Frogwatch wrote:
With all the consideration of the govt being the party that sets
medical prices at Canadian levels, who will pay for the R&D? Most R&D
for med stuff is done in the USA because we pay for it and essentially
the USA subsidizes Canadian medicine because they do NOT pay for the
R&D, US citizens do. The govt will not pay for it and are not even
qualified to do so. Most advances in medicine and drugs over the last
50 years would never have been funded by the govt. I know from
personal experience that govt experts rarely know enough about what
really works.
Most medical R&D is funded by pvt companies who know they will make
money if the process works. If they cannot make a profit, no more
R&D, no advances in treatments, no new drugs.

I worked for a drug company and have seen the cost difference between
what the drug can be sold for in the US and in Canada. Of course Cost
differentiation of a product is a basic of micro economics.

There are two facts that drive up the cost of health care. One is the
cost of the staff to cover the required record keeping and the staff to
keep up to date on the regulations. The drug drug companies I have
worked for have had 30 to 40% of their staff in regulatory and QA/QC.
Regulatory working to understand and comply to the regulations QA/QC
enforcing the regulations.

The second cost of drug comes from the 100% safe mind set of the people
in the US. Nothing is 100% safe, but the law suits and the liabilities
this mindset produces requires a staff of lawyers working for the drug
company and excessive cost for liability insurance for the drug
manufacturer, the hospital, the doctor, and the health care worker.

As with nuclear energy they are killing the industry with government
regulations.