The Democratic Party’s spokesman for the Welfare Nanny State, House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, is again called to account by the left-leaning Washington Post.
In a November 2nd editorial, the Washington Post once again (see prior instance) points out the emptiness of the Democrats’ campaign proposals.
The Post’s editorialists write:
The Medicare drug benefit has actually turned out to be cheaper than projected, and most beneficiaries say they are satisfied with it. But the House Democratic leader, Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), nonetheless accuses Republicans of “putting pharmaceutical companies and HMOs first at the expense of America’s seniors.”
....More than a third of retired veterans have signed up for Medicare drug coverage, suggesting that while the veterans program is cheaper, its restricted pharmacy network and formulary render it less attractive.
Setting the veterans comparison aside, could Medicare officials save money by negotiating directly with drug companies? In theory, yes....But lower prices might reduce drug companies’ incentive to invest in research…
The best way to make the difficult trade-off between affordable drugs and incentives for new research is not to stage a showdown in Gucci Gulch but rather to heed signals from consumers.......If they choose to pay top dollar for branded medicines, the incentives to invent new medicines will rise; if they prefer to save money, incentives for innovation will decline a bit. Either way, a balance will be struck that reflects broad social preferences.
.....A switch to government purchasing of Medicare drugs would choke off this experiment before it had a chance to play out, and it would usher in its own problems. For the moment, the Democrats would do better to invest their health-care energy elsewhere.
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