Health care myths, pt. 2

Can the government do health care cheaper. No, that's a myth, or just a bald face lie. I was really puzzled by a report on rare and neglected diseases (TRND). Seems it costs private drug companies 2-4 years and $10 million to get a candidate molecule through preclinical development. Big hearted Congress is going to appropriate $24 million to work in this preclinical area and then pass it on to the drug companies for clinical trials. Maybe I'm math challenged, but even if the government could do something less costly (costs are probably high due to gov't regs), isn't that 2.5 molecules? Plus it wants "some funding from licensing." Sort of like owning a car company, heh?

And remember you won't pay higher taxes? Well, what is a user fee passed along to the consumer, if not a tax? In the omnibus spending bill for 2009 signed March 11 by Obama, Congress appropriated $1 billion for the FDA to regulate human drugs and biologics, which is made up in part from new user fees paid by the industries (google PDUFA). And I'm only guessing, but we'll still be getting our generics from India and China without the quality controls in order to "cut costs." (Have you forgotten pet food and lead in paint of children's toys?)

Also, a part of the big lie about costs is that what they shave off the federal ledger for health will be shifted to the states--and we all know what great shape Medicaid is in! States pay half of Medicaid now. How far back in time are they planning to go to recover those costs from surviving family members? Five years? Ten years? Also, if there is a profession with more garbled, obfuscation in its flowing prose than politics, it has to be medicine. Please translate into English or dollars

"accessible, comprehensive, integrated care based on healing relationships"

But perhaps the biggest problem with the "cost" lie is that cost is all Americans care about, and it's the most critical measure we have against some mythical, socialist industrialized nation with rationed care. Americans really do care about safety, timeliness, respect, quality, choice, outcomes and efficiency. Also, for every life we save with surgery, new drugs,chemo, or new technology, that's a life that is going to require even more care--very expensive, monitored and lab test care--than before the life-saving event. The person who dies on a waiting list in Europe saves their government a lot of money. Unfortunately, that's the sort of community spirit Obama wants for us.