True, SnowPatrol, but the whole point in my last post was to try to steer the topic back to what it was originally intended to be about.

I'm not here to debate over Edwards' ethics or the deep pockets that he's supposedly reaching into. I was here to comment on the connection between the rising cost of medication and its connection to our failing healthcare system. Yes, there is a connection between medical malpractice suits, I'm not going to deny that, but there are also other factors involved here, like Big Pharma, and the rising cost of medication due to "research" projects into "new" drugs, that IMO, really aren't so new.

Do the research, you'll find out that a lot of these supposed new medications that are suddenly becoming available (not to mention being pushed by the family practitioners who receive enormous kickbacks from the pharmaceutical companies as an incentive to prescribe their medications) are just the same basic formulas to old medications with slight variations on the chemical makeups of them marketed under new names.

Why do they do this? Because the patents have worn off, generics are available, and there is no money to be made off of generic medications for Big Pharma.

If you still have the luxury of having medical insurance and a prescripton plan, good luck finding a doctor who is willing to prescribe you a drug with an available generic. Your copay is only going to pay for so much of the medication, and the rest is up to you. This is why I don't blame Seniors for taking their bus trips to Canada and Mexico, and no amount of propaganda on the government's part is going to convince me that these medications are substandard to the American versions of them. Talk about deep pockets!! Blaming John Edwards for why the cost of medications in this country is ludicrous, but that's JMO.

Once again, you people have gotten me to the point to where I'm getting too emotionally involved in the debate, so it looks like my last hurrah here, as well.

Eeyore