Drug discount cards on facebook

Yesterday, after reading some Manila newpaper columnists' articles on drug discount cards, I posted a status in my facebook account. Shortly after, several friends commented. Below are the actual comments. I thank them -- Elizabeth Cueva, a friend from UP and now a practicing lawyer in NYC; Eric Tolentino also from UP, and Gene Peters, for giving me permission to post here her comments.

Below are the exchanges:
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Nonoy Oplas (is) Reading a number of news articles and opinions on drug discount cards. I only realized recently this is a big issue here in Manila. A marketing promo is now being pushed to be a mandatory promo; if you don't do it, you're an evil. hmmmm...

hi nonoy. isn't this really a way to track the doctor who prescribes the company's medicines instead of really giving discounts. great way to go around the senior citizen's benefit too! - Gil

Hi Gil. Yes -- track the doctors, the med reps, the patients, the drug stores, everyone who willingly agrees to the scheme, in exchange for lower price and continued patronage of a particular drug. If those pharma companies will distribute their discount cards to all doctors nationwide, let them continue their marketing promo, the State should get out of such promo. The State can invite more pharma companies to come in, launch their own promos, overall the patients will benefit. -- Nonoy

Yeah, the State should get out of the drug discount promo deal. It defeats the purpose as a marketing tool. The market should drive it. People in the Philippines are actually luckier when it comes to access to vital life-saving medications. The state of the current U.S. health care system sucks big time. -- Elizabeth

Ah, many Filipinos do not realize that, thanks Elizabeth. Instead of recognizing the presence and merit of the few multinational pharma companies in the Philippines -- there are soooo many other multinational pharma companies that are not yet here that could help increase competition -- those few are being demonized. Even their promos, a unilateral and voluntary act on their part, is being seen as an evil scheme. -- Nonoy

I should know. My grandma and my mom are both pharmacists/ med techs there and their family used to own boticas in the Sampaloc, Manila area. The prices were lower with these "mom and pop" boticas which were wiped out by big drug conglomerates Mercury, Commodore. Still, the prices are more affordable than in the U.S. and generic medication more accessible. Thanks to Flavier for pushing the generic brands.

Here in the U.S. when I lost a job, I lost employer-subsidized medical and drug insurance coverage. I now have to shell out money for COBRA medical/drug insurance coverage and IT HURTS. The coverage is not even enough and I have to shell out more every visit to the doctor for treatment or prescription. So, for me prevention is really key. It is really fatal to get even slightly sick here in the U.S. without medical or drug insurance coverage because of the prohibitive price of medical care, treatment and medicines. -- Elizabeth

Commodore drug, wala na yata dito. Mercury and Watsons are the biggest drugstores now. The mom-and-pop type of boticas are partly being wiped out by government regulations. They make only about 5 to 15% profit margin because of competition, but the senior citizens discount is 20% mandatory. Such loss is not even tax deductible. -- Nonoy

I read somewhere that in countries like India, exactly similar drugs (hypertension) can be purchased for just 1/5 the cost here. How true? And how can I get my hands on those drugs? Gimme, gimme... -- Eric Tolentino

Hi Eric, PITC, a government corporation, made that study, no one bothered to double-check the figures and computations. Even if the numbers are correct (ie, only 1/5 of price in India), those are prices there, not here. When those cheap medicines are imported into the Philippines, there are several costs to include: transport and storage, taxes (import tax, import processing fee, import doc stamp tax, local tax, VAT, etc.). When sold in drugstores, they are expensive again.

Also, note that it's under a parallel importation scheme. The foreign manufacturer abroad (say GSK or Pfizer or Roche, etc.) is different from the foreign wholesaler or aggregator, is different from the Phil. importer and distributor. If the imported drugs turn out to be fake or substandard causing allergies or death to patients, difficult to pinpoint who's to blame. -- Nonoy

Health care problems since then is a big issue in Manila, with a growing populace and detiriorating quality of living manilans are more succeptible in many forms of ailment.. the real problem here is our policy on health care are lame and useless thats why they put another issue on top of one that will never solve the basic problem of health care for all, benefits for some sectors are mere band aid solutions..while pharma companies rakes in the profuts.. of course with the help of our caring doctors. -- Gene Peters

