Readers React: Pfizer-Allergen merger an example of why we need healthcare price controls

To the editor: Yes, the Pfizer-Allergen deal would increase drug prices even more with diminished competition. (“Pfizer and Allergan’s $160-billion pharmaceutical merger puts new twist on tax-avoiding inversions,” Nov. 23)

Ironically, consolidation in healthcare was at the heart of the reform plan that Hillary Clinton championed but was defeated in 1994, and it has been official since Obamacare was created.

Consolidation without price controls invites usurious prices in healthcare.

Must we all sit back and watch our toxic and deranged for-profit healthcare system bury us? Healthcare is a human right and must be set up as a public utility with price controls.

The pharmaceutical industry has fed too long on the outrageous prices we are paying. Up to half of world profits come from the United States alone, as most Western countries protect their citizens from high prices.

Also, price controls would temper the feeding frenzy for drug company consolidation.

Jerome P. Helman, MD, Venice

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To the editor: The “inversion” merger of Allergan and Pfizer, structured in a way to benefit from Ireland’s lower corporate tax rate, is merely a symptom of the problem. It could easily be fixed if the president would support a reduced tax rate on repatriation of trillions of U.S. corporate cash parked overseas.

Just imagine the stimulus to the economy and jobs if this money returned to this country. It is a no-brainer, assuming our politicians have brains and really care about jobs and the economy.

Don Black, Rancho Palos Verdes

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