Someone called me today about the below-posted letter to the editor I wrote to the St. Petersburg Times and was published on Friday. They tracked me down, based on my address below the letter, so they could find out how they, too, could save from buying their pharmaceuticals overseas. Interested parties should note the websites below the published letter.
Drug companies really should look out for the best interests of Americans' health, as should health insurance companies, rather than fattening their pockets by gouging consumers. I know, I know, you probably can't believe a Republican said that. Here's the letter that was published in the Times:
Dear Editor:
In your recent article, "In drugmakers' defense, spokesman stays busy" Jeffrey Trewhitt lies quite a bit in order to protect the big, bureaucratic drug companies he represents.
The first lie is that drugs ordered from other countries or from overseas are unsafe. This is hard to believe, considering that they're the same drugs sold here in the U.S., only their names are often different for marketing purposes.
Take, for example, Flonase, or Flixonase, which is what they call it in New Zealand, where I order it for around $50 for a three month supply. A one month supply costs well-over $100 here in the U.S.
Or, take Claritin, for example, which you can order 60 caplets from Canada Pharmacy for around $50, but the same amount would cost well over $100 here in the U.S.
You can also purchase insulin at a slightly lower price, but it's no different than what is sold here in the U.S.
The global economy does present challenges to pricing products for sale within our borders, due to the deflation it creates, however, the same companies that pushed for globalism and free trade are now calling for protection from the federal government so they can gauge consumers who aren't perfectly healthy and need these pharmaceuticals to stay healthy, and in some cases, stay alive, so they can make massive profits.
I would think that after Sept. 11 American companies would have become more compassionate, however, drug companies obviously seek to financially hurt consumers in order to make posh profits from overly priced medical care products that are a necessity for Americans to live a normal, healthy life.
Article comments
1 - Joe
I read an interesting look at the other side of the coin here.
2 - John Mudd
Actually, the article makes perfect sense, but if you read a little bit more on the issue, you will discover that U.S. consumers are paying above market value so pharmaceutical companies can conduct more research (and create more drugs), while Canadian and European consumers are buying at discounts. Pharmaceutical companies created a pricing system, or went along with price controls, to play in the old market, which was national. Now that the market is global and consumers can access the global market via the Internet from anywhere in the world, pharmaceutical companies will have to do something other than introduce protectionist policies in order to survive.
What will eventually occur is a truly global market, likely backed by a single currency, since that is the only thing that could possibly solve every company's problem that is suffering due to the deflation and unemployment created by globalism.
The truly global market may not occur anytime soon, but high unemployment (i.e., the jobless recovery) will probably create a popularity for it that may not have existed at any other time.
By the way, I didn't ever propose price controls. I simply proposed going where a good is cheaper, just as someone may buy at Wal-Mart, rather than a K-Mart.
Nationalized healthcare could also be a solution to solve prescription drug companies' problems, because then Washington would subsidize the prices, just as they do for corn, etc., but I'm not sure if nationalized health care is the best thing for the economy, but it surely has to be better than price controls.
We'll see what happens, I guess.
Cheers.
3 - Doc
The pharmaceutical's claims that the cost is due to research is pure red herring.
They spend MUCH more on advertising, perks/kickbacks for physicians, and lobbying politicians to keep their profits so high.
Let's not forget how much of that research is paid for by OUR taxes through work conducted at the facilities but also at universities and other institutes.
But now with the crackdown on reimporting drugs to the US, looks like their political purchases were well placed by the drug companies.
4 - Mavrik
I was recently made aware that the markup WE pay on OUR OWN drugs as Americans is 7,000 percent. That's right, not 700, 7,000!! Canada, by contrast buys our drugs at about 70 percent markup. Although they make a nice profit selling them back to us, at least it saves US a little money. What choice do we have! I also agree with the comment of R&D being a red herring. Anyone that pays attention can see where there the money is spent. Speaking of lobbying, one article I just read indicated that they have about 7 lobbyists PER congressman! Capitalism is great, but I agree that they should feel a little shameful. If their main concern is R&D, why do they spend so much money and effort pushing copycat drugs!! Isn't that a contradiction of intentions? How dare they try to stop us from buying outside the border! And that's that.
5 - John Mudd
7,000 percent is pretty high. I wonder what pharma companies do with all the money they make. I've never seen any news stories showing us what each individual company does with their money.
If one company could show that it pours most of it's money back into research, it would surely gain favor over all the others who poured their money into Congressional campaign coffers to gain protectionist policies from the government.
Pharmaceutical companies, though, shouldn't be able to sell their products to other countries if Congress has banned Americans from purchasing them from those countries. If they're not safe for Americans, as pharma companies say, then their own products sold to those countries can't be safe, either. If their products aren't being kept safe in those countries, Congress would only be doing them a favor by banning their ability to export to them, right? It would be the countries who are making the product unsafe, not the pharmaceutical companies, right?
Of course, the reality is that they're just as safe, if not safer. Does anyone remember the Tylenol scare in the 80s? That happened here, not in another country.
Health care companies have a patriotic duty to ensure that Americans' health needs are taken care of, and that means Americans must be able to afford them, so they can attain them. That means its more patriotic for them to allow them to purchase their medication overseas if it is the only way for them to afford attaining it.
It is time for the industry to do what is right for America, not what is right to pay their top executives exorbitantly high salaries, excluding millions of Americans from the care that they need.
Cheers.
6 - John Mudd
One more thing, ever since that letter was published in the Times, I've had senior citizens track down my phone number and call me to find out how they can order their pharmaceutical products from overseas.
Gov. Jeb Bush just shut down local distribution companies that allowed them to get their pharmaceuticals cheaper from overseas.
If the state's going to shut down ways for Americans and Floridians to get their medicines cheaper, then the state should be paying for ALL of their medicine.
I'm a Republican. I can't believe I just said that, however, a true Republican would recognize that IN A GLOBAL ECONOMY THEIR IS GLOBAL COMPETITION AND ONLY THE FITTEST IN THE WORLD SURVIVE - unless the state pays for everyone's medication, which I would support, if the state is going to shut down the only affordable way people had to get it.
Senior citizens and AARP will probably eventually band together and form a class action lawsuit against pharma companies and the state, since it's obvious that quite a few seniors can't afford to buy their medicine after that action taken by the state was taken.
Why's the state favoring big business over senior citizens? That's something that many seniors I talk to wonder about.
Pharma companies and the PR firms helping them are just plain stupid. Everyone can see through their spin, and public opinion is bound to increase against them over time, if they continue the madness in their current methods.
Cheers.