By Daniel Hines
Publisher, RxforAmericanHealth
There is an old story about why an
Ostrich sticks its head in the sand. It is said that since it can’t see
anyone, he thinks no one can see him.
Now, the Republican Party Platform
Committee has exhibited Ostrich-like behavior in its Healthcare plank, not even
mentioning the cost of prescription medicines as an issue that demands
immediate attention from elected officials except to claim that Obamacare is
the cause, claiming that Obamacare “… through mandated price cuts for drugs under Medicare and Medicaid, forced pharmaceutical companies to raise
prices for everyone else. Its “silver plans,” the most common option on the
government insurance exchanges, limit people’s access to their own doctor
through narrow networks and restrict
drug coverage, forcing many patients to pay for extremely costly medicines for
their chronic diseases…”
This is an insult to the millions of
Americans who can’t afford their medicines because of the predatory pricing
practices of Pharma that have led to Americans paying the highest prices for
their medicines in the world, making prescription drugs a major driver of total
health care costs.
The truth is that Pharma charges what
the traffic will bear. While the GOP Platform views Pharma as the ‘victim’
being forced to raise prescription drug prices by Obamacare, which ironically was
passed because of the many behind-the-door deals made with Pharma, two hard
truths remain: (1) A prescription
medicine that is unaffordable is, in and of itself, unavailable because of that
unaffordability; (2) And, As Stephen
Schondelmeyer, Ph.D., drug pricing expert and head of the University of
Minnesota Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems says, “A drug
that’s not affordable is neither safe nor effective.”
The GOP cannot claim not to be aware of
the public outcry abut high prescription drug prices.
Most significantly, Candidate Donald
Trump has expressed his support for personal importation of prescription medicines
and price negotiation to lower prescription drug costs, only to be ignored by
the Platform Committee.
Surely the Committee knows of the many
bi-partisan Congressional investigations into the pricing abuses of Pharma,
headlines among virtually all media, cost pressures that threaten the very
stability of the Health Care system as prescription drugs are readily
identifiable as a primary driver of costs, and the demands by
advocates that Congress take action to ensure that Americans have access to
safe, affordable medicines that will enhance the health and well-being of
Americans who cannot afford even their maintenance medicines, let alone the outrageous
high costs of specialty medicines whose prices have soared simply because
Pharma can charge what it wishes.
The failure to exhibit the leadership
necessary to even acknowledge the problem cannot be construed as anything more
than pandering to Pharma. It is more disconcerting when the failure to
present even a basic consideration of and reaction to the many bi-partisan
proposals that have been brought forth over the years to lower prescription
drug costs is put up against the Democrat Party Platform, which presents
specific proposals to lower prescription drug prices.
These include an end to pay-for-delay
tactics of Pharma to keep lower-priced generics off the market; personal
importation of safe, affordable prescription medicines from licensed, registered
pharmacies in Canada and other ‘comparable’ (Tier One Countries) where the
standards of Safety and Efficacy meet or exceed those of the U.S.; greater
‘stakeholder’ rights for the general public; and price negotiation for Medicare
drugs.
For the record, we submitted a proposal
to both the Democrat Platform Committee and to the GOP Platform Committee. Both were based
on the principles outlined in The
American Rx Bill of Rights, but tailored to reflect the particular
political philosophies of each Party, in
a manner showing how certain tenents of what might seem to be differences
actually could provide a basis from which to reach consensus.
From a strictly political viewpoint, it
is imperative that Candidate Trump intervene to ensure that the Healthcare
portion of the GOP platform reflect his stance, which has included a role for
some sort of personal importation of brand-name medicines.
But, instead of incorporating Trump’s stance into the document, the Platform Committee has instead included boilerplate that sounds as though it has been written by Pharma spokespersons.
But, instead of incorporating Trump’s stance into the document, the Platform Committee has instead included boilerplate that sounds as though it has been written by Pharma spokespersons.
Candidate Trump had already shown his
ability to shape the platform on other issues, such as trade, moving the Committee closer to his stance on agreements
such as NAFTA, TPP and future negotiations.
In light of that issue, the failure of
the GOP Platform Committee to even acknowledge a basic understanding of the
pricing philosophy of Pharma calls for immediate action by Candidate Trump to
acknowledge that the cost of prescription drugs is nothing less than a national
emergency.
The challenge now is for him to clearly
identify his stance on healthcare and related-issues such as prescription drug
costs. If he acts to ensure the inclusion of his previously announced
stance, it will be a welcomed sign of a commitment to making safe, affordable
prescription medicines available to millions of Americans.
The alternative—signing-off on the GOP
Platform Committee ill-founded reasoning of why prescription drug costs are
high is unacceptable and likely could have severe political recriminations in
Election 2016 since at one time or another in our lives, virtually every
American of some member of their family will require medications.
A failure to act will be viewed as a
repudiation of his previously announced stance, and would be an indication that
the GOP is unresponsive to the major healthcare story of the past 16 months,
e.g. the predatory pricing practices of Pharma. If it is the latter, then
the symbol of the GOP should be changed from the Elephant to the Ostrich.
No comments:
Post a Comment