Venezuela to Limit Medicine Prices After Chavez Devaluation

[naaman fletcher]

Prediction: 60 days from now there will be a shortage of medicines.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-02-14/venezuela-to-limit-medicine-prices-in-wake-of-chavez-devaluation.html

Venezuela will cap prices on essential medicines after President Hugo Chavez, who is undergoing “complex” cancer treatments in Cuba, ordered a 32 percent devaluation of the bolivar.

The government ordered the country’s price controls agency to submit a report “to establish maximum prices” within two weeks, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said on state television yesterday. The decision was made at a meeting of the economic team during the Carnival holiday this week, he said.

“We will establish the maximum prices for the people’s essential medicines and control them strictly so the medicine is available in all the establishments,” Maduro said.

Chavez, who hasn’t been seen or heard from publicly since arriving in Havana on Dec. 10 for cancer surgery, ordered his government to weaken the exchange rate by 32 percent to 6.3 bolivars per dollar starting yesterday. The devaluation, announced Feb. 8, spurred Venezuelans to shop for everything from televisions to airline tickets before prices climbed.

[99th_Monkey]

1. Imagine that.

A socialist government passes law that directly benefits poor people, and
stands up to private interests, to put reasonable limits on corporate profiteering.

Who'da thunk?

[naaman fletcher]

2. As I said

In 60 days there will be a shortage of medicine. count on it.

[99th_Monkey]

3. So they may need to fine-tune it a bit

find a little middle-ground on a few meds, but over-all,
this WILL hugely benefit poor people, who need
better access to pharmaceutical drugs at a reasonable
price.

[Bacchus4.0]

4. it doesn't benefit poor people if there is no medicine to be had

it will be just like their food crisis which doesn't benefit poor people either. Ven. imports 70% of its products including food. Economic diversification and self sufficiency have been an abject failure in Venezuela. Not sure if there are even any efforts to do so.

[99th_Monkey]

5. Well, you may be right

I guess we'll see how it unfolds. I really do wish the
Venezuelans all the best in their ongoing experiment
with democratic socialism that successfully benefits
the poor, while placing reasonable restraints on uber-
rich predatory vampires.