In American health care, drug shortages are chronic

[JoFerret]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/31/weekinreview/31harri.html
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The larger story behind the flu vaccine shortage is that drug supply disruptions in the United States have become routine.

The immediate causes are myriad - drug company mergers, production snags, low and high prices, even outbreaks of mad cow disease. But some economists say that they all stem from one central feature of the nation's public health system: no one is in charge. "We're so concerned in this country about inappropriate public intervention that we're willing to pay very high costs - including shortages - to avoid that," said Marc Roberts, a professor of political economy at Harvard University.

In Europe, where governments play a much larger role in managing health care, shortages are much less common. For example, while America's supplies of flu vaccine have been short in three of the last four years, Europe's have not. "Europe's peaceful market guarantees that supplies are available," said Uwe Reinhardt, professor of health economics at Princeton University.

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