Hillarycare Preview

A quick scan of recent news stories relating to this season’s supply of Flu Vaccine indicates that the mainstream media believes that Americans should know a) that there is a vaccine shortage and b) that the CDC has changed their recommendations regarding who should take the available doses of the vaccine. Based on the stories I have read, those two tidbits of information comprise basically the entire story. The balance of the stories' contents seem to focus on recounts of verbal hand wringing by medical professionals and polite interviews with potential vaccine users who are affected by the shortage.

This past Thursday my ears perked up when I heard Rush Limbaugh make brief mention of how we got into this situation in the first place. Since then, I’ve done a little research and now I’m here to tell you what you should really know about the vaccine shortage--and why you should be angry. More importantly, I believe that the realities of the flue vaccine shortage could give us all an ominous preview of “coming attractions” with regard to the unintended results of increased meddling by the imperial Federal Government in our nation’s healthcare business.

Remember shortly after Bill Clinton’s presidential inauguration in 1993 when he turned his lovely bride Hillary Rodham-Clinton loose on the task of reforming our national healthcare system? Remember how quickly the Newt Gingrich led US Congress and the American citizens tore the document from Hillary’s manicured fingertips and stomped it flat?

Well, what you might not remember is that Hillary and the Democrats didn’t take “no” as a final answer. They just had to find some way to ensure that this countries’ “beloved children” (not your children or my children—but “our” children) received adequate healthcare. “I know what we need,” she must have said, “from now on I’ll make the government give all of the kids free vaccines….that’s the ticket.”

And she did…with the “Vaccines for Children Program.” Here is how it works. The Federal government challenged the US Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to calculate how much of each vaccine (including vaccines for other childhood illnesses like mumps and measles) the US population would need each year, then the government would go on our behalf to the drug companies and purchase the necessary quantities of each medication in bulk--at a reduced price. The vaccines would then be made available to the public at a reduced price and in many cases, for free. Sounds good on paper, right? Well, it turned out to be a disaster in the making.

Since the government in general and the Democrats specifically refuse to understand the concept of supply and demand and how the free market affects product pricing, the politicians came stomping into the vaccine market like a five hundred pound gorilla and demanded to purchase major portions of vaccine inventory each year from the dozen or so existing vendors (in 1994) at bargain basement prices. In order to stay in business and in an effort to keep their drug licenses, the manufacturers were strong armed into going along with the deal. As the years went by, one by one the vendors of the flu vaccine (and many other vaccines) dropped out of the production business, citing the rising costs of product liability lawsuits and the reduced profits resulting from the government’s bulk purchasing program.

As a result, the number of Flu vaccine vendors has dropped over the past thirty years from over TWENTY down to only TWO! Aventis Pasteur manufactures vaccines here in the United States and expects to deliver over 48 million doses of flu vaccine later this fall. The only other US FDA approved supplier, Chiron Corporation which operates their manufacturing operation in Liverpool England, had its production license pulled last week by British regulators as the result of an error in the manufacturing process. Quality control issues in a few lots of vaccine expanded to the entire supply manufactured by the company for this flu season. We've been dealing with shortages on a regional and local basis for a number of years now. With only two suppliers, it was just a matter of time until a disaster of this kind struck.

Now that it is obvious that the government’s meddling in the free market system of supply and demand has caused the shortages, rather than admitting fault and getting the heck out of the way of the process, local and national officials are out running around trying to sue vaccine suppliers for the hated crime of “Price Gouging.” Individual states have set up 1-800 hotlines for consumers and healthcare providers to report offers of suspected…shush…..don’t tell anyone…overpriced vaccine….Gasp!! My attitude is that if you want and need a given product, get out your wallet and pay the asking price (see my earlier posting--Hurricane Recovery Price Gouging.) Can you get me two front row tickets to Cirque du Soleil for $10 each...quick call the cops...they're price gouging?!?!

There has been some discussion of looking at obtaining supplies of the Flu Vaccine from Canadian approved manufacturers but the US Secretary of Health, Tommy Thompson, indicated that “it was unlikely a drug maker without a license in the United States could supply that market.” Bureaucracy at it’s finest, ladies and gentlemen. I guess that if you don’t end every other sentence with a rhetorical “eh,” own four snowmobiles, and know the words of the Canadian National Anthem, the government believes that you might be somehow maimed or otherwise injured by a vaccine designed for Canadians. Worse yet, they might fear that if you actually took the Canadian vaccine you would give up on the Braves and Yankees in favor of watching and actually understanding the rules to hockey; or quit your bowling league in favor of curling (you know, the team sport using a broom and a big smooth stone that slides on ice.)

Since only about 50% of the normal US vaccine supply is available, officials are now making it a crime to inoculate someone who is not on the CDC’s hastily modified listing of “high risk” consumers. They are actually threatening to fine and jail medical providers who commit the heinous crime of inoculating non-high risk individuals. Penalties include:

* In Washington, the fine for such a violation is $1,000
* In Wisconsin, penalties include 30 days in jail and a $500 fine
* In Massachusetts, the penalty is a $200 fine per infraction and six months in jail

An article in the Charlotte Observer offered the following statement and quotation:

A new survey of more than 2,800 hospital pharmacy directors, by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, found that 55 percent of respondents had been contacted by vendors offering vaccine at inflated prices. Of those, more than 80 percent reported prices of more than four times the original market value.

"Shame on the people who are price gouging," said Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at a news conference this week. "This is a reprehensible thing to be doing, and I think an immoral thing. We need to pull together as a country to protect our vulnerable populations."

Can you believe this? After screwing around with the process and causing the shortage, the government know-it-alls have the unmitigated gall to refuse to look at alternate supply sources and actually threaten to jail a doctor for giving someone an unapproved shot?

I ask the question, why not jail and fine the government idiots that caused this situation in the first place?

You mark my words; this is just a preview of things to come in regard to government provided healthcare services. The veterans are already filling out reams of paperwork and standing in ridiculous lines at government operated VA hospitals to get their healthcare. I suggest that the government is not going to be satisfied until we are all paying through the nose and standing in one giant line, regardless of “class” or “income level,” trembling under the fear of fines or prison if we dare to take matters into our own greedy little hands and dare go somewhere "unapproved" or pay "extra" to get our health services.

I feel like Chicken Little…the sky is falling…the sky is falling...except I’M RIGHT.

Update: October 30,2004

The presidential race is currently trumping all other news, but I'm still paying attention.

Here are some links that further my case: Vaccine manufacturing process needs updating and the trial lawyers aren't through screwing up things yet...