Yeah, About Those Lower Healthcare Costs

The cornerstone of the Dems' Obamacare scam is the tired old line about how it will reduce costs, increase access and put a unicorn in everyone's front yard. Well, here is an example of what happens when the government decides to pick winners and losers, and the loser in most cases winds up being the citizens. Now this is not a direct result of Obamacare, but rather an example of what happens when there is too much over-regulation from the federal government. By making this drug the exclusive property of one company--who I am sure if somebody checks some campaign finance records, will find that somewhere they made some good friends in the administration--they have now made it impractical and unaffordable for most people.

However, the FDA is empowered to monitor only the safety and effectiveness of drugs; it does not have the power to control how much KV Pharmaceutical charges for the compound. And KV Pharmaceutical has now announced that a drug compound that has typically cost $10 to $20 an injection will now cost $1,500 an injection. Over the course of a pregnancy, treatment that once cost as much as $400 will now cost $30,000.

In this case, a drug made in various ways was pulled back and forced to comply with a set standard and the contract was awarded to one company. The results are precisely what would be expected when you have only one source for a product. I did not see anything noted citing any ill effects from the other compounds, and since doctors were using them I could assume there weren't. So why did the FDA feel it was necessary to make KV Pharmaceutical the winner? Like they say, follow the money.

I differ with the writer of this article only in the last line of his piece.

In most other countries, KV Pharmaceutical would never be allowed to get away with such a thing.

The implied solution in his opinion is to have the government punish the very company they set up to be a monopoly. Wrong. The solution is to allow the free markets to once again work. Regulate the drug as far as safety, but get the hell out of the way as far as deciding how it gets into the hands of the consumer.