I don't wax politically philosophical often but today I read yet another conservative leaning piece justifying the ever increasing profit margins of the pharmaceutical industry, citing the favorite argument. Namely, without the monetary incentive the greatest minds would look elsewhere to spend their time and energy which would in turn only harm the sickest among us. The incentives are needed to develop new life-saving treatments. It's really compassion, see?
As I processed the article, the following thoughts began to crystallize in my heart.
Historically, some of the greatest minds were drawn towards medicine not because of its monetary value, but its virtuous. It was Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, who encouraged his students to treat all peoples the same, making no distinction between friend and foe, rich and poor. "Sometimes give your services for nothing," he advocated. Perhaps this shift away from wanting to do good for personal growth towards wanting to do good for personal gain is a reflection of the intrinsic moral change happening within our borders. A growing sense of deep selfishness is on display in every direction, including within the health care industry. As the parent of a child with a rare disease, this trend is frightening and grieving. Is that an emotional response? Perhaps. The talking heads would certainly accuse me so. Yet, I know of at least one pharmaceutical company which purchased the rights to a drug they did not develop and proceeded to use (or abuse) these so-called incentives to go on and develop precisely nothing. Then they cashed out. This is factual data, not emotion. I am prone to believe they cannot be alone in their business model. Spare me the "this if for the good of the sick children" and your "limited perspective" speeches until a cure for rare epilepsy is discovered. Currently, the closest we've come to that end hasn't been found in the well-incentivized pharmaceutical industry. Look west, towards the Rockies where the medical refugees have flocked. Or up, to the OR where a neuro-surgeon is performing radical brain surgery for a fraction of the cost of some of these drugs.
This "the cost is compassion" argument highlights one of the reasons why I have been slowly walking away from mainstream conservatism. I cannot align myself with a party that can justify this kind of manipulation of the system while winking and telling me it's for my child. It is the utmost hypocrisy to claim pro-life allegiance while the child is in the womb, only to abandon him when he is born with a rare disease. Clearly, I am an emotional parent with limited perspective to believe that the health of a civilization encompasses more than its profit margins.
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