- cross-posted to:
- news
- cross-posted to:
- news
Johnson & Johnson sued the Biden administration over Medicare’s new powers to slash drug prices, making it the third pharmaceutical company to challenge the controversial provision of the Inflation Reduction Act.
It is generally regarded as exactly fair for anyone to charge anything they want when selling their property.
Do you really want the government to simply dictate to you how much you can charge for things on Etsy or Ebay?
That’s an excellent argument for why we should have a nationally owned pharmaceutical option. The US government funds a bunch of the research anyway, we should just own production lines as well. Cut out the middle men.
We should set it up as USPS-like competition for the pharmaceutical industry. Then they can change what ever the fuck they want without literally killing people, cuz there will be a publicly owned backup.
Except a significant portion of these drugs were developed with government (taxpayer-funded) subsidies and research grants.
Do you think things sold on ebay and etsy and medications people rely on to live are equivalent?
Don’t forget, pharmaceutical companies get government money to develop these drugs as well. I don’t think sellers on etsy and eBay are taxpayer funded.
But that ignores the nuance of the situation. If the application is to help people survive why shouldn’t the government tell them they can’t overcharge people?