red states rule
10-28-2013, 03:11 AM
Your life expectancy has decreased thanks to Obamacare
Anyone surprised?
snip
What happens when 300 million consumers of medicine and medical technology are replaced by one consumer, the government, and drug prices are regulated here?
Regulation of drug prices and assessing of taxes on innovators are not hypothetical consequences of PPACA, they have already occurred. Drug manufacturers specifically conceded $80 billion of revenue to protect themselves from re-importation of drugs in the original writing of PPACA. And the excise tax on medical device manufacturers will cost the top 19 companies in the state of Massachusetts $422M this year alone.
In the theory of diffusion of innovation, "early adopters" are a critical class of consumers that makes the spread of good new ideas possible. Early adopters, for example, buy the new iPhone earlier (and at a considerably higher price) than the bulk of consumers. The high price that they pay fuels further innovation (e.g. the next iPhone).
America is the early adopter of medical technology in the world. And the pharmaceutical industry is, if anything, more fragile than the electronics industry. Drug development involves a few hits and a lot of misses of new products. For example, the company Genzyme, which is one of the more mature high tech drug manufacturers, having been in business for thirty years, derives its entire revenue stream essentially from three drugs.
With the inevitable regulation of drug prices under Obamacare, the link between successful product development and revenue will be broken and the initiative to develop new drugs will have to come increasingly from government. The history of state control of consumer product development of any kind is not reassuring. In the former Soviet Union for example, from 1960 until around 1987, life expectancy actually decreased; even as it was increasing in the rest of Europe and most of the free world.
More than being unable to keep your own doctor or paying increased premiums, more than facing the reality of death panels, the real devastating consequence of the Affordable Care Act will be that as government regulations take over research and development in medicine, the medical miracles that we grown accustomed to for the last 100 year will dwindle and cease. This is all the more lamentable insofar as medical science is on the cusp of new discoveries that will, if given the chance and the market, lengthen and strengthen our lives. So it is not too much to suggest that the day that President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, my children's life expectancy dropped by ten years. And so did yours.
The writer is a Nanoscience Researcher at Harvard University.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/life_expectancy_under_the_affordable_care_act.html #ixzz2j0CccTzc
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=dlia0Qbjyr4BNDacwqm_6l&u=AmericanThinker) | AmericanThinker on Facebook (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=dlia0Qbjyr4BNDacwqm_6l&u=AmericanThinker)
Anyone surprised?
snip
What happens when 300 million consumers of medicine and medical technology are replaced by one consumer, the government, and drug prices are regulated here?
Regulation of drug prices and assessing of taxes on innovators are not hypothetical consequences of PPACA, they have already occurred. Drug manufacturers specifically conceded $80 billion of revenue to protect themselves from re-importation of drugs in the original writing of PPACA. And the excise tax on medical device manufacturers will cost the top 19 companies in the state of Massachusetts $422M this year alone.
In the theory of diffusion of innovation, "early adopters" are a critical class of consumers that makes the spread of good new ideas possible. Early adopters, for example, buy the new iPhone earlier (and at a considerably higher price) than the bulk of consumers. The high price that they pay fuels further innovation (e.g. the next iPhone).
America is the early adopter of medical technology in the world. And the pharmaceutical industry is, if anything, more fragile than the electronics industry. Drug development involves a few hits and a lot of misses of new products. For example, the company Genzyme, which is one of the more mature high tech drug manufacturers, having been in business for thirty years, derives its entire revenue stream essentially from three drugs.
With the inevitable regulation of drug prices under Obamacare, the link between successful product development and revenue will be broken and the initiative to develop new drugs will have to come increasingly from government. The history of state control of consumer product development of any kind is not reassuring. In the former Soviet Union for example, from 1960 until around 1987, life expectancy actually decreased; even as it was increasing in the rest of Europe and most of the free world.
More than being unable to keep your own doctor or paying increased premiums, more than facing the reality of death panels, the real devastating consequence of the Affordable Care Act will be that as government regulations take over research and development in medicine, the medical miracles that we grown accustomed to for the last 100 year will dwindle and cease. This is all the more lamentable insofar as medical science is on the cusp of new discoveries that will, if given the chance and the market, lengthen and strengthen our lives. So it is not too much to suggest that the day that President Obama signed the Affordable Care Act into law, my children's life expectancy dropped by ten years. And so did yours.
The writer is a Nanoscience Researcher at Harvard University.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/10/life_expectancy_under_the_affordable_care_act.html #ixzz2j0CccTzc
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rw?id=dlia0Qbjyr4BNDacwqm_6l&u=AmericanThinker) | AmericanThinker on Facebook (http://ec.tynt.com/b/rf?id=dlia0Qbjyr4BNDacwqm_6l&u=AmericanThinker)