the comfort of opinion

Too often we... enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought. John F. Kennedy

There is an article on the Internet stating that a new generation of drugs, fighting prostate cancer (when it has spread beyond the prostate itself), permitting many of the men suffering from the disease to live as long as two years has been developed. The drug’s intention is to permit longer life, hoping that in the course of the extension of life perhaps newer drugs might be brought to the fore extending life even longer. Hurray, sort of!

It seems that the monthly cost for these new classes of drugs could be as high as $5000 a month. Who pays for this and who can afford to pay for them?

Many on the Republican/Bagger side of the aisle believe that the free market should and could dictate the prices we pay for anything manufactured. They insist that the welfare and needs of humans are always taken into consideration by the free markets, and if prices are too high the ‘old’ supply and demand will take hold and pricing, if too high will come down. If too many advanced cancer patients do not want to pay the $5000 monthly fee then they (according to the free market brigade) could withhold their money and eventually the price of these drugs will go down. Simple on theory, but if the people suffering from an advanced state of prostate cancer withhold taking the medicine; many of them may die way before the free markets take into consideration their pricing scheme.

Health care in this country is a matter of free markets also. Seems demanding that universal health care for all Americans is un-American and chisels away at the Capitalism upon which this nation thrives. Many of the Republican/Baggers and the cowardly Dems, were appalled that the government would insist that affordable health care be available for the poor, the minority, the frail and the elderly. This is America they insisted, and if prices are too high, conditions to steep, then the free market will adjust because the consumer will not buy the product. No one should set conditions on the health insurance industry telling them what they can and can not do. If pre-existing conditions are a matter of business then let the person with a pre-existing condition find health insurance elsewhere and if they can’t then go without. If a life saving procedure is deemed too costly then find another procedure that may or may not save a life, and ya’ never know till it doesn’t work anyway.

This is America the argument goes and you can’t insist that all people have medical insurance (but you certainly can tell all women not have an abortion or have control on their reproductive rights and you can tall all Gay Americans they can’t wed, serve in the armed forces or adopt children). The free market will heal the wounds we are told, except in the matter of health, health care too many people may die of those wounds until the free market comes around to heal thyself, if ever!

I am not sure how life liberty and the pursuit of happiness can always abide by the principles of a free market philosophy. I am not sure why share holders, CEO’s stock dividends play a more superior role in the role of survival of human life in America visa vie health care and prescription drugs in America. I am not sure how in a country which recently seems so preoccupied with God, religion, spirituality can still talk about the sanctity of life yet let the free market decide who shall live, who shall die, who shall suffer.

As President Kennedy was quoted we do enjoy the comfort of opinion, but I wonder how much thought all of us actually provide before we decide what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong?