Big Pharma: A Market Failure is a documentary that explores the problem of extreme drug prices in the US and how drug costs impact the public, businesses and the overall US economy.
The League of Women Voters of Boulder County‘s Health Care Team partnered with People to People for a screening of the film on December 4th at Frasier Meadows Manor in Boulder.
Retired pharmacist Virginia Gebhart, one of the organizers of the event, told Rossana Longo Better that we are at a critical moment right now with the possible repeal of the Affordable Care Act. “I believe single payer universal health care is the economic and social justice issue of our time.”
While the Affordable Care Act allowed millions more people access to healthcare, Gebhart says more reform is needed.
“We also need to keep pushing for more reform so we can bring down the cost of healthcare and actually cover everybody. Even with the advances of the Affordable Care Act, we still have millions of people who are not covered, and some of the people who do have insurance are under-insured and still can’t afford their medications. We still have bankruptcies, not as much as we used to, but we still do have medical bankruptcies and that just does not happen in other countries around the world who have Universal healthcare, they have zero medical bankruptcies, where we still have thousands.”
Gebhart says that voters need to make sure that elected officials and those running for office understand that guaranteed healthcare for all for life is really important. “We expect them to fight for that for us as the state level and at the national level. We need to let them know this is a priority for us.”
- Rossana Longo Better is the KGNU/League of Women Voters Boulder County public policy/media intern.