In the Face of Evil II

5:51 pm, 10/6/04

In the Face of Evil II
Today, this blog's archnemesis, Illinois Governor Rod "Corruptevich" Blagojevich, came to the town where I was born and raised: Herrin, Illinois. (As far as I know, it's the first time he's ever been.) He was in town, at the Williamson County Programs on Aging office, to talk about our new "I-SaveRX" prescription drug reimportation program. Among the highlights of the event, Blago praised one of America's most heinous acts of union violence and mass murder as part of Southern Illinois' "long history of standing up to big business". However, before I get to Blago "the man", I'm going to tell you what I've found about Blago "the plan", since it's pretty interesting stuff.

Illinois' drug reimportation plan involves buying back discounted drugs from the Canadian, British, and Irish markets. This is illegal, but Blagojevich is doing it anyway, and now Wisconsin has decided to tag along for the ride. Whatever problems the Irish had with it have apparently either been worked out or ignored. The way Blagojevich explained it, the plan includes about 100 popular brand name drugs, which you can order directly through the state's mail order system, which will draw on several dozen state-inspected pharmacies. There are no narcotics nor pharmaceuticals that might spoil in transit (insulin, etc), and the plan is only available for refills, you have to get your first run of the drug here at home and, as Blagojevich explained it, let your doctor "make sure it's working". There's also a turnaround time of a few weeks when you start your order.

Now, I have mixed feelings about all this. On one hand, I think we're opening up our market to a lot of unknown variables. Other states are going to model on this system, and one way or another, this is going to exert harsh forces on the marketplace. Regulations of American pharmaceuticals in other countries have turned the American consumers of those products into victims of foreign socialism, and something certainly ought to be done about it. I'm suspicious of this scheme, though. On one hand, if the foreign governments involved stonewall on their price caps, they're heading for a major war with the pharmaceutical industry, which depends on the American market to make up for lost income. The negative effects that foreign regulations have on our market could be magnified several times over. On the other, if they don't, there are going to be a lot of angry Canadians, Brits, and Irish when they find that their drug prices are skyrocketing to meet our collapsing domestic prices somewhere in the middle in an open marketplace. They'll be picking up their share of the tab, but they're probably not going to be real happy about it, and this is going to have severe consequences for their government planned health programs.

Shockingly, Blagojevich says he subscribes to the latter theory, which is actually an admirable thing. In fact, he referred to it as "doing what our economic principles tell us to do anyway". I nearly shit myself. "Substantial savings can be realized!" he exclaimed, sounding somewhat like an overly formal used car lot commercial, although I don't think he quite admits that prices in the US will not bottom out at European or Canadian levels, but rather there would be an equilibrium, a balance somewhere inbetween. Blagojevich at least says that he believes that this is a well-constructed plan using capitalist market forces to fight socialism and solve the problem. That's so far out of character that I can't quite wrap my brain around it, but that's what he said. I also have a substantial issue with using a state-run mail order center to manage this whole cockamaimy scheme, but I'll cross that bridge in the narrative below. (Warning: Many anecdotes ahead. It's needed in order to mock Blagojevich as thoroughly as possible.)