Dallas buyers club (2013) is a movie about a man named Ron Woodroof who contracts the HIV virus at the time when there had been very little research on a cure. When he was diagnosed with HIV the cure for the virus was in the very early stages of testing and was heavily stigmatized by people. The doctors gave him an estimate of 1 month to live. During that time he purchased an experimental drug called AZT that kills off the virus but is also toxic to the body. After nearly dying from overdosing on AZT he goes to a clinic in Mexico to get a treatment that would not be obtainable in the united states. While seeking treatment he ponders questions like why is this not offered in the united states and how can I capitalize on this. Ron decides that he is going to sell HIV treatment to people in the united states. Ron brings back a 2 years supply of HIV treatment to sell to other HIV victims. His business was in a very grey zone. The Drugs he was selling were not illegal but they were also not approved by the FDA. Even with the treatment being more effective than the government-approved method of treating HIV he lost the court case and was prohibited from selling HIV treatment.
By Having immense effective governmental regulation in the medical industry the government only makes corruption and suffering more common. By regulating the “free market” you are making it less accessible to the consumers in it. Medical care is critical for people's health and survival. While it is important that the medicine people use is safe for individuals it is also critical that the proper treatments are allowed strictly for people's health and not to the line pockets of a corporation. By having governmental regulation ban nonpermissible medicine you are potentially killing people and allowing big drug corporations to bribe their way into being the only supplier of treatment. Effective Regulation is always at odds with entrepreneurship. Regulation lowers the optionality that consumers have. The medical industry loves regulation. Hospital owners, drug manufacturers, and politicians use the FDA to lower the optionality so they can lower the supply and optionality to strong-arm the consumers. The treatment for HIV is not the only thing that regulation affects. Regulation in the marketplace is constantly at play. Consumers are constantly being led in the direction that the government wants for us. Wealth creation and capitalism are valuable to society but when the government is used as a tool to enforce sometimes arbitrary rules it gets thrown out of place. If a democratic republic government is supposed to hold the citizen's values when producing and enforcing laws then the free market should also reflect on citizens' spending habits. A person should be able to consume the medicine they choose, not the FDA-approved medication that they are forced to use. Even with government regulation things, there will always be an unofficial market as long as there is demand.
