well, it makes sense that we can only be great again by screwing up the things we are actually great at
Trump's Policies, Part 7
- Thread starter jthomas666
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That is indeed the question isn't it! It is no wonder the Swiss sent a high level group to meet with Trump on tariffs. It imapcted their gigantic prescription drug money machine.
Blame the middlemen, the insurance companies. Also our elected representatives, who prohibited Medicare from bargaining on price. At least that's changed...
Yes!
Cutting the way they are and driving scientists out to go to their home countries and elsewhere is far more devastating than just the raw numbers. A 20% reduction in force is an 50% or more interruption into research at this point. And they way they went about it was far more disruptive than a well thought out and staged budgetary reduction. The direct economic impact of the NIH on private industry is 2.5x times what we spend and indirect contributions are on the order of a 10x or greater multiple. You can make an argument about getting the deficit under control, but this helps nothing and has many benefits.
With all due respect, I don't think any of these three things are the overriding factor. You can thank market forces. Pharma companies are in business to make money so they are going to charge the absolute highest price they can. There's a relationship between the price of a good and how much demand there is. They opt to maximize that relationship so that total revenue is maximized. In other words, if they can tack on 15% more to the price of a drug and demand only goes down 10% then they are going to be ahead of where they were, revenue-wise.
The truth is Americans have more money than any other country and the drugs are just worth more to us, per-capita. Americans are willing to pay $500/month for Ozempic while someone from Bangladesh or East Timor may only be willing to pay $50 (numbers made up for example). We have more money and are more willing to spend it for health care than any other country. Pharma knows this so they charge us more than anyone else. If this were all contained inside the US then charging different prices would be illegal discrimination. Since it's the entire world we are talking about and there are no international laws banning this practice and it is rampant and the US is getting screwed. We need to pass a law that outlaws this practice in the US.
Again, with all due respect, you just proved my point. Market forces don't govern drug prices in this country. If they did, prices would drop. The system you just described is one of inelastic demand and frozen, captive consumers. Believe me, as a cancer patient, you swallow hard and pay whatever they ask. You don't shop for lower prices...
Drug prices have nothing to do with the free market, since prices are being paid through “magic” negotiations between the insurance companies, pharma, and the PBMs.
Free market and capitalism really aren't words that apply in medicine... It is an elaborate scheme of contracts and payouts and profit snatching which occasionally provides actual healthcare.
Your comment about being a cancer patient and willing to pay whatever to insure your health makes my point. You are willing to pay more for a life-saving drug because you have the resources to do so and also the power to influence insurance coverage (I'm not saying you have control over the insurance companies but you have indirect influence, like all customers do). Pharma knows this and they charge us more because of it.
You're still missing. You are describing a distorted market, not a free market...
Karl: The transformation has been gradual and unmistakable.
By February, some golden urns on the mantle.
April, gold adornments appear on the walls.
By July, it's gold everywhere.
Just this week more scaffolding popped up, even more new gold trim appeared.
Caligula had more class than this clown.
I never used the phrase "free market" in any of my posts. I said "market forces" which would certainly include other influences besides simple supply and demand, the biggest of which is how important the product might be to one person (or group of persons) versus others and how much they are willing to pay.
You say you're admitting outside forces and then you come back again, defining supply and demand and that that will control the price. This is false. When the party or parties on the supply side can set the price, take or leave it, there's not really a "market" of any sort. The problem is that other countries don't have free markets either. They control and artificially depress the prices of pharmaceuticals. Our peculiar oligopoly allows the middlemen to turn around and take it out of the hides of Americans. We're forced to pay whatever they ask for necessary drugs. If you know one, ask an insulin user what they think of the American system...
His proposed ballroom looks like a combination of Versailles and a New Orleans brothel.
Wait so this DOGE and eliminating FWA…..we’ve totally abandoned that??
Not a shock. Guess what’s coming like always with this debt ridden clown? Someone else holding the bag of money with the hole in it while he slithers back into the deep.
I love how you always ask a question and then tell everyone they are wrong, and you have the answer. Why ask to begin with?
Prices are high because Big Pharma and insurance collude to keep the prices high in the US. You say choosing between death and paying is market demand? That's BS. Taking out personal loans, or racking up credit card debt to pay for your life-saving drugs is not "having the means" and is not a free market setting the price.
Prices are artificially kept high in this country because no one will stop them. The politicians are paid off to stay out of their way. If the free market were deciding as you claim, and cheaper options were available, people would jump at them in this country, and prices would come down. That doesn't happen because there are no other options, no "shopping around". You pay or die. That is not a free market.
You guys are obsessed with attaching "free market" to my posts. The problem is I never, ever used that phrase. It is NOT a "free market". There are tons of regulations and other forces to prove that is not true. However, that does not mean that aspects of supply and demand do not apply. If Big Pharma and the insurance companies collude then why do they not collude in other countries. Also, why in the heck would insurance companies want to keep drug prices high? Makes no sense.
The price elasticity of demand is lower in the US than the rest of the world. A 50% price increase in the US may be met with consternation and disapproval but when the rubber meets the road we'll pay it because we have the money while that same increase may completely dry up demand in other countries. If we want drug prices lower in the US the only answer is going to be regulations that make it illegal for country specific pricing.
Well, he hasn't appointed a horse to any important positions, so there is that. Sure unqualified morons. but no animals yet.
Whatever, believe what you want. If regulations are needed to bring prices down, then you can't claim market demand is working like it should.
There is no shortage of drugs in this country; if supply and demand were at play, then prices would drop, but they don't. Prices are artificially kept high for Americans because they can, because of greed, because of politics. You are on your deathbed, and the only option is to pay what they say to pay. We can't shop for the best deal because there are none. That's not market demand, that's a mob boss holding a gun to your head.
There is no shortage of drugs in this country; if supply and demand were at play, then prices would drop, but they don't. Prices are artificially kept high for Americans because they can, because of greed, because of politics. You are on your deathbed, and the only option is to pay what they say to pay. We can't shop for the best deal because there are none. That's not market demand, that's a mob boss holding a gun to your head.
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