>BERNIE SANDERS INTRODUCED a very simple symbolic amendment Wednesday night, urging the federal government to allow Americans to purchase pharmaceutical drugs from Canada, where they are considerably cheaper. Such unrestricted drug importation is currently prohibited by law.
The Senate voted down the amendment 52-46, with two senators not voting. Unusually, the vote was not purely along party lines: 13 Republicans joined Sanders and a majority of Democrats in supporting the amendment, while 13 Democrats and a majority of Republicans opposed it.
https://theintercept.com/2017/01/12/cory-booker-joins-senate...
We could socialize the cost of medication, but that doesn't solve the underlying problem of high pharmaceutical costs. I suppose you could argue that government would force prices down, but we got into this position from lobbyists, so why would government all of a sudden stop listening to lobbyists once they have captive insurance customers?
I think the best approach is to table universal healthcare for now (Republicans won't budge and Democrats have utterly failed) and focus on fixing patents and other things that result in high healthcare prices. Once the underlying problems have been resolved, we can revisit universal healthcare if it's still important.
I'd much rather see us go the UBI route where people choose their own benefits than having government try to decide what minimum benefits everyone needs.