Yet Another Bush Flip-Flop: Drugs From Canada

[JohnnyMarzetti]

I forgot about this.

Last night, Bush says that he wants to thwart efforts to allow people to purchase drugs from Canada. The most oft-cited reason is because he argues that the drugs are "unreliable."

So, why Dummy Dumbya, do you want to rely on Canada for a flu vaccine?

[Opinionater]

IMHO, this is a major flip-flop caused by a need that not even Bush can deny.

[exstatic]

Yeah, people are dropping dead like flies in Canada from all of those "unreliable" drugs. What happened to open markets? I think if US workers have to be efficient and cheap, so should corprate products. Anything else is protectionism at it's worst.

[2pac]

Do you realize why we have a flu vaccine shortage?

Kerry and other liberals passed a law requiring flu vaccines to cost under a certian amount of money in order to make that vaccine affordable to everyone.

Because he did that, he made it completely unprofitable to make flu vaccines, and almost every company that made them in America stopped making them.

So instead of making a more effective vaccine, the company is just getting by, and we have a shortage because not enough companies are making the vaccine.


But do we learn from this? Idiot liberals like Kerry dont.

Now Kerry wants to have caps on how much Rx drugs cost, just like he did with the vaccines. What will that do to the drug companies? The same thing it did to the flu vaccine companies.

Companies wont have reason or means to develop new drugs. Companies will be making so little money at making their drugs that they will be shutting their doors just like the flu companies did. We will have shortages on things like anti-biotics. We will have shortages on everything, and we will not be developing new things.

[Opinionater]

IMHO, it is a fact that a growing volume of prescription drugs sold in the U.S. are made overseas and brought in by domestic manufacturers.
The prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, which are far higher than those paid by citizens of any other developed country, help explain why the pharmaceutical industry is, and has been for years, the most profitable of all businesses in the U.S.

[Opinionater]

IMHO, some of your facts are wrong.

An amendment sanctioning sales to U.S. pharmacies was sponsored by Representative Gil Gutknecht, a Minnesota Republican, and approved in July by a vote of 243 to 186. Notably, Gutknecht's language provided ample protection for consumers—long the argument cited by the FDA and the pharmaceutical industry for prohibiting Canadian drug purchases.

The provision authorized U.S. pharmacies to import prescription drugs made in Canada and other industrialized countries as long as manufacturers used counterfeit-resistant technologies and the drugs were approved by the FDA.

Gutknecht's amendment made it all the way to the secret joint House-Senate conference, where it was deleted by members of his own party.

So I don't think your argument to blame Kerry is valid.

[ClintSquint]

Real men don't take flu shots.

[2pac]

IMHO, it is a fact that a growing volume of prescription drugs sold in the U.S. are made overseas and brought in by domestic manufacturers.
The prices Americans pay for prescription drugs, which are far higher than those paid by citizens of any other developed country, help explain why the pharmaceutical industry is, and has been for years, the most profitable of all businesses in the U.S.
We pay higher because we are not idiots and do not have socialized medicine like many countries.

On the Gutknecht Bill - you are thinking of the wrong issue. The flu vaccine cost caps was passed and Kerry and Co did vote for it.

[exstatic]

We pay higher because we are not idiots and do not have socialized medicine like many countries.

Yet somehow, even without socialized medicine, importing drugs from Canada would be cheaper. Go figure. Ask CC if he could hire a few more people if the cost of health insurance, via reduced drug costs, were lower.

The costs of drugs are out of control. The pharmaceutical companies charge what they charge because there is little real competition. Open the borders and bring in the drugs. If you don't want the Canadian or other foreign ones, they could set up something like the generic/specific paradigm, where if you REALLY want to pay more for the same thing, you can.

[travis2]

ummm...try again...

http://www.spurstalk.com/forums/showpost.php?p=64657&postcount=54

[Yonivore]

I forgot about this.

Last night, Bush says that he wants to thwart efforts to allow people to purchase drugs from Canada. The most oft-cited reason is because he argues that the drugs are "unreliable."

So, why Dummy Dumbya, do you want to rely on Canada for a flu vaccine?
President Bush said he was hopeful that Canada could jump the regulatory hurdles that would allow the import of flu vaccine from there, sooner rather than later.

The problems with the vaccine from Britain is precisely why the President is opposed to just opening the gate...Britain was a trusted source, and look what happened.

[2pac]

Yet somehow, even without socialized medicine, importing drugs from Canada would be cheaper. Go figure.

Thats the very nature of socialized medicine. I think you don't quite understand it.