.R. 3—the Lower Drug Costs Now Act—would allow the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate prices directly with drug companies to the cost of drugs. The bill ensures that both Medicare enrollees and privately insured patients will benefit from these prices, and it establishes an upper limit of 120 percent of the drug’s average price in several peer nations if drug companies refuse to come to the negotiating table.”
There is also a provision in the multi-trillion dollar Biden bill that would lower the cost of prescription drugs. This is proving contentious among some moderate Democrats who rely on the pharmaceutical industry for major campaign donations. These holdouts could scuttle the entire bill and they want the drug-lowering piece removed. Sadly, they and the pharmaceutical industry may get their way once again.
There are many politicians, such as Senator Bernie Sanders who are outing the pharmaceutical industry and the politicians in the pockets of the drug industry. In a recent press release Sanders said, “…the greed of the prescription drug industry is literally killing Americans. While millions cannot afford the outrageous price of prescription drugs, pharmaceutical companies are making obscene profits and paying their executives exorbitant compensation packages. ….over the past 20 years they (the pharmaceutical industry) have spent over $4.5 billion on lobbying and hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions. They employ nearly 1500 lobbyists in Washington D.C. alone- including former congressional leaders in both major political parties.”
I have been writing about prescription drug prices for years and the only thing that changes is that drugs become more and more expensive. It is also worth noting that as the big boys make more and more money they continue to find ways to squeeze profits out of the small local pharmacies that are important to the fabric of many small communities.
Stop by a locally owned pharmacy and ask the owner to tell what they have to deal with in order to stay in business. It is not a pretty picture. But this is an issue for another day.
Are the American people powerless in the fight against the pharmaceutical industry? What would it take for the price-lowering pieces of legislation to pass? There is no easy answer because this issue gets to the rotten core of the American political system. Short of a people’s revolution in the streets over high drug prices, the only thing that would change the system would be to ban large donors from influencing the political process and that is not going to happen in many lifetimes to come.