Hi Gene, in the first place, health care is personal and parental responsibility, not govt. responsibility. People should not over-drink, over-smoke, over-eat fatty food, over-sit and live sedentary lifestyle, over-fight and get into frequent rumbles, etc. Pharma companies exist because there is a demand for them, the same way that beer, burger and cellphone producers exist because there is a demand for them. When medicine prices are high, blame the govt. high and multiple taxes on drugs, blame the lack of competition among pharma companies because of govt. bureaucracies. Soooo many multinational pharmas, the innovator ones especially, are not yet here in the Phils. -- Nonoy

Health care is also a government responsibility, but the policies must be salutary and not detrimental to general welfare. Just like what Gene said, it should not be a band aid approach. So, for me, government's role is not really to regulate and restrict but to facilitate access to high quality health care with lower costs for all. -- Elizabeth

Ok, I forgot to add in my earlier reply to Gene that government has secondary responsibility to health care. Like in cases of pandemic and outbreak of contagious diseases. In the absence of such health emergencies, government should back out, allow more competition among private hospitals and clinics, more pharma and drugstore companies, etc. When one or some pharma companies introduce fake and substandard medicines that can result to more disease, if not death to patients, government comes in to enforce the rule of law -- no killing, no harming, no stealing, etc. -- Nonoy

Little Ice Age for the Next 300 Years?

Sometimes I am following some literatures by some astrophysicists and geologists who are watching solar activity in relation to global climate.

Last March and April, I was reading some of them predicting global cooling for the next 30 years, starting this year. Then last month I read Piers Corbyn, a British astrophysicist and owner of climateaction.com, saying that his prediction is cooling for the next 100 years. Then today I encountered this article from a Finnish astrophysicist predicting a ooling for the next 300 years!

The Maundeer Minimum 3 centuries ago lasted for 70 years. They've had a "year without summer" where they still have snow even during summer months. Then the next long period of ooling was the Dalton minimum that occured 2 centuries ago. This Finnish physiist is now saying that current indicators (very low solar irradiance, very low solar magnetic field, very few sunspot numbers, etc.) point to a cooling worse than the Dalton Minimum!

To see details of this physicist's analysis, see the entire article in this link. Below I only copy-pasted the less technial conclusions.

The science of "global warming" is falling like a deck of cards but the politics behind it is rising like the world's tallest buildings in Dubai, Taiwan and China.
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http://www.examiner.com/x-13886-New-Haven-County-Environmental-Policy-Examiner~y2009m7d6-Solar-Physicist-Predicts-Ice-Age-What-happened-to-global-warming

Solar Physicist Predicts Ice Age. What happened to global warming?
July 6, 10:19 PM

Kirtland Griffin
New Haven County Environmental Policy Examiner

Timo Niroma, a physicist from Finland, publishes a Solar Report each month. He has given his permission to use it and distribute it to all so here it is. It will be a regular feature here and I hope you look forward to it as much as I do. The report is not written in the usual user-friendly way, but is rather intended for scientists that are familiar with the information contained in it. I will attempt to simplify and explain the details of the report and how it could impact you and, of course, Al Gore and company. As the predictions come true, as I assume they will, the green lobby will go on unemployment compensation. Let's start at the beginning and take it piece by piece.

"JUNE BREAKING NEWS: THE CYCLE GOES AT THE MOMENT BELOW DALTON LEVEL" gives away the punch line but let's see how he gets there....

Remember Dalton means, "Coooooold, Brrrr! Then we have this:

"The yearly sunspot numbers of 1795-1798 were 21, 16, 6.4 and 4.1, the
corresponding values for 2005-2008 were 30, 15, 7.6 and 2.8. The first full
Dalton year or 1799, had a SSN value of 6.8. The SSN of the first 6 months of
2009 is 1.7".

The progressions illustrate that there is a similarity between the years prior to the Dalton, and the minimum leading up to the cycle #24 but lower than those leading up to the Dalton.

Next is an interesting list of Climatic periods in our past on Earth, all of which correlate with solar parameters at the time. Folks back then recorded a tremendous amount of information about the Sun and there were also proxy measurements available.

"Well, there was the 300-year Roman Optimum in 100 BC to AD 200, the 200-year
oscillation 200-900 (200 cold, 300 warm, 400 cold, 600-900 cold), the 300-year
Medieval Optimum 900-1200 (with some colder spells plus warm aftermaths), the
300-year Little Ice Age 1400-1700, the 300-year "Global Warming" 1700-2005 (with
some drawbacks especially in the 1800's). A NEW LIA WITH SPÖRER AND MAUNDER IN
2005-2300???"

