As a family member with several cell base diseases I was delighted to read The Capital Times’ recent guest column, “FTC fighting deals to keep generic drugs off shelves.” Federal Trade Commissioner, Jon Leibowitz wrote, “Getting health care costs under control is a daunting and multifaceted challenge.”
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.
Stop federal and state funding of biotech research and
development companies without providing public health care benefit safeguards
to ensure that stem cell derived cures and medications will be accessible and
affordable to all Wisconsin citizens.
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.
