How Big Pharma Is Killing Americans

[marmar]

How Big Pharma Is Killing Americans

Monday, 29 April 2013 14:56
By The Daily Take, The Thom Hartmann Program | Op-Ed


Each year, millions of Americans are dealt the devastating news that they have cancer, and each year, millions of Americans, many of whom are uninsured, have to figure out how to pay for the life-saving treatments that they need.

And unfortunately, that decision can be a very hard one.

Thanks to America’s for-profit health insurance industry, prescription drugs are a big business.

In fact, in 2012, the top 11 global drug companies made nearly $85 billion in net profits. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16071-how-big-pharma-is-killing-americans

[CrispyQ]

1. Medicine for profit is inhumane.

I spoke to my insurance agent yesterday. His wife as early on-set arthritis & the medication that works the best costs $2000 a month - with insurance! "Needless to say, she has to go without," he told me, almost chocking with emotion.

America has the most fucked up values of any western country.

Mammon is our God.

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Your insurance agent cannot afford health insurance?

Man, that bites.

[CrispyQ]

7. He has health insurance. That's the cost WITH insurance. -nt

[dixiegrrrrl]

9. Holy shit.

No doubt that medical/pharma costs are bankrupting this country, both citizens and gov't.
Before insurance became a "necessity", out of pocket medical expenses were affordable, if I remember from days as a young housewife back in the 60's and early '70's.

[kurtzapril4]

6. They need to contact the maker of the drug she needs.

Most of the time they offer low/no cost meds to people who can't pay. It's worth checking out.

[CrispyQ]

8. I will suggest that to him.

Thanks.

[AZ Progressive]

17. USA! USA! USA!

Seriously, this over everything else, is a f***in national disgrace, and my biggest disappointment with my country, that Americans could be so ignorant and idiotic enough to believe that healthcare is not a right, and allow such a barbarous medical market to form in this country that forces many people to lose everything they own and/or beg for money just to be able to pay for life saving treatment.

[tclambert]

3. The insurance companies cause a lot of that.

See, dead people cost less in claims than living sick people. So insurance companies love dead people. Yay, dead people! Making more people die increases profit. Yay, profit! Do you really want to put human life above profit? How un-American. Corporations are people, too, you know.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

10. Dead people don't pay premiums or co-pays

[BrotherIvan]

13. Correction:

Dead people probably paid copays for decades and never used insurance while they were healthy. Then when the person needs it, they are dropped or denied care = dead person. Once you are ill and require care, the insurance company doesn't want you on the rolls. Another reason why the ACA is such a boon to them. Younger, healthy people generally don't buy into health insurance until much later and rarely use it when they have it. Yes, that's supposed to be the point, so costs go down, so why has my insurance doubled and my deductible gone up and I never make a claim?

[Nuclear Unicorn]

16. I dunno.

I never supported the ACA because it forced people to purchase corporate products. It could be that people no longer have to purchase insurance until they need it. Thus, they aren't paying into the pool they are consuming. Did you know some RW commentators are actually pushing that as a way to collapse the ACA system in on itself?

It could be the employers keeping people in 28-hour positions (like me) to avoid the requirements to purchase insurance. That keeps money from going into the pools. Or it could be other employers deciding it is cheaper to pay the tax than contribute to insurance; which also keeps the pools underfunded. Or it could be the government taking on 30 million people who were previously uninsured and now has to buy them insurance with funds derived from the employers paying tax that is cheaper than the cost of a policy. Or maybe it is the rule that says 80% of premiums have to be spent on medical pay-outs so if the company doesn't want to cut their employee wages, admin compensation or stockholder dividends they have to inflate their prices otherwise they collapse. Or maybe it is all of these things and more.

I'm not a fan of the ACA and I never was but the fact remains you're worth more to the company alive than dead.

[socialsecurityisAAA]

4. I wonder what goes through their head when denying coverage

Do they think about the children of those they are sentencing to death?
Do they simply think "those are the knocks"?
Or do they simply think about the bonus they are going to receive by saving the company money?
Actually I don't think I want to know the answer. I'd like to maintain some hope for humanity.

[L0oniX]

11. Sociopaths need jobs too. n/t

[Dustlawyer]

5. The treat ment for my condition, small fiber sensory neuropathy, is $15,000 per treatment!

You need 4 treatments a day for 4 days, then one every other month for life! This would leave me asymptomatic. Who can afford this? So instead, I spend about $1,000 a month for all kinds of pills. This leaves me still in a lot of pain and with terrible side effects. Pot helps a great deal but it is illegal in my state and I can only take it at night b/c I have to work during the day.
No one is looking for cures anymore since they cut research dollars for Government funded studies. The Government is the only entity looking for cures!

[reformist2]

12. When people are desperate, sellers will price gouge. Government needs to stop them.

Health care, especially when someone has a potentially fatal illness, is especially prone to this condition. I don't know how anyone could honestly call that state of affairs a "free market."

[BrotherIvan]

14. Cancer treatments are a racket of epic proportions

This article has a false premise when it calls cancer treatments "life-saving". It is extreme price-gouging for anything but, preying on the fears of someone faced with a death sentence. And before people scream to the heavens, why do we call a treatment life-saving if it's top success rate is sometimes as low as 5%? That's very expensive snake oil.

They are not looking for therapies outside of the current slash, burn & poison model because they have so much INVESTED in it. So, YAY! Get cancer and be put through horrific treatments with tremendous pain that will actually kill you before your cancer does so companies can make more profit!

[reformist2]

15. So true. The FDA needs to stop approving drugs for every incremental increase in survival.

Very few of these drugs are true breakthroughs. Yet they all cost near six-figures for annual treatment.