The Healthcare Debate

Megan McArdle writes about why universal healthcare is not a good idea.

But clinical trials for a single successful drug cost $500 million, and not because the labs have outrageous administrative overhead. Even if the government were in charge of running them, they would still be on the hook for that $500 million, which would have to come out of taxes. We can get existing drugs on the cheap by essentially stealing the property of shareholders in drug firms, who risked a lot of money on drugs that they reasonably expected to be profitable under existing laws. But that's a one-trick pony. We cannot get new drugs at bargain basement prices.

This is one of the main arguments against universal healthcare and perhaps the most persuasive. How many new drugs come out of Europe? Very few.