Medical Care is the eternal political football; the libs (if they had their way) would nationalize it, effectively dulling the "cutting edge" of medical research (no competition=no profit opportunity=no money for research=no breakthroughs) and we'd have to also pay the exhorbitant costs of the attendent bureaucracy The conservative side opposes this for the same reasons
Oh...this is just so wrong.
Over the past few decades pharmaceutical companies have managed to sustain profit level that would make Bill Gates green with envy.
Yet, they spend a mere pittance of this money on research.
The main priority of Big Pharm is to MAKE MORE MONEY.
The method of choice has been to raise prices on drugs that were developed decades ago ( and in some cases by other companies in other lands) and fiercely fend off generic replacement drugs.
Sweetheart deals with the government, which preclude price negotiation and importing drugs from abroad, haven't hurt the ole bottom line either.

My guess is that the (assumed) "exhorbitant costs of the attendent bureaucracy " would be far less than the cost of the trough we currently provide for the pharmaceuticals to feed in today.