That's 300 years of cold, in case you missed it! The Maunder minimum was the bottom of the Little Ice Age from which all IPCC temperature charts begin. That is because it was coldest then and makes the warming look worse. Had they started their charts during the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) we would be wondering why it is still so cool. Like when are we going to get to the good stuff.

And then we get the punch line:

"THE CYCLE 24 HAS NOW GONE CLEARLY BELOW DALTON LEVEL."

This is pretty strong evidence. Had you been reading these reports for a few years you would have seen that Timo has been very conservative in his predictions. His earlier predictions were much less severe but trust me, you would be a lot happier with global warming than you will be with a Maunder type solar event. You can take that to the bank. The only thing that makes me grin about this is that it will end the man made global warming scam once and for all. Unless they can convince politicians that we did that too.
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Update:
After I posted "Little ice age in the next 300 years?" below where I mentioned Dr. Piers Corbyn, I got an email from him correcting the website address that I mentioned. I wrote climateaction.org, when it should have been climateaction.com. I have already corrected it.

I saw Piers' presentation during the 2nd International Conference on Climate Change (ICCC) in NYC last March, sponsored by the Heartland Institute. I was a bit amused by his looks -- he looked a bit like Albert Einstein, long, curly and uncombed hair, and presenting a lot of Greek equations.

In one of my talks here in Manila on global cooling vs. global warming politics, I used some charts from Piers' powerpoint presentation in that conference.

Piers gave me some links to his latest long-term climate forecasts. Other materials can be downloaded at their website, www.climateaction.com.

Parallel importation vs Free trade

Parallel importation is a trade policy where a country imports a particular commodity under some intellectual property rights (IPR, like patent and copyright) at home, from other countries where they are sold cheaper. While it has a laudable goal of helping bring down the average price of the commodity, it violates one tenet of private property ownership: the author, composer and inventor of the IPR-protected good or service is dishonored.

Thus, many countries, rich and poor alike, have parallel import restrictions (PIRs) on some patented or copyrighted products. In Australia, the major ones having PIRs are books.
A government agency there, the Productivity Commission, has completed a review on PIRs on books and is considering whether they should be scrapped or not.

A friend in Australia says that in some products, PIRs should be retained but in the case of books, such PIRs should be scrapped because while it limits the import of books without the authors consent, PIRs also protect the printing and publishing industries that produce the physical book.

I agree that parallel importation will somehow bring down the price of a commodity, a good policy outcome. But since it dishonors and violates the IPR of the author, composer or inventor of that commodity at home, this creates some unnecessary problems.

Parallel importation (PI), in my opinion, is another variety of trade protectionism. A better policy option is to have free trade, a unilateral free trade, preferably.

Import taxes, sales tax or value added tax, other taxes and fees on imported commodities make them expensive. Plus non-tariff barriers like a long list of signatures and permits that need to be secured from the customs, internal revenue, local government, other bureaucracies.

So why should a trade policy pick on IPR, when a better restriction to be removed are import taxes and other non-tariff barriers? Consider the following illustration, a hypothetical one.

Suppose there are 50 books on monetary economics in country A, all are copyrighted, protected by IPR. Some of those books are sold abroad at a cheaper price, maybe because the taxes on books there are lower than in country A. Parallel importation (PI) says that country A should import those books from countries B, C, etc. where they are sold cheaper, and sell them at home at a price between Price (A) and Price (B, C,...), WITHOUT permission by the book authors in country A.

Now there are a total of 500 books on monetary economics from around the world, all copy-righted. Free trade now says,

"Bring them all to country A, respect their authors' IPR, we abolish all taxes on books and other non-tariff barriers, and let the publishers and authors of those books slash each other's throat in fierce competition for lower price and at more sensible academic and policy discussions of the subject."

In this case, PI is a completely unnecessary tool when free trade can achieve all the good results that the authors and book readers want. PIRs therefore are good policy tools if free trade can be pursued instead.

Since many countries do not want to pursue free trade, PI is a good smokescreen for protectionism. It gives the public the impression that the government is liberalizing trade and importation of the commodity in question when in fact PI (a) is silent on, and indirectly retains all the protectionist taxes, and (b) it makes a mockery of IPR and private property ownership.

