re: #170 Walter L. Newton

I won’t. I’m out of work, been out work off and on for 6 years now, a few weeks ago lost my last “connection” with any health coverage.

I’m going to celebrate when this passes. I’ll be the first in line to get whatever it is i can get. I have to spend 415 dollars retail every two month for prescriptions. I need the help. I’m going to be selfish.

You should be happy for me.

No bill that’s visibly bad for everyone can pass. I’m glad you’re one of those who will come out ahead. The ones who will be hurt are today’s healthy folk, who ought to have enjoyed a future in which new and better antibiotics came along from time to time, along with futuristic surgical methods. The money that would have been invested in these will not be, now, because there won’t be any chance of pricing the product at the break-even point once it’s ready for the market.

Right now, there really isn’t any pharmaceutical industry in Europe. Not one with a big-time R&D arm. Same for surgery. With the U.S. out of the picture, the whole engine of progress grinds to a halt.

This does no harm at all, not right away. But over time, the difference between where we are, and where we would have been, widens.