Jeff Stahler for August 31, 2016

Guess what they have generic drugs for everything. You can’t or won’t pay then go generic.

Free market competition will always bring the cheapest price; free market businesses HATE competition and will do everything in their power to eliminate it. And once they have a monopoly, then jack up the price.

Republicans are against affordable healthcare and are against the govt negotiating drug prices. Drug companies take money from the govt then cry about THEIR expenses. Vote Republican, they really LOVE YOU AND YOUR KIDS!

The same company (Mylan) makes the gereric. It’s like an EpiPen without the branding.

In the case of the epipen, it’s not R&D costs driving it. The company has already recouped those and was making a profit at $50 a pen.

Under normal situations, it’s capitalism: “supply and demand” and price is set by what the market will bear. Cabbage patch dolls don’t bring the $$ they used to, but skybox patrons and television networks will keep sports figures in multi-million dollar salaries.

In this case it’s extortion. People who need an Epipen don’t have the option of saying, “not today.” The company got away with raising the price to $100, so they raised it $200 then $400 and now $600. The sky’s the limit. And as long as the CEO is making $19 million dollars a year, she can afford them even though she doesn’t need them. Besides the company is now in the Netherlands where the government subsidizes medicine.

The U.S. has patent laws to protect intellectual property. However there is precedence for bending these laws as in anti-trust cases to bust monopolies. Also, should it be considered an emergency, Congress can order the company to allow other manufacturers to make their product. Such was the case in WWII when McDonald Douglass cranked out a number of Boeing B-17s.

So there are things Congress can do about it.

Congress needs to rescind the law they passed, that prohibits patients buying drugs from outside the US. Drugs that cost hundreds here can be found at a fraction of that both inside and outside the EU.

They don’t care about the people. Sold their souls to have riches and power.

News Flash: Trump visits Mexico. Mexicans rush to build a wall.