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pharmacists would be allowed to purchase FDA safety-approved medicine anywhere in the world where they could get a better price than they currently pay. Second, when drug companies benefit from taxpayer research though the NIH, they would have to provide a "reasonable price" to consumers for that product. Those two initiatives alone would lower the cost of medicine in this country by at least 40 percent - without one cent of additional taxpayer money.
Finally, with lower drug prices for all Americans, and using the negotiating leverage that the government would have for the huge quantity of medicine they would purchase for Medicare beneficiaries, the Veterans Administration, the Department of Defense and other agencies, a voluntary 80-20 benefit could be established for seniors. This would be a significant benefit for America's seniors - something they deserve.
Will the current Congress pass this kind of legislation? I hope so, but I'm not overly confident. Unfortunately, too many members see their job as protecting the pharmaceutical industry, rather than Americans who need the medicine.
In my judgment, to successfully take on this enormously powerful industry we're going to need a strong grassroots effort, not unlike the civil rights movement. The fact is that access to life-saving medicine is a basic human right to which all Americans are entitled. People should not be suffering and dying because the pharmaceutical industry can use their vast resources to control our political process.
This issue has the moral depth of the civil rights movement. I believe that once seniors, the sick and their families march on Washington and get arrested in drug company offices, "we shall overcome."
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