Santorum Tells Sick Kid Not To Complain About Drug Costs: People Pay $900 For An iPad

[Lakhota]

By Marie Diamond

While campaigning yesterday in Woodland Park, Colorado, GOP contender Rick Santorum told a sick child and his mother that they shouldn’t complain about the exorbitant cost of his medication because some people spend $900 on iPads. He appeared unmoved by the plight of the family, staunchly defending drug companies’ right to charge whatever they want.

The candidate also said that the parent and child unjustly felt entitled to get life-saving care at an affordable rate:

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.[...]

“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.

Santorum said drugs take years to develop and cost millions of dollars to produce, and manufacturers need to turn a profit or they would stop developing new drugs.​

Santorum proceeded to lecture the mother and suggest she should be grateful to the drug companies for saving her son’s life. “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.” He also claimed it would “freeze innovation” if pharmaceutical companies were required to offer their drugs at a reasonable price.

Although Santorum has been a vocal opponent of health care reform, his callous reaction is somewhat surprising given that he himself is the father of a daughter with a rare genetic disorder. But if the Colorado mother thought Santorum might be sympathetic to families in similar situations who happen to be less wealthy, she was sadly mistaken.

Santorum Tells Sick Kid Not To Complain About $1 Million Drug Costs Because People Pay $900 For An iPad | ThinkProgress

Rick Santorum Tells Sick Kid Market Should Set Drug Prices - ABC News

 

[Lakhota]

Wow...

 

[initforme]

Isnt Santorum running on his Christian values? So where does this kinda stuff fit in?

 

[Chris]

Republicans want everyone to have guns, but no one to have health care.

 

[MeBelle]

Where is the link to the video of Santorum arguing with the Mother?

Two opinion blogs don't make a left.

 

[Political Junky]

Santorum in a nutjob, and, BTW, who ever heard of a $900. iPad?

 

[Political Junky]

Where is the link to the video of Santorum arguing with the Mother?

Two opinion blogs don't make a left.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6099n6Y_yU]Rick Santorum lectures mother of sick child, defends high cost of drugs - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Rozman]

Kinda fits into a culture that spends like the government and doesn't budget.
How many people are considered poor and can't afford health care so they say
yet have computers,laptops,smart phones,big screen TV's,cable TV,high speed internet.
These are the folks that bitch that they don't have health care and want government assistance.
This kid may not be one of them but you can't tell me the people that i just described DON'T exist.

We have become a people who use credit cards like crazy and don't save for things...
I know...I am one of them.

We need to think about how we spend the money we have and not spend what we don't.
Maybe if the people start doing it the government will follow....

Well probably not.

 

[initforme]

I cannot understand why anyone running for president would want to basically say to heck with your sick child. Working class people who are barely making ends meet simply cant afford to pay those prices. Its a rich person who cant relate to the working class kinda thing.

 

[theDoctorisIn]

Where is the link to the video of Santorum arguing with the Mother?

Two opinion blogs don't make a left.

Second link, bottom of the page. There's video of it.

 

[WillowTree]

Where is the link to the video of Santorum arguing with the Mother?

Two opinion blogs don't make a left.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6099n6Y_yU]Rick Santorum lectures mother of sick child, defends high cost of drugs - YouTube[/ame]

Can you point out the fallacy of his argument?

 

[Political Junky]

I cannot understand why anyone running for president would want to basically say to heck with your sick child. Working class people who are barely making ends meet simply cant afford to pay those prices. Its a rich person who cant relate to the working class kinda thing.

Santorum gets free government health care for life, because he was a senator.

 

[Greenbeard]

“The one thing that we absolutely know for sure is that if we don’t work even harder than we did in 2008, then we’re going to have a government that tells the American people, ‘you are on your own,’” Obama told a crowd of 200 donors over lunch at the W Hotel.

“If you get sick, you’re on your own. If you can’t afford college, you’re on your own. If you don’t like that some corporation is polluting your air or the air that your child breathes, then you’re on your own,” he said. “That’s not the America I believe in. It’s not the America you believe in.”

Another case for the "no shit" file, O.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Republicans want everyone to have guns, but no one to have health care.

Guns are in the Constitution, ObamaCare isn't.

Chris, why are you in favor of those gov't run death panels anyway? You know they're lying to you when they say that if they "kill granny they can pay for 10 teachers".

They're just gonna' kill granny and pocket the money, you know it's true!

 

[California Girl]

I would want to hear the whole exchange before I accept the spin on this. It's not like dishonest hacks don't take people's words out of context to create bullshit.

 

[Mad Scientist]

I cannot understand why anyone running for president would want to basically say to heck with your sick child. Working class people who are barely making ends meet simply cant afford to pay those prices. Its a rich person who cant relate to the working class kinda thing.

Santorum gets free government health care for life, because he was a senator.

I get free gov't health care for life because I'm a Vet. And judging by the care I received when I was active duty I'm NEVER going to a VA Hospital. I'll just use my Blue Cross/Blue Shield.

"Free" doesn't mean it's "Good". In fact, there are many reasons it's free. One of which is that no one would pay for it.

 

[Harry Dresden]

Republicans want everyone to have guns, but no one to have health care.

all Republicans Chris?.....can you prove that?.....

 

[bodecea]

Republicans want everyone to have guns, but no one to have health care.

Guns are in the Constitution, ObamaCare isn't.

Chris, why are you in favor of those gov't run death panels anyway? You know they're lying to you when they say that if they "kill granny they can pay for 10 teachers".

They're just gonna' kill granny and pocket the money, you know it's true!

Guns are not in the Constitution.

 

[Full-Auto]

By Marie Diamond

While campaigning yesterday in Woodland Park, Colorado, GOP contender Rick Santorum told a sick child and his mother that they shouldn’t complain about the exorbitant cost of his medication because some people spend $900 on iPads. He appeared unmoved by the plight of the family, staunchly defending drug companies’ right to charge whatever they want.

The candidate also said that the parent and child unjustly felt entitled to get life-saving care at an affordable rate:

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.[...]

“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.

Santorum said drugs take years to develop and cost millions of dollars to produce, and manufacturers need to turn a profit or they would stop developing new drugs.​

Santorum proceeded to lecture the mother and suggest she should be grateful to the drug companies for saving her son’s life. “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.” He also claimed it would “freeze innovation” if pharmaceutical companies were required to offer their drugs at a reasonable price.

Although Santorum has been a vocal opponent of health care reform, his callous reaction is somewhat surprising given that he himself is the father of a daughter with a rare genetic disorder. But if the Colorado mother thought Santorum might be sympathetic to families in similar situations who happen to be less wealthy, she was sadly mistaken.

Santorum Tells Sick Kid Not To Complain About $1 Million Drug Costs Because People Pay $900 For An iPad | ThinkProgress

Rick Santorum Tells Sick Kid Market Should Set Drug Prices - ABC News

I guess that would confirm both the repubs and dems are on the same page.

Democrats do pay it better lip service though.

 

[initforme]

If the shoe were on the other foot Santorums outlook would be 100 percent different. Thats the SAD part. Protect big business at any cost. Profit over lives as long as you are one who can afford to pay it.