Edwards Speaks on Health Care

Democratic presidential candidate, John Edwards, went into further detail on his health-care plan today.

Among the more interesting highlights was the idea of removing patents from breakthrough drugs and forcing health insurance companies to spend at least 85% of their premiums on patient care.

Mr. Edwards also believes that offering cash incentives will make it so that generic brands of breakthrough drugs will be more available, instead of one company benefiting from the discovery.

However, Mr. Edwards does not recognize that drug companies will not be willing to share their drug if they know it is not in the best interest. The only reason why we have made the advances that we have in medicine, is that companies knew they would be rewarded for their research and effort.

Mr. Edwards' plan takes away the most fundamental aspect of a business, which drug companies are, and that is the potential for profit.

All Mr. Edwards' plan does is eliminate the incentive for drug companies to research and develop new drugs, or at the very least, make those drugs available in the United States.

To cover the costs of his 90-120 billion dollar 'universal' healtcare plan, Mr. Edwards intends on raising taxes.