Dark Age Democrats II

Good editorial in the Tribune questioning the wisdom of the Democrats' stated plans to change the Medicare prescription drug program. Read the whole thing, but here's one point:

"The longer-term human costs of government price negotiation ... are likely to be large and adverse," Zycher wrote. How large? American life expectancies would grow more slowly, he said. Measured in dollars, the economic magnitude of that loss would be greater than total annual U.S. spending on pharmaceuticals, he concluded.

Jonah Goldberg on the politics--then and now, with reference to Dick Durbin, granny gouger? (As it turns out, prices are lower than Durbin and the Dems expected.)

Or maybe no drugs for granny at all. Katherine Mangu-Ward, Reason, RCP:

There's the old familiar song and dance about how if you decrease Big Pharma's prospective profits on new drugs, they will (reasonably) retaliate with less spending on research and development. According to the author of a new study from the Manhattan Institute: "Prices would be driven down by over 35 percent by 2025. The cumulative decline in drug R&D for 2007-2025 would be about $196 billion in year 2005 dollars, or $10.3 billion per year. Because R&D costs for new medicines are about $1 billion, the loss would be about 196 new drugs."

But to really understand the havoc a Democratic "fix" could wreak, warily eyeball the Department of Veterans Affairs, which already negotiates for its drugs and has been cited by Democrats as a model for Medicare. At the VA, prices for drugs are very low. But one way that the VA keeps overall prices down is by making it tough to get new, expensive drugs. Their formulary includes about 1400 drugs, and they refuse to consider a drug for inclusion until it has been on the market for three years. Compare that with the 4,300 drugs currently listed at (the privately negotiated) Part D formularies. Right now, a third of VA seniors say they would rather be on Part D. If Dems have their way, at least these vets won't have to bother with the paperwork for switching.

And waiting in the wings, HillaryCare. Remember? Her failed government-run health care proposal that promised the efficiency of the post office and the compassion of the IRS. More in the WSJ here.

Let's hope the new Democrat-majority Congress will have the wisdom to reach across the aisle and reject this Dark Age Democrat vision for health care. Or someone might organize a little street theatre. Any tips Jan?