This is a topic that has never been addressed by any candidate to date.

The purpose of this post is to question how taxpayer dollars, which are invested in the billions every year, is filtering down to America.

The following is a quote from the NIH website (http://www.nih.gov/about/budget.htm)

Research for the People
The NIH invests over $28 billion annually in medical research for the American people.

More than 80% of the NIH’s funding is awarded through almost 50,000 competitive grants to more than 325,000 researchers at over 3,000 universities, medical schools, and other research institutions in every state and around the world.

About 10% of the NIH’s budget supports projects conducted by nearly 6,000 scientists in its own laboratories, most of which are on the NIH campus in Bethesda, Maryland.


__________________

My question is this: how much of this research actually filters back to Americans? In my opinion, Americans are paying AT LEAST TWICE for their investment in research. First, we pay for the NIH to sponsor research. Then, when the products are brought to market, they are restricted to those who can PAY TWICE for what they paid for originally via their tax dollars.

To date, I have not heard anyone address the question as to why Americans are being scammed.

Is there anyone out there who will join me in an effort to bombard our legislators with this question?

Why do you view the NIH as a scam?

I agree it's a scam where taxpayer-funded health research is in turn turned over to private corporations to produce pharmaceuticals that they profit from exclusively.

But then the problem is not the research that's done, it's that we allow the government to turn it over to private hands.

There in lies the problem and without high end million dollar ad campaigns to instruct Americans what to ask their doctors for, we could lower the bill for everyone.
I'm surprised people aren't up in arms about giving your tax money to fund the projects and then big pharma or some other manufacturer picks it up and makes a huge profit off our tax money.

None of the candidates address the fact that the research and development only filters down to those who are willing to pay again via outlandish insurance which may or may not cover the work done at NIH.

Shouldn't the taxpayer get some benefit of this research without having to pay for it again?