Going Down the Road
Take Two Aspirin and Make a Lot of Noise
By Jim Hightower
April 29, 2002
O, my momma called, "Why are they letting
them gouge us like this?" she wanted to know. "They"
are our so-called political leaders in Washington, and "them"
are the drugmakers now costing her $500 a month. Nearing 87, Lillie
Mabel Hightower has to take two medicines regularly, including
a heart pill to keep the old ticker ticking. She tells me her
pill bill goes up just about every time she refills her two prescriptions,
having soared 40 percent in only two years. For someone on Social
Security, the difference between $3,600 a year and $6,000 a year
is a serious piece of change. "Of course I know why,"
she quickly added in answer to her own question: "It's the
big money they give the politicians. But can't we do something?
Who do I write?"
Like my mom's, the blood pressure of millions
of seniors and others has reached the political boiling point
because of price-gouging by big drug companies. Americans pay
the highest prices in the world for prescriptions--an average
of 30 percent more, for example, than Canadians pay for the exact
same drugs. The companies jacked up our prices by another 17.1
percent last year while they went laughing to the bank with the
highest profit margins of any industry, more than triple the average
of all Fortune 500 corporations.
Political consultants in Washington recognize
the explosiveness of this issue, so there has been a flurry of
bills, press conferences and photo-ops by both parties, with each
claiming that it cares more than the other about the problem.
But, as Hemingway once advised, never mistake motion for action.
No lobbying group is as well financed and well connected as the
drug industry is in our capital city. It has 625 registered lobbyists
on its payroll--ninety more lobbyists than there are members of
Congress! The industry also liberally greases the skids of the
legislative process with huge campaign donations, topping $26
million in the last election cycle. The result is that Washington
postures, drug prices keep going up and seniors continue to seethe.
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originally published by the Nation
