radiofree.asia

NHS prices to skyrocket because Starmer caved to Trump

The NHS is the world’s largest publicly-funded health service, and this gives it tremendous bargaining power with big pharma. Unfortunately, our current prime minister Keir Starmer is significantly weaker than the NHS when it comes to bargaining, which is why we’re facing a higher burden on health spending:

Isn’t this Labour government supposed to be all about efficiency and savings?

The cost of bowing to business over the NHS

America has always paid high drug prices because they historically haven’t negotiated with the drug companies. If you’re wondering why the most powerful country to ever exist didn’t negotiate, the answer is simple – pure, unadulterated corruption. The drug companies had a strong lobbying operation, and American politicians were open to being lobbied.

America first began negotiating drug prices in 2022 under Biden. Trump has continued this trend, but he wants to keep billionaire backers on board. In aid of this, he’s arguing that America pays more because Europe has been “freeloading” (i.e. it negotiated for fairer prices). In other words, America will pay a bit less for drugs, servile states like the UK will grovelingly pay a lot more, and the drug companies will see their profits soar.

Commentators are calling what’s happening a ‘pincer move’, because private pharmaceutical companies threatened to move research and other interests out of the UK as Trump gave us the hard squeeze.

Historically, we capped how much the NHS would pay for drugs, which forced drug companies to charge less or lose out on the British market. Now, as the Times have reported:

Sir Keir Starmer is preparing to rip up NHS value-for-money rules in order to hand more money to the pharmaceutical industry.

The prime minister is ready to increase the price at which medicines are deemed cost-effective for the first time ever, under plans to prevent drug companies quitting Britain.

Ministers are now locked in a stand-off over where to find billions of pounds to pay more for medicines. NHS chiefs are resisting a raid on their budgets to fund it, while the Treasury says there is no extra cash ahead of a tax-raising budget.

You probably feel sick reading this.

Unfortunately, the medicine to rid you of that feeling will now cost significantly more.

Feeling sick themselves, people have reacted with disgust to Starmer’s latest surrender:


Health pressure group Just Treatment have called people to action over the NHS price rises:


There’s an alternative

Big pharma argue they need to earn ungodly amounts to pay for research and development (R&D) into new cures. There are some major problems with this, with two key points being:

  • Drug companies squander much of their R&D budget on work which only benefits them. In fact, 78% of new medical patents are for minor modifications to existing drugs, allowing these companies to maintain monopoly rights in a process called ‘evergreening’.
  • Despite the profits being privatised, a significant proportion of medical breakthroughs happen through public funding.

Remember, there is no such thing as a ‘public’ or ‘private’ scientist. There are scientists who work in these sectors, but these individuals are capable of breakthroughs no matter where they are. The difference between the two sectors is that one aims to end human suffering and the other reduces misery as a by-product.

Writing in the Guardian, Nick Dearden (director of Global Justice Now) said:

Big pharma uses any crisis as an opportunity to boost its already inflated profits. With Trump’s support, it’s determined to push its long-term goals.

It simply isn’t the case that Britain pays too little for its medicines. Last year, NHS England spent close to £20bn on medicines and devices. Research has repeatedly shown that branded medicines are actually too expensive, rather than too cheap, for the benefits they offer to patients, even with the rebates and clawbacks.

The truth is that big pharma is already one of the most profitable industries in the world. Diverting more of the NHS’s stretched budgets to please these fantastically wealthy global corporations will not help patients.

Speaking on a possible alternative, Dearden said:

It probably is the case that Britain underinvests in medical research. But handing blank cheques to big pharma won’t get us better drugs. Instead, we must seize this opportunity to end the stranglehold these companies have over our healthcare, and restructure the way we make our medicines. This will cost money. But medicines cost the public a fortune anyway.

We should work with countries across Europe to build world-class, publicly controlled medical research capacity. Then, rather than handing over that research to the pharma industry, we must develop a different model that allows for the sharing and licensing of research in a way that supports international collaboration to produce better medicines for all.

Patterns

A pattern has emerged with successive UK governments. They talk about ‘sensible solutions’ and ‘fiscal responsibility’, and then they put us all in incredible fiscal risk by undoing practical solutions which worked for decades.

Starmer is very much a continuation of the Tory governments of the 2010s, just as they were continuations of Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher.

It’s a race to the bottom, and the floor is rushing to meet us.

Featured image via Heute (license details)

By Willem Moore

This post was originally published on Canary.