Intro
Don Osborn
I am a three time father, three time grandfather, husband, and mortgage holder. My wife of 32 years teaches 4th grade in the Adams 12 school district and is a retiree from Continental, now United, airlines.
Over my many years of employment I have been a health insurance salesperson, industrial technician, and truck driver, but mostly I have been in commercial construction. I have worked as an estimator, project manager, superintendent, carpenter, electrician, and business owner. Most of my career was spent as a business owner doing commercial millwork installation and tenant finish projects.
During the last downturn in the economy I decided to finish my college degree and earned a Bachelors of Economics from UNC, and an Associate's of Science degree at Front Range Community College, emphasis in chemistry.
For fun I like to travel, ride motocross, woodwork, and study chemistry and history.
I was born in Rifle Colorado to a loving blue collar set of parents that imparted certain philosophical and ethical values in my soul. My late in life education at a liberal arts university did not change those values, but did tweak some of my arguments and I became much more pragmatic as opposed to philosophic. I now describe myself as a “moderate Libertarian”, staunch feminist, and believer in law abiding diversity of all kinds. My primary goal as a senator will be to reign in expensive and inefficient government programs, drastically change how healthcare is delivered and paid for, and generally reduce government burdens.
I will happily entertain any questions or queries.
What sort of public policy or infrastructure would you propose to prevent pharmaceutical companies from charging "unreasonable" prices for medication that can greatly improve the lives of lessor privileged people who suffer from unfortunate health conditions?
ReplyDeleteWow! Start off with an easy one next time.
DeleteAs things stand now pharmaceutical companies sometimes offer individuals who are less fortunate reduced pricing for certain medications that are not covered adequately, or at all, by insurance carriers. The consumer applies for the reduced cost medication directly with the manufacturer. I believe that even large corporations have both humane policies and are concerned about their public image, except maybe Comcast. There is also a roll here for private charities to play a part before being crowded out by taxpayer subsidies.
I do not support government involvement or subsidies because big pharma knows how to milk the system and the prices will stay higher longer.
Creating another means tested entitlement would be counter productive because it would encourage drug manufacturers to bring to market unnecessarily expensive products via rent seeking*. Reducing patent protection time frames may also help lower the costs through earlier competition.
My aversion to government involvement in health care is not absolute as I believe that dialysis was prohibitively costly to any insurer and our current system seems to work well, although I just have to wonder what would happen if DaVita had a little competition.
There is no easy answer here and I welcome fresh ideas.
*Rent-seeking is the use of the resources of a company, an organization or an individual to obtain economic gain from others without reciprocating any benefits to society through wealth creation. An example of rent-seeking is when a company lobbies the government for loan subsidies, grants or tariff protection. These activities do not create any benefit for society but merely redistribute resources from the taxpayers to the company.
What is your stance on abortion?
ReplyDelete