Once again, the Democrats, especially Maggie Hassan, are twisting the meaning and usage of words to fit a political narrative. In this case, for the purely personal gain of keeping her butt in DC.
How?
Both Hassan and Pappas have been lying in their television ads. Sorry, Maggie, “The Red,” you DID NOT lower drug prices.
She keeps saying, “Medicaid will negotiate lower drug prices.” No, it won’t work that way, and she never tells ANYONE what the ramifications will be. No, Medicaid won’t negotiate – it will DEMAND. In the healthcare world, they are the Walmart – at four times the size. Medicaid will do what it wants, and at a price it wants, and Maggie knows that she’ll be able to demagogue any pharmaceutical supplies that don’t knuckle under and threaten them politically.
Remember, as Governor, she wanted to set up a board here in NH that would set prices for hospitals in the State, telling them how they would operate, and then levy any amount of “fees, fines, and taxes” from the hospitals based on their size and the board’s “needs.” Yep, you got it: Each according to their ability, each according to their need”. So said Marx…and Hassan.
With this, drug manufacturers will become captive to the government, mere utilities of the State. Everyone complains about the high prices – but the alternative isn’t cheap either. And that alternative is what she (and others that believe in a government top-down driven economy) won’t mention is the opportunity cost: the loss of innovation. Researching, developing, designing, and TESTING new medicines are very expensive, and Government regulations are often the bulk of the cost. If the revenue pipeline for current medicine is artificially restricted by Government, how much is going to be available to pay for new ones?
What company is going to voluntarily go out of business? THIS is what Hassan won’t talk about – and she is fully cognizant of it. For her, it is ALL ABOUT GOVERNMENT CONTROL. Controlling them – and controlling your healthcare by controlling them. Simple. And she is boasting about it – and how many people are going to fall for it?
Sure, setting a max level of insulin at $35/month lowers the cost to YOU – but at what price to everyone else? Higher taxes? Rationing? You can’t just take a product from a price of $X and now make it $Y at the signing of a bill – things just don’t work that way. WHO is now going to pay that gap between the actual production cost + overhead + new research for other stuff?
Perhaps you and I, somewhere. Or NO where – companies won’t bother.
Socialists and communists, over the last 150 years, haven’t learned this lesson that none of them are King Canutes. There is no magic wand and no magic coin to both make stuff happen and pay for it. Just like King Canute couldn’t control the tide, Hassan can’t defy basic economics…
…She’s just hoping enough of you are going to believe her economic lies.
