(American citizens can’t be) “deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use…”- Fifth Amendment to the Constitution (note preface wording added by author)
By Jack Bernard
PEACHTREE CITY, Ga. | It was hard for me to learn about the biggest U.S. pharmaceutical lobbying group suing our government because a law was passed by Congress permitting Department of Health and Human Services to negotiate some (not all) Medicare drug prices for our seniors. That self-interested lobbying group (the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — PhRMA) is saying, based on a very flimsy legal argument, that law violates the due process clause above.
We can all agree on one thing. The Fifth Amendment, as well as others like the Second Amendment regarding guns, is very poorly worded. That fact enables the introduction of personal bias by unscrupulous judges who twist meanings to suit their own political views. But it should be obvious to anyone, even our radically right-wing, politicized Supreme Court, that this amendment was meant to refer to due process for our citizens, not for the huge self-interested, for-profit drug corporations, which have been exploiting Americans.
And we should also all agree on another fact that has been conclusively proven by study after study: these for-profit multi-national companies are interested in only one thing, their bottom line. As renowned conservative economist Milton Friedman has stated: “There is one and only one social responsibility of business, to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits…”
Thus, because of the lack of market competition and/or regulation, our U.S. citizens pay much more than residents of other nations for drugs. Per one study: “The U.S. spends 7.5 times what England does on outpatient drugs for an older adult hospitalized with heart failure and diabetes. The U.S. spends nearly twice as much as Canada, the next-highest country.”
Other studies have found the same, with annual drug spending by U.S. public and private health insurers running $963 per capita, more than double what other developed nations pay, $(466 per capita).
Our Supreme Court conservative majority says it is “originalist.” That means that in its decision-making it uses the intent of the Founding Fathers, that is, whatever existed in 1776 when the Constitution was written. That was their excuse for overturning well-established legal precedent protecting women’s rights (i.e., the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v Wade).
Let’s see what the Trump appointed judges have to say about this case when it ends up in their laps. Will they mis-interpret the Constitution once again as they did with abortion rights in 2022 and guns in 2008? Will they say that drug corporations are really people, as they did in the disastrous Citizens United decision, permitting dark money contributions by big business to undercut our democracy? I would not put it past them.
Some may think the ultra-conservative Supreme Court is doing good work. If so, they do not realize the long-term harm coming out of this court.
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