>>I'd like to see a system of health care, organized by the community at any level, even if it's through its government, as a non-profit, running at cost price, and not as a retail outlet for the pharmaceuticals. There's something deeply wrong when they make money from one's illness, and have a financial incentive to grow.
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>>Why would any company invest million of dollars in research to develop life savings drugs if they are not going to reap a profit from it? Part of the cause of the high cost of drugs is the limited amount of time that the governement allows them to be patented before the makers of generics (who have invested nothing in the R&D) come along and make a profit on the work of others.
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>>If the length of time that a patent stayed in force was longer, the drugs could be cheaper because the manufacturers would have a longer period of time in which to recover their investment.
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>They *could* be cheaper. In reality they would just have longer to charge unconscionable prices before they let them go on the generic market (which they produce for and profit from as well).
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>That's like saying if the US allows oil companies to drill for oil in sensitive areas and use fracking to suck shale oil (and give them enormous tax breaks for doing it) somehow we'd be better off. In reality they just have more oil they can gouge consumers for as they have done all along while keeping congressmen and other government officials pocketed securely in order to duck responsibility for environmental damage.

Agreement! Again! The pharmas make money hand over fist, way beyond their R & D costs. They sure had enough lying around to kill even a watered down form of health care reform dead. DOA.