To summarize, instead of adopting PI, instead of scrapping PIRs, scrap or drastically cut instead those taxes, fees and bureaucracies through free trade. With free trade, a country achieves 3 or more good results:
1. cheaper price of the imported commodity due to lower or zero taxes
2. cheaper price, more choices, due to competition among numerous suppliers
3. more innovation as there is clear protection of the IPR of the composer, author and inventor of a good or service.

CAFMI, free market voice in Kyrgyztan

I have 2 friends in Bishkek, capital of Kyrgyztan -- Seyitbek Uzmanov and Mirsulzhan "Michu" Namazaliev. They are the leaders and co-founders of the Central Asian Free Market Institute (CAFMI. Before, I have corresponded with them by email only. But last April this year, I have personally met them in Los Angeles, California, during the Atlas Liberty Forum.

The Institute was officially launched only last week, June 23. Michu, also CAFMI Executive Director, explained briefly what they want to achieve with putting up a new think tank in Kyrgyztan. He said,

“We intend to become the leading think-tank for the whole region, by providing constructive options for economic reforms.”

CAFMI will promote free-market reforms by producing relevant, scientifically rigorous, and constructive research and policy proposals.

This year, the Institute plans to hold two “Liberty Camps” for students in the fields of economic and personal freedom. One will be in English, the other in Russian. CAFMI will also launch within days a new website (www.freemarket.kg) and an ambitious campaign (www.freetrade.kg) to create a free-trade region in Central Asia, to facilitate exchange and wealth-creation throughout the countries of Central Asia.

The Institute's Board of Directors include Emil Umetaliev (CEO of Kyrgyz Concept), Krassen Stanchev (Chairman of the Institute of Market Economics, Bulgaria), Tom G. Palmer (Atlas Economic Research Foundation’s Vice-President) , Timur Shaikhutdinov (Free Generation Liberal Youth Alliance’s Co-Chairman) , and Seyitbek Usmanov (Institute’s a Co-Founder).

CAFMI directors hope to see establishment of branches in Osh (Kyrgyzstan) , Almaty (Kazakhstan) , and Dushanbe (Tajikistan) within the next two years.

I congratulated Seyit and Michu for their great effort. These guys are young and very devoted to free market principles. I wish they will be successful in "conquering" their neighbors in central Asia, so that there will be a real free trade zone there.

CSOs and State 7: Public School Library with Minimal Government, BftB

In classic statist and welfarist philosophy, education, from primary to tertiary levels, should be government responsibility, not personal or parental responsibility. Thus, everything from school buildings to library to school tuition, etc. should be handled and funded by the State or by local governments.

But there are plenty of initiatives around the world where individuals, corporations, private foundations,  civic groups and other civil society organizations (CSOs) are involved in helping the poor have access to good quality education. One of such groups or projects is the Books for the Barrios (BftB, http://www.booksforthebarrios.org/home.php) project.

My good friend, Ramon "Monchit" Arellano, a Filipino working at AT&T in northern California, has been helping this project for several years now. Not only himself, but also his entire family, wife and 2 kids; then some of his fellow Filipino employees of AT&T. They bring their old books, solicit used books from their friends, bring those to the BftB office, help pack the books into big boxes, to be shipped to the Philippines, and BftB staff here distribute the books to various barangays or villages, in public elementary schools which have no or very small library. Monchit below, being intereviewed by the local media.

Monchit also helped raise funds for the project about 2 or 3 years ago, when he heard that BftB was lacking money for its various projects, Monchit ran the San Francisco marathon, with an awareness-raising campaign to raise money. His target of raising $3,500 from his friends and other people was short by only about $100, to which he turned over the entire amount to the BftB.

BftB leaders were so impressed by his action and support. It later decided to return the favor by naming a library in his name. The place will be in a public elementary school in Brgy. Sapang Bato, Angeles City. This school has several hundred students, about 95 percent are Aetas, one of the indigenous peoples in the Philippines.

Last June 18, 2009, the library was officially opened. It's called "Ramon L. Arellano II Library". In the picture, Monchit, assisted by his wife Mimi, cutting the ribbon.

Inside this library are slightly-used books, various educational materials, even stuffed toys, for elementary students. All of those were from the US. Here are some pictures of the books and toys. Notice the painting in the wall -- they are Aeta children in a rural but clean environment. Where there is better education, a good and hopeful future is not far away.

