The Inhumanity of US drug prices compared to other countries

[PumpkinAle]

Former hedge funder Martin Shkreli — who hiked the price of an AIDS pill by 5500 percent overnight — is only the latest example of price gouging in the pharmaceutical industry. US drug prices have been skyrocketing across the country for years. As the following chart illustrates, drug prices in the US are up to 10 times higher than in numerous other developed countries. Data comes from the International Federation of Health Plans (IFHP) 2013 Comparative Price Report.



Full article at: http://usuncut.com/news/us-drug-prices-in-the-us-are-literally-insane-when-compared-to-other-nations/

[Frustratedlady]

1. I know of an MS patient who takes one pill for $7000/month.

I don't know if it's the one you have listed, but that is obscene. Her insurance company will not cover it after the 1st of 2016, so she has to find another insurer who will.

[msongs]

2. your president and congress spend more than half the nation's wealth on wars and cops. sorry nt

[Comrade Grumpy]

3. I will be buying a generic version of Gilead's Hep C drug Harvoni from India.

That's the stuff that's $1,000 a pill in the US. That's $56,000 for an eight-week course of treatment. The Indian generic will cost about $1,000 for the whole course.

My insurance company has a deal with Gilead where the cost would only be $12,000, and with my annual pay-out cap, I would have to come up with $6,000 of it. But I would have to undergo a second liver biopsy and I would have to show signs of significant liver damage before they would authorize it. In other words, I have a disease that could destroy my liver and there's a pill to prevent it, but my insurer wants my liver to be damaged before they will authorize it.

It's not exactly legal to import that stuff from India (in my understanding), but I'm gonna give it a try.

Another possibility is just flying to India, hunkering down for eight weeks and doing the treatment there. That'd still be cheaper than the deal with my insurance company, plus I'd have a reason to go to India! I already found a nice place in the Himalayan hill country.

But that's all ridiculous. Outrageous. Gilead is raking in billion-dollar profits. I think we ought to nationalize the entire pharmaceutical industry. The health of our citizens shouldn't be a profit-making enterprise.

[Warpy]

4. Nexium is now OTC

which means it's now cheaper than dirt, but the prices on the rest of those drugs are pretty accurate.

What happens in countries with socialized medicine is that drug companies bid against each other to supply the health system with their drugs. That plus a subsidy keeps patient prices, in places where patients pay any, very low.

Drug companies have been ripping us off for a very long time because they are not asked to submit bids to anyone but a few of the largest insurance companies, and to Walmart and Costco.

It's going to get worse, too, as hedge fund guys start to buy up patents because their 0.1% clients are demanding returns they can no longer generate from rigging the market with HFT.

[DFW]

5. It's different everywhere

Here in Germany, half the time, my doctors tell me to pick up my heart medicine in the States if I get the chance, in order to save in the German price.

[Scuba]

6. canadadrugs dot com

[JCMach1]

7. At the end of the day, we allow them to do this... all in the name of 'free market'

which has never existed for health care...

Drug prices were 1/2 to 1/10th the cost in a private insurance system in the UAE. The difference... STRICT price controls.

[Facility Inspector]

8. It is simply corruption

Late stage capitalism is like a fire sale.

[Comrade Grumpy]

9. Time to expropriate and nationalize Big Pharma. n/t