6 September 2016
There’s a candidates forum on health care at FVCC tonight –
Will any candidate condemn price gouging on prescription drugs?
A good question. First, logistics. The forum begins at 1800 this evening in Room 139 of Flathead Valley Community College’s Arts and Technology Building. Attend if you can, and bring friends.
Now, about that price gouging. Even cautious, private insurance loving, Hillary Clinton thinks some drug prices are too high, and actually proposes doing something to bring them down:
Amid an uproar over the steep increase in the cost of the EpiPen, a lifesaving injection device for people with severe allergies, Hillary Clinton announced a plan on Friday to crack down on unwarranted rises in price for prescription drugs that have long been available.
As part of the plan, Mrs. Clinton would create a team of federal officials that would seek to protect consumers by monitoring price increases. The plan also lays out several actions that the government would be able to make in response to “excessive” rises in price, including taking steps to expand access to treatments and imposing penalties on drug companies, such as fines. (NY Times, 2 September 2016.)
For Clinton, and her kind of Democrats, that’s an aggressive proposal. But basically, it’s an exercise in jawboning that might temporarily stomp down some of the most egregious price gouging. Better than nothing? Sure. But not much better.
The only lasting solution is a national single-payer health care system in which drug prices are set by the government. Will any candidate be brave enough to utter that truth tonight? I hope so, but I’ll be dumbfounded if one does.
In the meantime, I hope candidates at the forum will remember two things:
- Outrageous as are Mylan’s prices for its EpiPen, the sky high price of insulin affects far more people on a day-to-day basis.
- You don’t need to be asked a question about price gouging to address the subject.