US lobby groups urge tariff retaliation against Australia’s ‘socialised medicine’
US trade representative has been collecting evidence of countries ‘freeloading’ as part of Donald Trump’s tariff campaign
Being a sovereign nation should mean we can tell the yanks they can fuck off.
Unfortunately they have their corporate and defence hooks into us really badly.
If the current US administration has any global impact it is this: We all need to wake the fuck up, diversify our strategic relationships, and reduce our dependence on the US.
You're turning your country into a big fat carcinogen factory and want to fuck off the world leaders in cancer treatment. Spectacular self pwn.
US-manufactured products should be allowed to compete on an equal basis with Australian-produced goods, consistent with the WTO [World Trade Organization] and US-Australia Free Trade Agreement,” he said.
Research and development tax concessions in Australia, France and Spain were described as conferring advantages to local firms “that the United States is hard-pressed to match”.
Um, isn't this what the US is ostensibly trying to do to everyone else with their tariffs? Advantage home grown products over international ones?
It's almost as if it's not supposed to be free or fair, it's just about the US extracting as much money from everyone in the world that they can get away with.
The National Taxpayers Union, a conservative lobby group, called consumer drug price controls in countries such as Australia “socialised medicine”
That's riiiiight! Who's a clever little conservative? Is it you??
clever little conservative
don’t even joke about that
¯(ツ)/¯
Liberal senator Maria Kovacic called for clarity from the White House.
“The reason we don’t know what is going on is because our government and our prime minister don’t know, because they don’t have the strength of relationship with the United States that they should have.”
That's some weak sauce from the Liberals. And they know it.
Party of parrots. All they know is screeching and shitting.
Even Trump's allies don't know what's going on ... does he even have allies? I think it's just El Salvador, Israel, Hungary, and Vietnam. Israel is the only one who they seem to tell anything.
"In Australia, prices for pharmaceutical medicines are capped at $31.60 if listed on the PBS. A 2024 report by research organisation Rand found that US drug prices were, on average, about 370% higher than in Australia and 278% above the OECD average"
The American pharmaceutical system is broken. The U.S. spends significantly more on developing drugs than other developed nations, partly due to unfettered regulation. This spending is attributed to exploitative capitalism and a lack of price controls. The fragmented nature of the U.S. healthcare system created this monster, and now these mega-corporations can't stop the "sugar high." It's total BS.
Importantly, what we here as consumers pay for medications is NOT what the drug companies are paid for them by the government. Every single scrap of reporting I've seen on this has neglected that fact. My ADHD meds cost the government over $100 per month.
That's right - the Australian government has bulk purchasing power and that's a big motivator for pharmaceutical companies. When companies get their medications listed in the PBS, sales in Australia skyrocket.
There are some very expensive drugs on the PBS simply because it makes financial sense from a cost of care perspective for the government to do so.
Sometimes I want to live in this horror world that conservatives have conjured up to whine about. Socialised medicine, now that's a lovely idea.
I know we have some subsidies and medicare and all that, and that's a start, but oh just imagine if it were everything!
Bring on socialised dental. The horror when our entire population has healthy teeth!
What would actual socialised medicine look like anyway? Pharma nationalised and rolled into CSIRO?