Kerry Faults Bush Over Opposition to Drugs From Canada
Hitting hard on an issue of deep concern to older voters, Senator John Kerry on Wednesday promised an overhaul of the Medicare prescription drug law, saying President Bush had personally “stood in the way” of importing drugs from Canada, which advocates say would significantly reduce costs.
“George Bush stood right there and said, ‘Nope, we’re not going to help people to have lower cost drugs in America, we’re going to help the big drug companies get a great big windfall,’ ” Mr. Kerry said.
He said of the president’s opposition to legislation to reimport American-made drugs from Canada, passed by the Senate: “I thought these were the people who believed in the marketplace, in fair competition. This isn’t fair competition, it’s a monopoly, and it’s been put in place by George Bush and his friends, and it’s costing you a whole bunch of extra money, and it’s wrong, it’s fundamentally wrong.”
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Republicans responded Wednesday with a strong condemnation not only of Mr. Kerry’s plans for importation and bulk purchasing of drugs, which they denounced as costly and unrealistic, but also of what they described as blatant and base politicking. Representative Bill Thomas of California, the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, told reporters that Mr. Kerry lied and “made up stories” about health care quagmires and “was AWOL through the entire process” of negotiating the drug plan.
So who is right? I have ranted about drug importation in the past. Some patients do benefit financially from importing drugs. Others really save little money.
As usual one must examine unintended consequences. What impact would a massive drug importation have on new drug development? One can easily claim that research will continue unabated, but perhaps not. As much as I love to criticize the pharmaceutical industry for their marketing practices, they are responsible for a plethora of new important drugs.
Would the pipeline slow if we import more Canadian drugs?
What impact would this policy have on Canada? How would the pharmaceutical industry retaliate against Canada? How would this effect Canadian citizens?
But neither party will engage in real debate concerning this issue. Our political process may ask tough questions, but rarely addresses the tough answers. Kerry will use this claim, as on the surface is “plays well in sound bites”. But we should think more carefully to understand his claim. I believe his argument good politics but suspect policy.
Anon
August 13th, 2004 / 10:47 am
Drug importation from Canada will never legally occur.
The Pharmaceutical industry is THE most powerful industry, whose lobbyists are in thick cahoots with the Bushies.
2. Any attemp to legalize importation will only cause the drug companies to severely cut back manufacture in Canada. In fact, they have already openly and directly threatened the Canadians on this.
3. A solution will never be forthcoming until the administration is accountable to the people, not Big Money. and these days, this is a bit to much to hope for in the good ol US of A.