A Mistake Of EPIC Proportions

A lot of people probably think I'm opposed to government-sponsored or government-provided health care because I'm quite mean and have no compassion for the poor.  But my opposition is really due to cock-ups like this one.

Basic economics dictate that businesses selling their products for less than they cost will ultimately go out of business.

Astonishingly, that is precisely the kind of business strategy Gov. Eliot L. Spitzer’s proposed budget asks the state’s pharmacies to pursue.

The governor’s plan fails to reimburse pharmacies for the actual costs they incur to dispense medication through Medicare and the state’s Elderly Pharmaceutical Insurance Coverage (EPIC) program, threatening their ability to continue providing critical community- based health care services.

While politicians may indeed be sincere in their desire to see everyone provided with health care, they are also subject to competing demands for our money from the schools, infrastructure needs and their own districts' pet projects. Governor Spitzer is no different.   He's robbing health care to pay education.

By cutting the reimbursement rate to pharmacies for EPIC customers he will claim that he's cutting health care costs for New Yorkers, but he isn't. Government can control prices by simply legislating them, but government can't control costs.   And it will cost many pharmacies more to fill a prescription than the state will pay them.

Wal-Mart (and I do applaud them) can charge $4 for a generic prescription because it's so huge that the loss will be made up for when its pharmacy customers do some other shopping in the store.  The Governor's proposal won't hurt Wal-Mart one bit and it shouldn't.  But the small, independent pharmacy on the East Side can't sell prescriptions for that price and survive.

But I have a feeling that the same people who protest Wal-Mart because it kills small businesses won't utter a peep when the state government kills small businesses.   If government's going to pay for prescriptions, then it must do as it does with Food Stamps and reimburse the pharmacy the full asking price. 

It will cost the taxpayers more money but at least then we'll know what we're arguing about, and can stop pretending that government can reduce health care costs when all it's really doing is shifting the costs onto the very people that provide us with our care and very well driving them out of business in the process.