Woodland Park, CO. Christianist presidential candidate Rick Santorum caused something of a stir Wednesday when he became embroiled in an argument with a mother and her sick child about the price of life-saving drugs. Mr. Santorum's view is that drug companies should be able to sell their products for whatever they see fit. Said the GOP candidate:
"People have no problem paying $900 for an iPad, 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 countered that her son, who suffers from schizophrenia and uses the drug Abilify, could run up a cost of $1,000,000 per year and that many children were suffering and dying due to the inability to afford medicine.
Unmoved, Mr. Santorum responded that profit is the incentive for drug companies to produce drugs that save lives.
""He's alive today because drug companies provide care," Santorum said.
"And if they didn't think they could make money providing that drug,
that drug wouldn't be here. I sympathize with these compassionate cases.
… I want your son to stay alive on much-needed drugs. Fact is, we need
companies to have incentives to make drugs. If they don't have
incentives, they won't make those drugs. We either believe in markets or
we don't."
Asked how this seemingly callous attitude fit in with his staunch Christian beliefs, Mr Santorum responded, "The Lord Jesus Christ instructed us to 'suffer the little children to come unto Him.' I intend to make sure they do just that before they go."
©2012 Kona Lowell
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