While reading today's St. Petersburg Times' business shorts section I couldn't help but notice that two of the business bits went really well together. Apparently US workers' health care costs are rising at the same time pharmaceutical companies are being accused by pharmacies of inflating prices more than their actual market value. The pharmacies plan to sue, so find out where you can sign those friend of court briefs now if you agree that pharmaceutical companies are inflating prices, and I suspect they are. Check this snippet from my morning reading:

WORKERS' HEALTH COSTS TO RISE: Employers are facing continued double-digit increases in health care costs in 2005 and likely will require their workers to pay an even greater share of the bill, according to a new survey of more than 900 firms. The survey, released Thursday by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, found that employers expect health care costs to rise 12.9 percent on average next year if they leave benefits unchanged. But companies that participated in the survey, both those that buy insurance and firms that are self-insured, are only budgeting an average increase of 9.6 percent in their health care spending.

Oh, and check this one, too:

PHARMACIES SUE DRUGMAKERS: Nineteen California pharmacies sued the world's largest pharmaceutical companies Thursday in state court in Oakland, accusing them of conspiring to inflate U.S. drug prices. The pharmacies accuse the 15 drugmakers of inflating U.S. prices while barring pharmacies from buying the drugs for less outside the country. "We are being charged higher prices than foreigners are being charged," said Joseph Alioto, attorney for the pharmacies.

It's easy to abuse the process of supply and demand when you have a product that people's lives depend on, isn't it big pharma? Perhaps the NIH should conduct research to find other solutions to human health problems, other than the ones proposed by pharmaceutical companies. Alternative medicine and alternative health care are already growing industries, eating away at big pharma's bottom line. Continued abuse of its customers by what appears to be blatant price gouging will further drive down profits for pharmaceutical companies, which are already greatly distrusted and disliked by the public for making medicine so expensive.

When people have to choose between paying their health care bills and paying their mortgage on the home they just bought, health care costs are definitely too high, and many Americans, unfortunately, face this delimma. Big pharma, take a chill pill and lower your prices so people can get the medicine they need to live safe and healthy lives.

-John Mudd
"Mr. Real Estate"