When the politicians do something one has advocated for years, there is a sense of gratification and hopefulness. The Kensington Review is delighted that the politicos in the state of Maine have told the big drug companies to lower their prices if they want to do business in there. And the courts, thus far, have backed the state.
The drug companies (which prefer to be called pharmaceutical firms despite the addictive nature of many of their products) still have a few legal moves to make, but in essence, they are going to have to cut their prices for people in Maine. They complain that their profit margins will be eliminated and that research into new life-saving substances will be reduced because they won't be able to afford it.
The fact is that a pill in the US for just about any prescription medication costs more than it does in any other developed country. As noted in earlier issues, some firms have even advertised mail-order prescription filling from Canada to American seniors. What has gone on all these years is the American public has been subsidizing the rest of the world by paying more.
In America's federal system, what one state tries and succeeds in doing will spread to the other states. When New York, California, Texas and Florida look at the Maine experiment (which is destined to succeed without judicial malfeasance), they will follow suit, and prices will come down across the country. Buyers just needed to realize their power and use it.