Hi Senator Klobuchar, I just saw a
feature on the KSTP news featuring some comments by you about the
recent run-up in the price of insulin recently. I believe an ideal
solution is one you and your colleagues on capitol hill have not even
considered legislatively. The solution to spikes in the price of
pharmaceuticals and medical devices would be for the government to
take on the production and distribution of those pharmaceuticals
and medical devices at cost. Currently there seems to be a habit of
thinking among healthcare policy makers that traps them into assuming
that the only option to getting a needed healthcare product to the
patient is by way of the commercial markets.
But there shouldn't be any barriers to
the federal government taking on the role of the production and
distribution of at least the medicines and devices that are outside
of patent protection. And keep in mind many of the most notorious
recent cases of price spikes occurred with products that were already
outside of patent protection -- including, but not limited to insulin
and the epipen.
Also, there is a long standing
precedent of the federal government owning and operating the means of
production and distribution of a product -- the US Government Publishing
Office, also known as the Government Printing Office, has been
around for many decades manufacturing, printing, publishing and
selling to individuals and institutions everything from books to
pamphlets to posters and just about everything printable in between.
Therefore, there should be nothing
stopping the Senate and House from mandating the opening of a
Government Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Office to bypass the
market and get the needed healthcare products directly to the
patients at the mere cost of production.
For years now I have been seeing
hearings and statements from representatives such as yourself ranging
from scolding to pleading of manufacturers to try and keep their
prices down. I ask you; who's in charge here? When I hear only
talk from you in the form of scolding and pleading to some Big Pharma
executive, it sure looks like it is the Big Pharma companies that are
the ones in charge. I thought we were a country of, by and for the
people. If they will not bring the prices down, then we the people
should engage that American can-do spirit, and make those products
ourselves.
And this could be just the beginning --
we could start building a medical system that is entirely patient
driven instead of where it is now in being market driven. I think
people that go into the medical profession do it first and foremost
because they care about people. With a patient driven, patient based
system we can have as the primary decision makers, about what medical
drug or device goes into production and their prices, be those
medical professionals that care about the patients and not some bean
counting CEO with only a legal fiduciary responsibility to some distant
shareholders.
Referenced news story about insulin prices featuring Klobuchar comments
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