September 06, 2007

I've gotta be honest: Senator Clinton has produced a work of art so perfect, so utterly complete in every dimension, that I can only pray someday to achieve such artistic talent. I refer to her speech on health care issues last Tuesday, in which she promised to:

1. Reduce the cost of long-term care;
2. Enable seniors to file lawsuits against the providers of long-term care insurance;
3. Implement direct negotiation of drug prices by the federal government with the pharmaceutical producers; and
4. Allow U.S. residents to import Canadian drugs subject to price controls.

And her proposal "reduces costs for everybody, improves quality for everybody, and covers everybody." So there we have it: Lower costs and more litigation. Direct price negotiations and higher "quality," that is, no reduction in drug formularies (lists of approved drugs). More price controls, presumably with no adverse effect on innovation. More "coverage," and lower costs.

It's amazing. Why has no one thought of any of this before?

Posted by Benjamin Zycher at September 6, 2007 08:19 AM