Hep C is the colloquial name for hepatitis C. Hep C is a viral liver disease that is spread by blood and is very debilitating. It robs you of your energy. It often requires a liver transplant. For people who are weak or old or have other serious problems, the main treatment, Interferon, is much too strong and not sufficiently effective.
A miracle has arrived.
A drug called Sovaldi has been produced and tested by Gilead a giant pharmaceutical company and has passed the FDA saftey requirements. It is effective in 9 out of10 cases; even for difficult patients and may be hundred percent effective.
A close personal friend of mine, and co-author, has been a patient with Hep C for 30 years. She could not survive any of the earlier, less effective, treatments. She is now totally cured thanks to Solvaldi.
Gilead, by the way, is a company founded in the U.S. and based entirely on American medical research. Donald Rumsfeld was on its early board of directors.
Sovaldi costs $1000 a pill and requires 12 weeks of treatment. The total cost, including pre-and post testing is roughly $100,000. This is considerably less expensive than a $.5 million liver transplant or other treatments with Interferon that last for only a few years. Sovaldi works.
Now we come to the issue of evil.
If the US government had its way in setting prices for private companies Sovaldi would be forced to sell for a significantly lower amount of money. I base this on the current ferocious demand in the U.S. by Health agencies to force the price down.
This sends a message to every company that is developing a vital cure for a major illness: ‘it is time to stop investing in research for cures and risk spending much more to defend the products' market price against the government’. Private business are creating cures for human illness because they expect to make a profit that covers the unknown and unknowable costs of their research plus years of testing for FDA approval. That is a lot of money. More money than the U.S. government spends on any single major illness in research grants.
My close friend would be dead if the US government, that now controls most healthcare, were in charge of pricing for this Hep C cure.
I consider that effect of Obamacare to be evil. You kill my friends because of your regulatory inanity and I call that ‘evil’.
I have said over and over that the problem with national healthcare with Obamacare is that it stifles innovation in healthcare. Innovation in healthcare is what keeps people who have been attacked by vicious microbes able to survive or live vibrant lives.
These same people who are victims of their battle against microbes are also victims of a government agency that restricts the necessary investment in research and development to help humans win their battles. Obamacare is evil.