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Time is right for drug makers to act
If U.S. pharmaceutical makers don’t want the federal government to clamp price controls on their products, they ought to work harder at controlling the growth of drug prices.
These manufacturers are attracting the attention of potential regulators by being one of the most profitable industries in existence. Their price increases run far ahead of the rate of inflation, while patients without drug coverage struggle to keep up with the rising costs.
The United States has the highest drug prices in the world. It is also one of the few countries without some kind of price controls, which means that American consumers are, in effect, subsidizing the research that makes wonder drugs available around the globe.
However, whether the US. government should control the prices or could reduce them appreciably without choking off the development of new products is debatable.
Price controls would “devastate research and development,” said Judith Bello, executive vice president of an industry group. She said: “If our country adopted price controls on a broad range of products, it would deter investors. The bottom line is less investment means less research, and less research means fewer results.”
On the other hand, Fortune magazine rated the pharmaceutical business the most profitable of all industries last year. By one estimate, drug prices have risen 12 percent a year since 1993. This raises the appearance that the increased prices are covering research costs, providing a healthy profit margin - and then some.
The prices cause a special burden for the elderly, one-third of whom have no insurance coverage for prescription drugs. President Clinton had proposed adding prescription-drug coverage to Medicare, but the idea, which could be extremely expensive, is on hold. If it went ahead, some type of price-control approach would be likely, just as the federal program has already applied price ceilings on its reimbursements to doctors, hospitals and HMOs.
Prescription drugs are becoming increasingly important in the overall health-care picture. In many instances, medication is taking the place of more expensive surgical procedures and inpatient remedial treatment.
The pill that lowers cholesterol levels in the blood can prevent heart attacks and save the insurer the cost of angioplasties, bypasses and transplants. Many ulcers nowadays are treated with medication, eliminating millions of dollars worth of surgery.
Such a shift, if it appreciably reduced the costs of surgery or inpatient care, could eventually justify a rethinking of how health-care expenditures are handled overall. If medications can save money as well as lives, surely some of that money should be applied to the cost of the medications.

A heartbreak that can be healed
Unhappiness is a permanent resident in the world, and it likes to go visiting. It drops in on everyone at one time or another—arriving alongside its closest companions, loss and disappointment. It hulks around the living room and draws the shades against the sunshine— and then, after awhile, discreetly slips out the door.
But every now and again, unhappiness evolves into enduring misery and forgets to move on. It hangs around like a creepy house guest, toppling the emotional furniture and inducing a psychic paralysis. When that happens, what’s a beleaguered host to do?
Call the exterminators, naturally. You can find them in the yellow pages under “Mental Health Services,” or at your medical clinic. With just a quick call, you can find someone to help chase misery out the door.
Psychiatrists know how to do it; so do counselors and social workers. Even a run-of-the-mill doctor will do. All of these people recognize such misery for what it is: a treatable disorder.
This kind of misery is no cause for shame. Millions of Americans—more than one in five— suffer from some form of it right now Over their lifetimes, half of Americans will suffer. Most battle with depression or bipolar ailments; others struggle with phobias, attention difficulties or schizophrenia.
In fact, a report released recently by the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office names mental illness as the second leading cause of disability, topped only by heart disease.
Virtually all mental disorders can be effectively treated—if only their sufferers will seek treatment. But as the Surgeon General’s report notes, a shocking two-thirds of sufferers never do. They live in the dark when a single doctor’s visit could bring them into the light.
How can this be? What would keep someone living in anguish from seeking relief? Part of the answer lies in the will-sapping symptoms of mental illness: It’s hard to call for help when picking up the phone seems like an impossible challenge.
But as the new study points out, many among the mentally ill forgo treatment for other reasons: They can’t afford it, or they can’t bear the shame of it.
Cost is a surmountable barrier. A society that saw mental illness as a public health emergency —which it is—would insist that treatment be available to all. But Americans aren’t inclined to insist, because they don’t see mental health as a community concern.
Many share the misapprehension that mental illness reflects a disorder of character rather than of brain chemistry. They can’t shake the idea that there’s something embarrassing—almost freakish—about seeing a therapist or taking Prozac or Ritalin. As long as they think so, the vast number of people who could benefit from such treatment are likely to shun it.
And the number is indeed vast. Mental health trouble is one of the most common of human afflictions. How heartening it would be if it were also known as one of the most treatable and most frequently treated.

Millennium message from the publisher
It’s no surprise that the best advice on Green Valley’s future comes from one who has lived nearly the full span of the 20th century, Walter McKinley, 91, former Green Valley Community Coordinating Council president and long-time chairman of the Green Valley Fire Board, shared his thoughts with us this week in honor of the millennium.
He may be nine years short of being a centenarian but his advice is succinct: Get incorporated, get busy, get into action with the country to see that the needs of Green Valley people are fulfilled.
That advice led to some serious thinking about Green Valley’s quality of life in the new millennium.
Perhaps we should only view the future in a new decade, the next five years or 18 months hence, given the transitory nature of senior retirement aging.
We in Green Valley are in a “holding pattern” in growth brought on by our county government, preservationists, environmentalists and the folks who drive the retirement/recreation economy, the Developers.
Until their differences can be resolved, needed services and amenities will continue to stay on hold. The performing arts center, medical facilities, shopping choices need evidence of orderly growth, leadership and infusion of capital generated by the retirement economy.
As Green Valley waits, without self-government, investors are looking to other areas, such as neighboring Sahuarita, for planning and zoning decisions.
Will we become a part of a Sahuarita-Green Valley city or a mini-mega-city of Santa Cruz with northern boundaries of Tucson to the north and Nogales to the south?
Perhaps we will chose to remain a narrowly defined core area community of Green Valley with little tax-generated revenue. Or an island of geriatrics in comfortable gentrification happy with bits and pieces doled out by a remote and politically driven county board of supervisors.
It is a quality of life to contemplate, along with McKinley’s advice.

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