Howard Stephenson, R-Draper, made a nice case for reducing medical costs by making generic medicines more accessible (The Tribune, Sept. 22).
Generics increase competition while monopolies decrease competition. If Stevenson wants meaningful competition, he should phone his very senior Sen. Orrin Hatch, the best friend Big Pharma ever had, and ask Hatch to rescind his insistence that Medicare cannot negotiate prices with his drug-making friends.
Supposedly, the VA buys medicines for about half of what Medicare pays for the same item.
Hatch has been lavishly repaid with contributions from these “monopolies” for his service to them as the chief proponent of this lucrative congressional regulation. Since he has $3 million in the bank, and is too old to run again, it’s time to halt this criminal giveaway to Hatch’s contributors at our expense. That will make a real dent in medical costs and eliminate one of the most shameful monopolies in American’s health care.
And to you Hatch: Stop saying you’re for free markets.
Cary Hobbs
Midway