I'm sorry, but socialism means rationing and that everyone can't get food and medicine

[ck4829]

So imagine my surprise when I saw this:

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday declined to promise that a coronavirus vaccine would be affordable for all Americans.

"We would want to ensure that we work to make it affordable, but we can't control that price because we need the private sector to invest," Azar told members of Congress during a hearing concerning the coronavirus outbreak and the administration's budget request. "Price controls won't get us there."

Democrats and other critics quickly condemned Azar.

"Secretary Azar is refusing to promise that a Coronavirus vaccine will be affordable to every American. Kick them out of office," Sen. Brian Schatz, a Hawaii Democrat, tweeted Wednesday evening. The progressive group Center for American Progress tweeted, "This is a global health crisis, and everyone should have the right to medication that will help protect them from this virus."

https://www.businessinsider.com/trump-administration-says-coronavirus-vaccine-may-not-be-affordable-2020-2

Ah, this must be the... good... kind of rationing of something that could very well likely become an essential medicine?

[lapfog_1]

1. well I gues he doesn't know about "herd protection"

in the world of vaccinations.

you have to vaccinate as many people as possible (in a year when we finally HAVE a Covid-19 vaccine) to provide the best means of protecting the herd (all of us).

So in this case, the government absolutely should provide (mandate?) that everyone become vaccinated so as to provide the best level of protection to everyone as possible.

[N_E_1 for Tennis]

4. You don't protect the herd...

when you want to thin the herd. It’s profits before people the all-american way.

[Aussie105]

2. we can't control that price

Say what?

Oh, yeah, private companies have to develop the vaccine, produce it in large quantities, sell it to doctors, who on-sell to patients, and become mega billionaires in the process. Like real drug dealers.

But . . . take the 'private' thing out, and it becomes simple.

A government lab grows the virus, develops the vaccine against the virus, mass produces the vaccine, it gets distributed, it gets given to everyone at minimal, or no, cost. The government picks up the tab for the whole process.

That's how it works in most countries.

But if you have a government more interested in buying weapons for it's overbloated army than the welfare of it's citizens, then private interests 'have to' pick up the slack, and then the profit thing kicks in.

Be prepared to pay $100 for the vaccine for you and each family member.

But as a proud patriot, you will realize that it has to be that way, the USA needs a strong army!
(Please stand up and salute the flag at this point in time.)

[Ohiogal]

3. This just blew me away

They come right out with it now. Only the insured and the well off will get the vaccine? It’s like we’re living in a sci-fi horror movie.

[unblock]

5. Right, capitalism uses a market price mechanism to allocate scarce resources

So it effectively "rations" the scarce resources to the people willing and able to pay the most.

capitalism also provides sellers and incentive to (further) restrict supply in some cases.


I'm not an ideologue about such things. Capitalism is great for something's, not for others. I have not problem with properly regulated capitalism for most goods and services.

But for vaccines for contagious diseases, where everyone benefits from everyone else getting the vaccine, that does not fit well with the capitalist model at all.

[Chainfire]

8. Your point?

Rationing is how all health care in this country works. If you have money you can get the best treatment available for any ailment. If you can't pay, the best you can hope for is stabilization in the emergency room and tossed into the street to die on someone else's watch, and if you survive, being faced with overwhelming debt and aggressive debt collection.

The drug industry is not a shining example of Capitalism anyway. There is no way that the cost of drugs, especially older drugs would remain so high if there were competition among the companies. To drug companies, "research and development" is defined as dividends.

The whole healthcare system in the US is a racket and that is why we pay the highest cost in the world to stay alive.

[unblock]

9. My point is just that "socialism rations things" is a silly criticism

Because capitalism rations things too. It just uses a different mechanism.

The whole of economics is about allocating scarce resources.

[procon]

6. Trump is only concerned that wealthy investors will

make a big profit from a vaccine sales. He only thinks about getting richer.

Nothing bothers him regarding the potential loss of human lives, or the suffering from allowing hundreds of thousands of Americans to be shut out and left on their own to cope with the high risk of getting infected. Trump's shortsighted greed not only means more people will become sick and spread the contagion everywhere. It's a public health nightmare.

Under Obamacare rules, many vaccines, like my annual flu shot, is free. No profit there, but fewer people come down with flu and end up in costly hospital stays. It's common sense to safeguard public health by doing free testing and vaccines, but not Trump, the only thing he cares about if money.

[Autumn]

7. Alex Azar, the orange turd's very own pick for HHS is a Socialist?

Bullshit.

[Aussie105]

10. Rest assured there will be a vaccine soon.

After all, making vaccines for seasonal variations and mutations in the common flu virus is a routine matter.

The first batch will go straight to the White House. For National Security reasons, of course.

Then, as production picks up, all of Trump's insiders will get theirs.

Followed by a bidding war to be next in line for the vaccination.

Then, maybe months later, there will be enough for the man in the street. The ones still standing.

[Ohiogal]

11. Anyone here remember getting the polio vaccine?

It was given out to everyone. Was that the one you got in your arm or was that the one they gave you in a sugar cube? I remember standing in line with my mom, dad, and sister outside our neighborhood school to get it.

[Mc Mike]

12. Yeah. Those guys are nationalist socialists. rec, nt.

[Flaleftist]

13. It's BS

..But the government has a potentially powerful safety valve at its disposal to counteract outrageous pricing by the pharmaceutical industry. Under 28 U.S.C. § 1498 (“Section 1498”), the federal government has the power to use or manufacture any patented product, and must provide only “reasonable” compensation to the patent holder. The government could therefore elect to either contract with another manufacturer to produce a cheap generic version of expensive patented drugs. Or it could use the threat of Section 1498 to negotiate a license from the brand-name manufacturer to use their drugs at a steep discount.

https://www.peoplespolicyproject.org/2017/10/02/the-government-can-legally-commandeer-drug-patents/