Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a mother and her sick young son Wednesday

[democracy1st]

WOODLAND PARK, Colo. - GOP contender Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a mother and her sick young son Wednesday, arguing that drug companies were entitled to charge whatever the market demanded for life-saving therapies.

Santorum, himself the father of a child with a rare genetic disorder, compared buying drugs to buying an iPad, and said demand would determine the cost of medical therapies.

"People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad," Santorum said, "but paying $900 for a drug they have a problem with - it keeps you alive. Why? Because you've been conditioned to think health care is something you can get without having to pay for it."

The mother said the boy was on the drug Abilify, used to treat schizophrenia, and that, on paper, its costs would exceed $1 million each year.

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blogs/rick-santorum-tells-sick-kid-market-set-drug-004745384--abc-news.html

[Little Star]

1. Somebody buy that dumb ass a clue. n/t

[zbdent]

14. clues that would actually get through to him

are far too expensive for the 99% to pool together their money to buy ...

[hifiguy]

35. You could beat on Frothy with a clue bat from now

until doomsday and nothing would get through. That kind of stupidity and arrogance goes to the bone.

[nobodyspecial]

2. Talk about clueless

People who don't buy and iPad won't die. People who don't have access to life-saving drugs will die.

You really want the market to decide how much a life is worth?

[southernyankeebelle]

5. I hate to tell that idiot I couldn't afford to buy an Ipad either.

[hyphenate]

12. Me, neither!

It was going to take me four months to pay for a Kindle Fire for myself. My brother bought it for me for Xmas, and I thought it was the bestest present I ever got--in my life!

[southernyankeebelle]

21. Are you having a problems with your Kindle Fire? I was reading there were some problems

with it. How do you like it? I have the regular kindle I got for my husband a couple of years ago and he doesn't like it. So I use it. But I just can't see paying for a Ipad $900. Sandy is an idiot. I hope that woman told him that she couldn't afford it either.

[hyphenate]

26. No problems so far

But I've got a decent amount of ebooks and other stuff for it I've gotten over the past couple of years that I've downloaded myself, so I loaded a lot of them onto it.

You can get a lot of free PDF files at books.google.com, most of them public domain with the complete books, or from a couple of other sites with large collections of old books. Even Amazon has a nice little section of free books available to download.

I read a lot of magazines, and that's one of the reasons I wanted the color one, because it's hard to read a magazine like Architectural Digest on a black and white ereader! And when I go to appointments, it's nice not to have to read a magazine that everyone and his brother has been pawing through, with god knows what germs on their hands.

I enjoyed it on the plane, too--less weight than carrying half a dozen books around with me!

[southernyankeebelle]

30. That is good. We were going to get one for my sister but decided to wait a yr or 2.

[PCIntern]

3. do many people buy iPads weekly or monthly? n/t

[nanabugg]

4. But you don't pay $900 a month for an iPad. nt

[PCIntern]

8. "Great minds think alike!" n/t

[uponit7771]

6. Sometimes I wish these people would REALLY keep God out of their politics...

...this isn't what MOST Christians act like

[atreides1]

16. I'm still waiting for those Christians

To actually show up...and tell people the truth about Christianity! But until they do, this is the example everyone gets to see, and this is why MOST Christians get a bad rep.

[EFerrari]

7. The market is not free if Congress fixes the prices, idiot.

[Patiod]

29. As if there's any such a thing as a free market

It's a myth. There's ALWAYS regulation.

[Glimmer of Hope]

9. Scary stupid.

[hyphenate]

10. Just like every other GOP/religious right wingnut

who is an idiot. Imbecile.

[dana_b]

11. isn't the free market grand?

unless you want a medication from oh say Canada. Then it's bad.

Oh -and I've never heard of a $1M iPad. Heartless fuck.

[KeepItReal]

13. I wish Santorum and all his ilk go lower middle class

Not "go broke" - just lower middle class - where *they* can't have Medicaid or Medicare and have pay out of their own wages what "the market" says drugs in the USA are "worth".

