moksha wrote:bcspace wrote:Another example, due to socialized systems around the world, the US citizen bears more and more of the brunt for the cost of drug research.
You mean they contribute more profit to the Pharmecutical Corporation's coffers, while the patients of the socialized sytems are insulated from this price gouging.
Yup, that's right. But then what do the pharma companies do with said profits? They invest it to come up with new medicines, technologies, etc. so that they can make more money. However, their profit motive generally results in improving the quality of the patients lives. The rest of the world is mooching off of us. If we join them, the pace of improvements in the medical field will dramatically decrease.
The biggest problem with medicine today is medicare. A friend of mine came up with an improved medical device that would greatly reduce the cost to the consumer. He tried to sell the idea to a medical device company and the CEO rejected it because he does not want anything that reduces the cost. Why? Because Medicare will pay a percentage of the cost of a device. If he improves the device so that it costs less, he will make less money. He is getting the same percentage, but it is now for a smaller dollar amount (i.e.., 10% of $100 is more than 10% of $20).
The government has screwed up the incentives in the market. If the market was allowed to work, this new product would immediately hit the market because the improvement would allow this person to make more money while still charging the consumer less. Eventually this companies competitors would join in and drive the cost down until a new improvement came along that dramatically reduced the price again.
Government IS the problem, not the solution.
