As a Bernie supporter, I think Bernie’s messages have been powerful, but he needs to change things up going forward to grab more attention from the news media and older Democrat voters in upcoming states by highlighting the differences between himself and Clinton on a key issue that hasn’t received enough attention: drug prices. Bernie has been talking about this a long time. This is an issue dear to the hearts of older voters.
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Clinton knows it’s important since she mentioned it in last night’s speech in SC. It’s an issue that has generated a visceral hate of the character of Martin Schkrelli, the raise-the-price-5000% guy. But what isn’t emphasized is what Shkrelli did is business as usual. Virtually everybody with any chronic disease is noticing skyrocketing prices, not just the people with chronic forms of leukemias and lymphomas or autoimmune diseases who rely on the biologicals to stay alive. Obamacare has not fixed the problem. A Kaiser poll at the end of 2015 showed that it is a very important issue. Even Republicans care more about doing something about the price of drugs than about reversing Obamacare. So a general election issue as well as a primary issue.
Similarities between Clinton and Sanders: Both want Medicare to negotiate the price of drugs. Both want more transparency in the drug pricing system (which is the only thing some Republican candidates may be willing to do). Both want to loosen up the ability of patients to order drugs from other countries with good safeguards. Both want to limit in some way the ability of drug companies to raise prices. But how if the companies have patents?
Differences: Only Bernie advocates PATENT REFORM. Since 8/9 Big Pharma companies have settled fraud cases involving illegal price fixing,etc, Bernie wants to TAKE AWAY THE PATENTS OF COMPANIES FOUND TO BE ENGAGING IN FRAUD. It is part of his theme that on Wall Street fraud is actually a business model. Wow. There is no way Hillary is going to touch the profitable patent system with a ten foot pole.
Also different: The Transpacific Trade Agreement, which should be renamed the Shkrelli International Drug Profit Agreement, is much more of a new drug price fixing system than it is a trade agreement. It requires participating countries to tighten policies on generics and agree to a much longer patent schema than is now the case. Millions will lose access to life-saving medications. Doctors Without Borders has cried foul. Moreover, the undemocratic supranational dispute settlement mechanism in it will allow Pharma to sue the US for billions in the future should Americans want to reform the FDA and patent system further. After supporting the agreement for a long time, Clinton came out against it in the fall (after all of her traitor friends in the Senate already approved the fast track) saying vaguely that it doesn’t meet her standards. Since she won’t say specifically what she doesn't like about the agreement, we all know she is likely pivot right back to supporting it once president.
Clinton does support limiting the out of pocket costs of prescription drugs in the ACA to $250/month, ($3000/yr) whereas now the drug costs are often going towards the $6,250 deductible. This is still too expensive for most folks and all this will do is raise everyone’s premiums. She has also been mum on not raising the age of Medicare eligibility. Protecting SS age yes, but no word on Medicare age.
So talk drug prices (and TPP), Bernie, and win over those older voters!!!!
And a tip: propose getting the govt involved in developing a treatment for epidemic Zika virus and prohibit pharma from getting a patent that will put the price beyond the reach of the masses.