Our U.S. government is a funny thing.

Without an experienced champion in Congress to walk a bill through the political process, causes die with the people who lead them. No better case in point is the effort to allow states to make prescription medications affordable to the poor. Notice how convoluted that sentence is — allow the states to create programs that helps get needed medications to poor U.S. citizens.

Why can’t the states simply provide for their citizens without interfering from the U.S. government?

Because the U.S. government — namely, the Department of Health and Human Services — says so.

Sadly, this issue hasn’t been addressed for 5 years because the previous champion for the poor on this issue, Sen. Paul D. Wellstone, died in a place crash in 2002. It’s taken 5 years for another Senator to bring this issue up before Congress, which, frankly, is just unbelievable.

But this is the world we live in. Few politicians care about the poor and those struggling to survive in society, because there’s no reason to do so (e.g., no money comes from these people when it comes time for re-election). Call me cynical, but that’s the only reason I can see that it’s taken 5 years to bring this back up before Congress (and, lo and behold, in time for the upcoming presidential election).

THe Washington Post has the full story.

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Jul 2007
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