siriuskase's Journal: Government should take over clinical trials, not healthcare

Government shouldn't take over the entire healthcare industry or even healthcare insurance. It would do much to improve healthcare in the US simply by allowing the FDA to take over clinical trials. It would be even better if clinical trials could be taken over by independent organisations that are to clinical trials as UL is to electrical products or Consumer's Union is to a wide range of consumer products.

This recent fiasco with the Merck drug Vioxx highlights why data created by clinical trials should be publicly owned and available to everyone. Although, I don't think that the government should take over the healthcare industry except as the insurer of last resort, clinical trials should be considered a public good, since the complete data is useful to everyone, not just the company who is paying for it and has a reason to suppress anything it doesn't like.