It’s always fun to ask whatever happened…Like whatever happened to pop rocks? And whatever happened to three liter bottles of Coke? Whatever happened with Sars?
I’m curious as to whatever happened to the prescription drug debate. A few years ago it was the issue driving the health care debate. Now it’s gone. It’s tempting to say Bush’s Medicare Prescription drug plan played a role. Indeed seeing as so few Democrats have campaigned against it it’s fairly safe to conclude it’s a popular program and that there’s little to be gained politically from making it an issue.
But what about Wal-Mart’s four dollar generic prescription drug program? During roughly the same time as the Bush medicare plan was going into effect Wal-Mart launched the program and nearly every major pharmacy in the country followed suit with a competing product. Walgreens has a solution that requires a very reasonable annual fee and Target has its own four dollar generics. And miracle of miracle no one seems to be complaining about prescriptions anymore. Of course, there are plenty of people who require medications that don’t come in generic form but on the whole the issue has changed.
Now the Obama administration is gearing up for a new universal health care battle and the question is the same…whatever happened to the universal health care debate? For nearly 15 years we have experienced approximately the same number of people without health insurance. And certainly people are not happy with its increasing costs and decreasing coverage. So is the solution a new program with a myriad of unforeseen consequences or perhaps trying something we haven’t…letting the Wal-Marts of the world offer competitive programs consumer can afford and that will drive competition.
