I just read an article put out by a major cable news network in the year 2004 taking the position that the doors would soon open for consumers and patients alike to order pharmaceuticals from America, with doctor’s prescription, online, as is done in many parts of the world outside of America. Now in the sixth year from that date, Congress is still meandering on this issue and sending proposed legislation from committee to committee… I suppose to determine how to tax or regulate for consumer safety. Does such a bill really take six years of planning? I am hoping that the FDA will regulate drug importation just as it does all imported foods because America makes its product too expensive. I am priced out by walk in pharmacies, and even insurance companies charge more than “black market” foreign supply.
The FDA must reduce allowable years of patent exclusivity enjoyed by drug companies so that Americans can afford the generic price. As the system exists now, Americans are being forced through poverty to import drugs against the rules set by the FDA. That amounts to entrapment. The FDA’s job is not to figure out how to tax, rather to protect the American consumer from unsafe and/or overpriced drugs. Ralph Nader, you’re with me on this aren’t you?
One hour into my work day in several hours, the president will host a health summit. Pass the bills that make sense for the consumer. Obviously it’s pointless for a consumer to be mandated to pay for an insurance plan that doesn’t even reduce medicine cost or pay for a doctor. So let’s start with that and put the FDA to work for the consumer again. Does the government really want to prosecute the millions of people who currently use the black market for pharmaceuticals? I hope it’s more interested in providing for safe and reasonably priced drug purchases. That would not be a poor time investment.