Comment Re:Making money is not a "moral requirement" (Score 1) 670
But maybe it's what they teach at MBA courses.
Anyhow, time to decommercialise medicine. Yes, I know it sounds pinko commie socialist. Even so.
Not sure that raising the price is bad...
If you remove the money from the equation, the incentive to develop new medicines goes down. While this isn't immediately visible, we might find a disease arise that no one cares to research and cure in the future. So, bad juju in the long run.
If you force an established business to take a medicine that is already developed and remove the money from it, you might see short term benefits and costs go down on that medicine. Also, if the price goes up too far, the costs will put it out of range for people, or raise insurance rates so high that the insurance companies stop paying for it. This will hurt his business and cut into profits. Sounds good today and has a visible result, but what is the cost? Can the law of supply (his lab's production) and demand (price people are willing to pay) make this self-regulating?
When you don't reward success, you are doomed to mediocrity. That is why I'm not sure this is a bad thing. He may, in fact, have a moral obligation to make money because it rewards success.