The library building was constructed by the city government. The salaries of the teachers and librarian are also from the city government. But everything inside the library are from the BftB.

This is the main school building. Beside it by the way, is a Gawad Kalinga (GK) housing project, also for the Aeta households. But most of the students of this school live in far sitios and barrios, some students walk as far as 4 kilometers away from their house.

The main beneficiaries of this library are the Aeta children. Some of the male students here were in their traditional G-strings attire, the females were in some of their beautiful dresses, because they have a dance presentation during the launching ceremony. I noticed that they were well-behaved. Just one instruction from their teachers and they immediately follow. They are really disciplined, or they are only respectful of their guests from the cities, I don't know.

The female students, they have a song and a "fashion show" presentation during the program. Their dress could be the best they have in the house, I don't know. Their presentation was cute, funny and very entertaining. Talk about innocent and cheerful girls.

After the formal program, there was a modest "merienda" or snacks for the children. Here, some students taking their snacks. They just squat, not enough chairs, modest food but they really enjoyed it, no left over!

Monchit said that he was so honored by the presentation and the naming of the school library in his name, he promised that he will make his contribution to the BftB a "lifetime" commitment.

Yes, voluntary, charity support by individuals, corporations, foundations, NGOs, can become huge in caring for the less-privileged people. Governments do not have the monopoly of doing this work, and so the taxes and fees that they collect from the people should not be high and many.
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See also:

CSOs and State 1: AIDS and Perversion of Welfare, June 16, 2006

CSOs and State 2: NGOs and Government Clubs, November 09, 2006

CSOs and State 3: Poverty and Public Education, February 12, 2008

CSOs and State 4: Local Government and Civil Society, August 12, 2008
CSOs and State 5: Subsidiarity, Decentralization and Privatization, September 04, 2008
CSOs and State 6: Stichting Kapatiran and Books for the Barrios, December 07, 2008

An explosion of drug stores

Last week June 25, I dropped by Region 1 Medical Center in Dagupan City, Pangasinan, after my meeting at the DENR office not far from that hospital.

What amazed me was the huge number of pharmacies and drug stores in front of the hospital. I counted 16 total! Front-right of the hospital, 7: FGG generics, Maia's, Buy Low, Neslen, Aurora, D'Calidad, and Cyprus. Front-left of the hospital, 6: Roslin, REM Citimed, Urduja, St. Vincent, Pong's, The Generics. Beside the hospital, to its left, 2: Mercury and another Roslin drug store. And within the compound is the hospital pharmacy.



Surely the patients of that hospital have a wide range of options of where to buy their medicines cheaply. I think that with this stiff and fierce competition among different drugstores and pharmacies, medicine prices should be generally low.

The next question is whether all the medicines sold in those different drugstores are safe and real, not the counterfeit, sub-standard and unsafe ones. How would patients know? Not a bit, almost. Unlike a fake bag or shoes or DVD, fake drugs are difficult to discover if one is an average consumer.

Nonetheless, one goal of the cheaper medicines law, of having cheaper medicines, is partially achieved by having a stiff competition among different drug stores and pharmacies.

Drug price cut without government price control

I read the news report below in the Inquirer today. Sanofi Aventis is cutting the price of its anti-diabetes medicine for patients affiliated with ISDF, a health NGO. I think this is a welcome move, a unilateral action on the part of a pharma company to bring down the price of its anti-diabetes medicines for selected, target patients.

My brother who died of prostate cancer a few years ago, was also diabetic. It was a deadly combination, diabetes + prostate C. He was lucky to have a private HMO + my well-off sister's support who practically picked up most of the tab in his 2-years of messy and expensive treatment including chemo. The government? It was collecting taxes left and right for all the medicines that my dying brother was taking.

In the past 2 meetings of the DOH Advisory Council on price regulation that I have attended, there was a general feeling that whatever price reduction that a pharma company can give to certain patients, should be made as mandatory and "universal price" for all other patients.