[xfundy]

15. Alert! Santorum is surging again!

People will give up all their money, all their possessions, including their house, just to live another day.

Day after that?

Fuck 'em, say repigs.

[sharp_stick]

17. Not that it makes what Santorum said

any better or this poor woman's problem any easier but Abilify at the highest dose and at full retail is $10,000/yr not $1,000,000

[DianaForRussFeingold]

18. Wow! He can't tell the differance between an ipad and a life saving drug...

I can't understand how Republicans can fall for this crap! Can't they see he has his government provided insurance to cover the cost of his own sick child, no matter what the cost...!

[Whisp]

19. what a piece of stinky shit

hate that bastard with a billion passions.

[Ms. Toad]

20. Just paid $3008 for one prescription for my daughter...

Ouch.

It is a medication she would have been on the rest of her life, had the trial she was in worked. I had been estimating $40-60,000 a year when I was anticipating using it (she was on it for free as part of a year long trial - so all I had to go by was internet mail order estimates). Now that I am actually paying for it I can be more precise. At the dose she was on during the trial, the cost would have been $176,000 for the year. Guess I underestimated.

Fortunately, this is a short term use for a different condition. But still, ouch.

Unfortunately, because the trial didn't work she will ultimately need a liver transplant.

Sad thing is, the medication is very old and is available for IV use for about $80 for the same quantity we purchased for $3008 - the capsule version is new enough to still be covered by a patent.

But - the drug companies must make their profits - it was oh-so-hard for them to figure out how to stuff that powder into capsules.

[AzDar]

22. I am an Atheist, yet I believe my behavior is more "christian" than that of people like Santorum.

Heal the sick, feed the hungry, love thy fucking neighbor...

[Vattel]

23. What a fucking asshole.

[bullwinkle428]

24. I think the idea that he did this on the heels of another health scare that his own

daughter went through makes him even MORE of a vile, sub-human cretin than he otherwise would have been.

[izquierdista]

25. I'm disappointed

I was hoping Rick Santorum had a heated exchange with a stuck radiator valve. Now that would have been

Especially when the valve got the better of him.

[pacalo]

27. What kind of moral value is that?! Profitability in the market takes priority over human life?

Of course, I didn't mean to include the egg in the womb. Because they have self-rightousness to exploit, they have the gall to call themselves PRO-LIFE! And we ALLOW them to get away with it without setting them straight at the get-go. Just look at the ease at which they speak of allowing a human life to deteriorate because "the market must be able to make a profit". Sorry, we would have been able to muster up the concern for you if you were a little tadpole in the womb. After that, you're on your own.

I'm so embarrassed for him as a human being.

[IndyJones]

28. OMG! He seriously said that? We pay so much for our insurance and no, I can't buy an iPad.

I have a huge problem with buying an iPad, so I don't buy one. We pay sooooo much for our insurance. To say that to a mother who needs medicine for her child is unbelievable!

[Life Long Dem]

31. "Demand would determine the cost".

Doesn't matter the costs would exceed $1 million each year. That's some crazy demand. Someone please show this guy the door.

I misread that. Still, 1200 patients a year or 100 a month for a year is over $1 million each year.

[WI_DEM]

32. Doesn't he understand that many people have to choose between food and their drugs?

instead he is talking about IPAD's.

[ljm2002]

33. His analogy doesn't work anyway...

...so let's say an Ipad costs $900 and a life-saving drug costs $900.

Next month, you won't need another Ipad. You already have one. But you will need another round of drugs. And you will need them the next month, and the month after that, etc.

Also: that family's estimated yearly expense for medication exceeds $1M per year. That's a lot of Ipads.

[area51]

34. +1

And also, why are our drugs so expensive here in the USA? I thought our tax dollars are paying for R&D, and therefore, they're basically subsidized, we're just not getting the benefits of that.