A Stem Cell Funding Health Care Benefit Safeguard Is Proposed

Recently Federal Trade Commissioner, Jon Leibowitz wrote, “Getting health care costs under control is a daunting and multifaceted challenge.” As a family member with several stem cell diseases Leibowitz emphasized that there is no one solution to fixing our health care crisis.

He then went on to report how pharmaceutical companies collude with their competitors to keep lower generic alternatives to prescription drugs off the market and how the commission plans to ban such “pay-for-delay” settlements.

Leibowitz is challenging all citizens and health care consumers who are waiting for a single payer universal health care plan to arrive must meanwhile continue to take steps to bring about more accessible and affordable health care to all our citizens. In this spirit I want to propose another simple approach that would save health care consumers billions of dollars annually.

To date we have been promised only indirect trickle-down economic effects, including more jobs and a higher tax base from our support. While this is a worthy and much needed economic benefit, it alone is far too narrow and short sighted. If Wisconsin is to effectively manage its ever escalating and exorbitant health care costs we must act now.

A genuine public health care benefit for public funding of stem cell research can range from a percentage of biotech profits beyond a certain threshold to simply ensuring that drug costs and other stem therapies in Wisconsin will be managed and made at reasonable costs to all our citizens. Other public interests policy concerns have to do with whether medication discounts are to be given to low and medium income patients and other underserved groups?

Will Wisconsin taxpayers have any say to help ensure that such stem cell funding targets prioritized disease groups such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes and sickle cell anemia versus pursuing products that have only short-term commercial and cosmetic benefits?

Millions of our state tax dollars have already been spent and more have been added to this year’s biennium budget without any such consumer safeguards. State innovation grants, tax credits and a host of other public financial incentives are being invested and now are in the state administrative pipeline.

Asking grantees to do the right thing after giving away the farm is like asking the fox to cough up the chickens after giving him the key to the hen house. If these stem cell policy concerns are not already on your civic or health care organization’s radar screen and advocacy agenda such neglect could be catastrophic for Wisconsin health care consumers.

The fundamental policy questions that you and your organization should be asking is should your organization support legislation for federal and state funding of stem cell research with public health care payback safeguards?

Respectfully yours,

William R. Benedict,
Madison.