Prescription Madness

[davester]

This is utter madness. I grew up in the UK, with medical care taken care of by our taxes. That we have to worry about how much a giant corporation might charge for a drug, or be faced with the insane dilemma of giant corporations charging uninsured people full freight while giving mega discounts to corporate insurance companies literally makes my blood boil. Why the populace doesn't insist on single payer healthcare is completely beyond my ken.

[NewtonMP2100]

......some of the psoriatic arthritis drugs like Humira, Stelara, etc..........without insurance are like $8,000-$12,000 per shot........

....even with insurance can cost a few hundred, unless you use company discount card......

[space-time]

It’s less expensive to die.

[bfd]

space-time wrote:
It’s less expensive to die.

Well, once someone has finished their useful worker life, that's kind of the grand plan, isn't it?

[Pam]

Pharma executives make around 122 million dollars a year. They get bonuses when they raise profits without raising costs. One cancer drug tripled in price and gave executives millions in bonuses. No change to the med. it’s obscene!

[pdq]

How else is big pharma going to pay for all those ads they run?

Seriously, during the national evening news, it must be a third of all commercials, if not a half...

[mrbigstuff]

pdq wrote:
How else is big pharma going to pay for all those ads they run?

Seriously, during the national evening news, it must be a third of all commercials, if not a half...

No shit, this is a prime example of where legislation is needed to restrict ads from pharma cos. How? Not sure if it's inhibiting free speech (probably), but 100s of millions in ads comes from somewhere.

[lost in space]

The drug price madness is one thing; medical treatment is at least as bad. My provider billed insurance for $189K US last year. Plan only had to pay $43K. That's a 500% markup for "retail."

[DeusxMac]

mrbigstuff wrote:
[quote=pdq]
How else is big pharma going to pay for all those ads they run?

Seriously, during the national evening news, it must be a third of all commercials, if not a half...

No shit, this is a prime example of where legislation is needed to restrict ads from pharma cos. How? Not sure if it's inhibiting free speech (probably), but 100s of millions in ads comes from somewhere.
There was a time when prescription drugs were NOT advertised/marketed to the general public; only OTC.

But then, “Ask your doctor about...” became a way to circumvent doctors as the sole decision makers and increase sales.

[davemchine]

I required medical assistance during a four month period of time where they charged $18,500/mo. So my total bill was $74,000. After adding other charges it topped $126,000. My insurance negotiated an end price of $27k. There's a lot of corruption in the medical industry and I can't imagine what a private payer would have to do since they have no leverage.