Through Your Nose with a Rubber Hose

 

It was an ugly price to pay in 2010 when the Affordable Care Act (ACA or commonly Obamacare) was signed into law. The sad reality is that most members of Congress, from both sides of the aisle, accept campaign contributions from and have “lobbying dialog” with representatives from the massive pharmaceutical industry. The same industry that peppers social media and ad-supported television with a seeming unending litany of targeted marketing intended to pressure patients to press their doctors for the necessary prescriptions. It is a salient point to remember as big pharma argues that their unbelievable pricing structure is designed to support expensive “hit or miss” research and development plus clinical testing and that they have “plans” to aid those who cannot afford the costs. 

Indeed, the fact that we have become a nation governed by special interests and squeaky-wheel religious minorities to the detriment of the bulk of the US population is a disappointing commentary on our increasingly distorted definition of “democracy,” now globally acknowledged as a “flawed democracy” that does not afford its citizens equal representation across the board. So, when the ACA was passed in 2010, the Obama Administration negotiated with members of its own party, in turn pressured by big pharma, to include a provision that the healthcare exchanges created under that statute would not use their size-based negotiating power to challenge the prices fixed by the pharma companies. They agreed to pay full, undiscounted retail. 

Donald Trump tried to effect a prescription drug price reduction by attempting, unsuccessfully, to require drug companies to make full price disclosures in their advertising and to shame those who charge egregious sums… before learning that big pharma actually has no shame. Indeed, the practice of taking an existing and commonly used prescription drug and either jacking up its price to cover massive advertising efforts and maximize profits (e.g., the Mylan Epi-Pen scandal) or just buying out the rights to one life-saving drug and increasing its cost by 5,000% (e.g., the Martin Shkreli debacle), is easily implemented even when challenged by governmental entities.

We spend over 17% of our total Gross Domestic Product on healthcare, generally double the average expended by the rest of the developed world, all of which have universal healthcare as a right. Of that total US expenditure, 12% goes to prescribed drugs. The October 28th Yahoo Finance delved into this Achilles Heel of healthcare a bit deeper:  “‘The issue of drug pricing is a real issue in the U.S.,’ [Pfizer (PFE) CEO Albert] Bourla said during Yahoo Finance's All Markets Summit. ‘But it is not the issue that some people think and present.’

“According to a January 2021 report from the RAND Corporation, ‘prescription drug prices in the United States are significantly higher than in other nations, with prices in the United States averaging 2.56 times those seen in 32 other nations.’… The U.S. spends significantly more on prescription drugs than any other nation… That gap increases to 3.44 times as much as other countries for brand-name drugs.

“‘We have a problem here,’ Bourla said. ‘The Americans are paying for their medicines like they don’t have insurance, although they do have insurance. And this needs to change. This needs to make sure that this will not be the case moving forward. I’m sure if they have to pay less, that will be a cost and the system will have to absorb the cost. Who is paying for that cost?’” We get it; big pharma is soaking the American public on prescription drug prices with virtually no legal way to “make the bad man stop.” Unless Congress were to act.

Surely, in the downsized social infrastructure bill which a Democratic house is trying to pass through a “reconciliation” exception to the Senate filibuster rule, this issue that impacts all of us has to be addressed, right. It was. But… “Upon taking office, President Biden vowed to lower these prices. His plan called on Congress to allow Medicare to negotiate drug prices with manufacturers, allow prescription drugs to be imported from Canada, impose an out-of-pocket spending cap for those on Medicare, and limit annual price increases… Unfortunately, the plan was dropped from the latest White House spending bill after key Democrats [guess who!] objected to it.’” Yahoo Finance. Dead on arrival. No change. The American public loses again.

There is so much wrong with this result. I doubt if polled, more than 90% of Americans would tell you paying 2.56 times what the rest of the developed world pays for the same prescription drug should be stopped. Why us? But until we either have universal healthcare like the rest of the developed world or those elected to Congress stop catering to big pharma at the extreme hardship to almost everyone in the nation, big pharma will continue to treat Americans like the true suckers they have become.

I’m Peter Dekom, and if this bothers you as much as it does me, write your Congress person and Senator and tell them that continuing to support big pharma will cost them your vote.