I’ve come down from the upper class to mend your rotten ways.
My father was a man-of-power whom everyone obeyed.
…
I’ve got to put you straight just like I did with my old man --
Twenty years too late.
~ Ian Anderson
Never once during my teenage years did it occur to me that
Ian Anderson was a prescient songwriter.
But all you need to do is read his lyrics for his band’s “Thick
as a Brick” album, released in early 1972, to realize he was onto something.
The Food and Drug Administration, which approves nearly all
food and drugs sold in the United States, recently increased the cost patients
pay for their asthma inhalers, The New York Times reported.
The regulator became so worried about the country’s 40
million asthma patients polluting the air with chlorofluorocarbons that it did
what any government critic might expect it to do – it screwed over the patients
in the name of clean air, requiring producers to eliminate the gas from their inhalers,
thereby increasing the price for asthma medicine.
While one might see their ruling as a victory for the
environment, the day-to-day effect was something perhaps even the FDA didn’t
imagine: It removed an over-the-counter inhaler, Primatene Mist, along with other generic inhalers, which were cheaper
than brand name medicines.
In other words, the only accomplishment the FDA brought
about was a lesson in real life economics – eliminate the competition and prices
rise.
How did this happen?
Easy. Armstrong
Pharmaceuticals, owner of Primatene Mist, and other generic producers didn’t
have the financial resources to change their inhalers.
As The Times reported:
“’The high prices in the United States are because the FDA
has set the bar so high there is no clear pathway for generics,’ said Lisa
Urquhart of EvaluatePharma, a consulting firm based in London that provides
drug and biotech analysis. ‘I’m
sure the brands (the brand name producers of asthma medicine) are thrilled.’”
In Europe – an example Democrats love to point to when
talking up health care – drug regulators are more concerned about patients than
air so governments on that progressive continent continue to buy generic inhalers
and, in some cases, even give them away.
But a family in Oakland, Calif., with two asthmatic
daughters, 13 and 10 years old, is paying, before insurance reduces some of the
cost, $175 for each inhaler every month.
Prior to the FDA’s decision to save the environment, this
same inhaler cost about $15, The Times reported.
Now the FDA wants to take away all artificial trans fats,
oils used to make frozen pizza, coffee creamers, frosting and packaged
cookies. As the Los Angeles Times
reported, an artificial trans fat – the consumption of which increases the
chances of a heart attack – is produced by adding hydrogen to liquid oil, which
turns it into a solid for making margarine or even Crisco.
What’s the next thing the FDA will eliminate from your
diet? French fries? Hamburgers? The pizza you enjoy on a Friday or Saturday night at your
favorite restaurant? Coke? Wine? Beer?
It might seem like pure fantasy now, but will it stay that
way? And what will be the unintended
consequence – the one the FDA never imagined as it worked to save you from
yourself?
Many Americans might be upset with the FDA’s ruling on trans
fats, but should anyone be surprised?
With the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable
Care Act, the government is armed with every mandate it needs to save Americans.
It’s not a huge stretch of the imagination to envision an
insurance executive testifying before Congress that hamburgers need to be
eliminated from the U.S. diet because, as the latest studies from the Centers
for Disease Control show, only about 20 percent of all adults exercise
regularly, meaning hamburgers, like trans fats, become a safety issue.
You need not be taking any needless risks. The government is here to protect you.
Sources:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2011/07/cost-increase-asthma-inhalers-expensive
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-trans-fat-fda-questions-answers-20131107,0,7585873.story#axzz2k5NxwrHd
http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-trans-fat-fda-questions-answers-20131107,0,7585873.story#axzz2k5NxwrHd
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57582759/cdc-80-percent-of-american-adults-dont-get-recommended-exercise/
No comments:
Post a Comment