Source: The American Prospect
by David Dayen
“Last week, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) announced that the United States has the largest number of medicines in short supply in the history of its survey, which dates back to 2001. As of the end of March, 323 drugs were in shortage, disrupting treatment for patients and in many cases risking prolonged injury or death. The news was accompanied by the usual parade of ignorance. ‘Health care is the US’s most highly regulated, socialist industry and shortages are endemic under socialism so the pattern fits,’ mused libertarian Alex Tabarrok of George Mason University about a system where every single pharmaceutical manufacturer (save for a nascent effort in California) is private and for-profit, and pretty much every provider too (unless you believe the convenient fiction that ‘nonprofit’ hospitals are not adopting that status as a tax dodge).” (04/17/24)
https://prospect.org/health/2024-04-17-our-uniquely-american-drug-shortages/