But perhaps a better answer is that if we want innovation and scientific discovery we should fund innovation and scientific discovery, not go after it bass-ackwards by paying too much for overpriced drugs and hoping that some of the excess profit will trickle down into innovative research.
Rule #1 of evaluating your sources: don’t trust anyone who claims to be an expert but uses the phrase “bass-ackwards.”
Additionally: Jerry Avorn employs the rhetoric of derision: mock those who believe that the market leads to innovation and discovery by calling their beliefs “hoping.” And yet it seems almost too obvious yet apparently not obvious enough to point out that many innovations and scientific discoveries, in many different fields, have come from companies and individuals who hoped to be compensated for their hard work with piles of money.
Viz.: Direct funding is good, too.
To wit: Let’s not get rid of market incentives for drug research.
Also: I’m glad Dr. Jerry Avorn isn’t applying this same logic to, say, cars, cell phones, or anything else I have to use.
Potential thesis for first-year English essay: Simplistic rhetoric leads me to distrust some proponents of health care reform.
Ezra Klein - Will Health-Care Reform Save Medical Innovation? An Interview With Dr. Jerry Avorn.
