I pride myself on being fairly knowledgeable when it comes to politics but this morning, while I was watching Dr. Jeffrey Sachs on Morning Joe, I was surprised to learn that the federal government is barred from negotiating prescription medication prices with pharmaceutical companies.
The point of sharing this isn’t to cast blame or shame on one political party or another because the law, that was passed under a Republican President with the support of a Democratic Congress did not change under a Democratic President with a Republican Congress so in lieu of casting blame, I thought I’d take a novel approach to politics and suggest a solution.
Call the US Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and ask to speak to your representative to ask what can be done and how they have voted. In politics the squeaky wheel gets the grease and if you call asking for clarity on this it may make your representative think twice about the pharmaceutical lobbyists.
I know my blog isn’t very political and that political action isn’t why people visit my blog but the thought that the Federal government is barred from negotiating the price of prescription drugs because of pharmaceutical lobbyists and a do-nothing Congress is galling. For all the talk of cost-saving with regards to our healthcare services and social programs like Medicare, Medicaid as well as programs like Social Security this seems like a HUGE donut hole we should be able to change that would bring immediate and significant cost savings.
