On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:57:59 -0400, Gene Kearns
wrote:

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 09:21:52 -0700 (PDT), Frogwatch penned the
following well considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

|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.

The obvious answer to your question has a lot to do with (I hope) the
end of the Americans subsidizing everybody all over the globe through
inflated prices and taxes designed to do just that....

Indeed. We pay for the R&D now. The rest of the world gets far
better pricing for what we fund.