This argument always strikes me as kind of odd. As far as I can tell, it boils down to "other countries like Canada are better negotiators than us, and our companies give them better prices."

But if that's the case, it just seems like really good evidence that squeezing drug companies and making aggressive demands drives down drug costs and encourages them to move R&D costs out of the country. Why wouldn't the US be all over that?

I dunno, I just always feel like I'm missing something when I see this. Other countries have better health care than us, but we can't use their tactics, even though they seem to be working really well, because... we're nice, and we don't want their drugs to cost more?

If we accept that having R&D based out of the US is a bad thing, then why are we fighting to keep it here? Shouldn't we increase regulation until all the pharmaceuticals move to Canada?