Reply #18: Not really

[liberige]

because we've had almost 40 years of great drug innovation. All the heart and cholesterol pills, arthreitis drugs, head pills, sex drugs and other categories are either currently on generic, have been approved for generic, have had an ANDA (FDA form for a new Generic drug approval)submitted, or will go off patent by 2008. Its becoming more of a straw horse for politicians than a real issue. Why do you think Bush's "Medicare Part D saved more money than even the Government experts predicted"?

Because the government "experts" are too dumb to know about generic drugs (or too coy to include these price competition facts in their calculations). It had nothing to do with the private insurance component. Bush's take on competition looks more like the Russian oligarchs than anything you would learn in a college economics course (search UC Berkeley podcasts & check out their economics lectrures).

Medicare Part D saved money solely because some of the most popular (and expensive) prescription meds became available as generic and also were also offered by WalMart for the same cost as through Medicare, without the hassle of filing insurance claims.