Eminent Domain Suggested as Cost Saving Measure in DC

Washington DC council member David Catania actually suggested that the council should consider claiming eminent domain of certain widely prescribed pharmaceutical formulas in order to help reign in rising drug costs for the city. Catania suggests that the patents should be acquired by the government through the mayor's declaration of a public health emergency and then generic manufacturers would be contacted to produce the drugs for cheaper than they are commercially available.

There are so many things wrong with this proposal that it is hard to decide where to begin. First off, convincing anyone that there is a public health emergency due to the cost of medicines is absolutely ridiculous. The cost of health care does need to be addressed in order for our economy to thrive, but when one breaks down the actual costs of health care one finds that medications account for only 10 percent of the overall health care spending. What would be next, claiming eminent domain over hospitals so the government can set the prices that they are allowed to charge?

Also, what Catania fails to realize is that even under eminent domain claims the government is still required to pay the fair market value to the person/entity that they are seizing the property from, so not only would they need to pay for the intellectual rights to the drugs, the government would then need to pay a generic company to produce and get approval from the FDA to sell the drug which would basically wipe out any savings Catania would hope to realize.

The eminent domain seizure of the patents of drugs would all but guarantee that pharmaceutical companies in this country would have no incentive to develop new drugs, so one hopes that all the drugs required to treat any future aliments have already been discovered. Getting these drugs cheaply now, comes at the very expensive cost of losing any future developments from pharmaceutical companies.

Daniel Spankie is the creator/editor of http://www.Chemtracker.net, a Pharmaceutical news forum for professionals.

---

Workmens Compensation Lawyers, Lets Raise Minimum Wage; No Lets Not, Say We Did, We Have

The debate to raise minimum wage in California is totally... Read More

Democracy, War and the Media - Uneasy Bedfellows All Round

Recent international wars and the often spectacular ways in which... Read More

Accessibility Requirements for Fair Housing

PolicyFederal Fair Housing accessibility requirements for new multifamily buildings should... Read More

Constitutional Amendment Needed on Sodomy Laws

Many very nice and loving homosexual male couples want to... Read More

NASA and the Crisis Aboard MIR

Some people say that we cannot put a colony on... Read More

Pending Oil Crisis

Heavens, what are we up against? It seems these days... Read More

China Finds Humans to Test Bird Flu Vaccine On, in Qinghai

China is serious about breaking into the bio-tech field and... Read More

William Seward and the Alaska Purchase

Aren't you glad you purchased Alaska? You got a bargain,... Read More

The Dawn On The Nile Valley Has Secrets To Tell!

Amnesty International comments on the proposal that has been laid... Read More

Voting Pro-Environment is Good For Jobs, Health, and Security

There are many issues on the minds of US voters... Read More

End Time Clock Ticking Away?

Earlier this month, I heard President George W. Bush and... Read More

Steel Tubing Tariffs Prove that NAFTA Still Needs Work

The North American Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented on January... Read More

Fuel Prices at the Pump: That is not the problem, Natural Gas Prices are high too

The price at the gas pump is certainly on everyone's... Read More

Toll Ways Hurt The Flow of Transportation

The United States has never done a full study on... Read More

Liberal Agenda and Communism; Lance Rants

If we go hog wild towards the liberal agenda where... Read More

Free Trade, Outsourcing, Protectionism and Reality Check

Recently on C-SPAN, there were two gentlemen debating free trade... Read More

Public Notaries

We are having a problem in America with Public Notaries,... Read More

So How Far Have We Come? Here are some of the 2001 Anti Terrorist Projects

An article in Information Week in January 14, 2002 discussed... Read More

Are We Serious About Fuel Alternatives?

As you can see from some of our previous articles,... Read More

All There is, is dust in the wind; Dust Particulate Traveling The Globe

Dust from Deserts and Particulate ControlThe greatest contributor to particulate... Read More

Fury and Sound as GM Seeds Abound

We have all heard of the huge debates surrounding genetically... Read More

California Mutual Assistance Program

In years past California Mutual Assistance Program and emergency response... Read More

The Ugly American Returns!

Originally published in 1958, "The Ugly American" (Lederer & Burdick)... Read More

3D Modeling for Healthy Forests

Forest Vegetation Simulations for Fire Prevention, Healthy Forest and Saving... Read More

NAFTA; What did we learn?

A quick look back at NAFTA; how did we do?Stabilizing... Read More

Mexicanizing America

A friend of mine, who lives in the thick of... Read More

Garbage in Garbage out; California Blackouts

Why did the California energy crisis happen? Who is to... Read More

Pilot-Less and High Speed Train Transportation Systems; Better Strategy Needed

We recently saw another ferry accident, this one in NY... Read More

There Ought to Be a Law

The 'Land of the Free' is teaming with individual rights... Read More

The Bush There Or Here Fallacy and the War in Iraq

Today we wish to examine a fallacy, or error in... Read More

An Overlooked Plan for Bush, Kerry, Democrats, Republicans, and Healthcare Costs

In an effort to assist our political leadership it would... Read More

More Devastating Than a Nuclear Bomb

Despite their signature on the Biological Weapons Convention of 1975,... Read More

Medicade Scam; Worse than You Think

You are not going to believe what is going on... Read More