I am not exactly in favor of such proposal because the pharma companies, domestic or multinational, that extend such kind of price cut to certain groups or patients, have educational programs for their patients. They know who are the people buying their medicines, especially the poor patients, so the pharma companies that initiated the price cut can also give additional medical advice, like how to avoid diabetes in the first place. If such initiative is ok, Sanofi will make it a nationwide program, meaning nationwide price cut of their anti-diabetes medicine. Maybe through the patients' pysicians, if no NGO support groups like ISDF are not around.
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http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/metro/view/20090629-212891/Price-of-antidiabetes-medicine-cut

Price of antidiabetes medicine cut

By DJ Yap
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:07:00 06/29/2009

MANILA, Philippines—Combating diabetes among indigent Filipinos has taken a step for the better—and the cheaper—thanks to a new partnership between the pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis and the Institute for Studies on Diabetes Foundation Inc. (ISDF).

The two institutions launched on June 23 a new program called “Innovation for Life,” a new, equitable, tiered-pricing approach toward increased access to insulin glargine (Lantus)—Sanofi-Aventis’ diabetes medicine—among patients who could otherwise not afford it.

Dr. Ricardo Fernando, the founder of ISDF, said the project, which is seen to benefit more than 500 ISDF patients at the outset, was developed “not only for the next few months but for the long term.”

Patients who are accepted to the program stand to get substantial discounts on their Lantus medication, which, depending on their condition, typically costs from P100 to P1,000 every day, organizers of the project said.

“We have to remember that the most expensive medicine is the one that does not work,” Fernando said at the launch of the project at the ISDF offices in Marikina City.

Dr. Benedict Blayney, vice president for medical affairs of Sanofi-Aventis in Asia-Pacific, said the program would also have an education component, in which poor communities would be taught ways to treat or even prevent diabetes.

“We are dipping our toes in the water. If it works well here, we are open to extending the program to other institutions in the Philippines,” Blayney said.

Diabetes mellitus, a serious chronic metabolic disease characterized by an increase in blood sugar levels, is estimated to be the cause of six percent of deaths globally. In the Philippines, it is among the 10 leading causes of deaths.

Regulating credit cards issuance

A friend wrote in his newsaper column advocating that the Philippines should also have its own "credit card law" similar to what the US government recently did. The main arguments are that the banks that issue credit cards charge usurious rate to ordinary card holders when payment is late, and the banks create various "promos" to encourage more indebtedness from card holders.

We should go slow, if not stop, asking for another set of government intervention through another law regulating credit cards.

Nobody is coerced to have a credit card, it's a voluntary act on the individual to get one or not. Unlike taxes or SSS or PhilHealth or Pag-IBIG contributions, whether you like to join them or not, whether you will use those services later or not, whether you will migrate later or retire here, and even if the administrators of those government enterprises are among the most corrupt bureaucrats in this country, you, we, are coerced to contribute to those government programs.

The last time I held a credit card was about 12 or 15 years ago. It was convenient to have a credit card, but I felt it is more convenient to have no debt, to pay in cash. When you have no money, you don't buy, unless it's very important. In which case, you should have some savings for those emergencies, or you have a well-off sibling or friend who can lend you money in cases of emergencies.

When the "five-six" lenders charge usurious rates (usually 20 percent per month), other guys would call this as exploitation. But the five-six do what the traditional banks and financial institutions would never ever do. The latter for instance don't go to the debtors, the 5-6 lenders do. The bankers are not exposed to heat, pollution, foul smell in many public markets, hold-up, etc. in giving out the loans and in collecting the debt + interest, daily.

When the credit card issuers charge usurious rates (between 1.5 to 3.75 percent per month) for late payment, they are making big money from honest card holders, but they are also pushing the less-honest card holders to dishonor the debt and just "disappear" somewhere with piles of unpaid debt.

An irresponsible person who made lots of debts by say, buying expensive appliances via credit card even if his income is small, deserves the mental torture of being hounded by the banks and their lawyers. Why is this a problem or an issue? It's a non-issue for me. So why call in the State to come in and regulate the card issuers?

Besides, with only 6 million card holders out of 35 million Pinoys in the labor force, that's still a small percentage. Besides, I think actual card holders are only about 4 million as some people have 2 or more credit cards and hence, are counted twice or thrice or more as "separate" card holders. There is not enough competition among the banks that issue credit cards.

And should government come in to have another set of credit cards regulation, the legislation that will create such move will most likely create another new bureaucracy, maybe a "Credit Card Regulatory Authority (or Commission)". New bureaucracy, new bureaucrats with new offices and/or own building will mean new or higher taxes to finance the newly created bureaucracy, etc.