Prescription Costs
- Thread starter Passport1
- Start date
The argument for drug prices being as high as they are is that the pharmaceutical company spends big money (millions of $) on R&D and then has to recoup that by amortizing the R&D costs over x number of pills or doses sold before the patent expires.
Without the potential to recoup the R&D costs, research would grind to a halt.
Perhaps the R&D should be publically funded and undertaken by government, and the formula of a successful medication be made public, with pharmaceutical manufacturers then competing to produce the new medication at an affordable price.
Without the potential to recoup the R&D costs, research would grind to a halt.
Perhaps the R&D should be publically funded and undertaken by government, and the formula of a successful medication be made public, with pharmaceutical manufacturers then competing to produce the new medication at an affordable price.
TANSTAAFL (There ain't no such thing as a free lunch - Robert Heinlein).
I like our (Canada's) public healthcare, but agree that someone's paying for it. About a third of our taxes go to healthcare. And that's basic medical stuff, not medications or dental work, which are largely covered by our private insurer (Blue Cross in my case).
I had a blood clot and they put me on Eliquis. Free for 30 days. After that $500 per month. Luckily my doctor took me off of it. I could have switched to Xarelto which was covered by my insurance.
I hope your meds work for you and wish you the best.
It's closer to billions these days for R&D. You also have to include the drugs that didn't work out. My company focuses on rare diseases. It's even tougher for us in that our patient population is much smaller than typical. Large pharma doesn't research drugs for rare diseases. They can't justify the payoff.
No. It's a gene therapy. I can't say the indication but it's very cool stuff. I hope it works. A million $ in my bank from stock options but more importantly, a lot of sick kids that aren't sick anymore.
Had a couple of drug pushers in my family, my cousin (who did drug research in University), and her (now ex) brother in law, who was a qualified Veterinariam.
They both pushed drugs for the same company, just one for humans, the same drugs, same production lines, same precursor chemicals, just different dyes and dies.
One turned up at hard working doctor's surgeries in a BMW, short skirt, offering antipasto plates and tropical retreat education sessions...the other turned up in a whitet falcon station wagon with jeans, flanelette shirt, and a handful of free samples....will leave it to the audeince to work out which was which, and the order of magnitude price difference between them.
I LOLed a number of times in doctor's surgeries, as my mind is wired to see differences...identifiying cracks in meatl things, often seeing a 4 leaf clover at 5 paces in a clover field...Aksed on guy how often he prescribes a particular product, and he told me often, as it's very effective..."why"...well it's the third bottom line on your eyechart....He wash shocked, and his office riddled with subliminal drug advertisements...He looked at that chart a few times a day with patients, and never oncesaw it...well not consiously.
They both pushed drugs for the same company, just one for humans, the same drugs, same production lines, same precursor chemicals, just different dyes and dies.
One turned up at hard working doctor's surgeries in a BMW, short skirt, offering antipasto plates and tropical retreat education sessions...the other turned up in a whitet falcon station wagon with jeans, flanelette shirt, and a handful of free samples....will leave it to the audeince to work out which was which, and the order of magnitude price difference between them.
I LOLed a number of times in doctor's surgeries, as my mind is wired to see differences...identifiying cracks in meatl things, often seeing a 4 leaf clover at 5 paces in a clover field...Aksed on guy how often he prescribes a particular product, and he told me often, as it's very effective..."why"...well it's the third bottom line on your eyechart....He wash shocked, and his office riddled with subliminal drug advertisements...He looked at that chart a few times a day with patients, and never oncesaw it...well not consiously.
I have a family member who needs a lot of life sustaining medications and he uses his regular health insurance and as others have said he also uses GoodRx for some of them.
If you are one of those people, make sure to check GoodRx and you may find some of your drugs are cheaper using them over your health insurance plan.
As far as our so called "broken" drug system. I dont think it's broken at all. If you kill the motivation for profits you will kill the massive costs of developing these drugs. It's why the entire world almost relies on USA drug companies for solutions. It's simple math. A close family member most likely would not be alive right now if he lived in another country and he is so far living a good life.
It's sad that some people cant afford them and I get it but it's not a fair world, I mean this stuff doesnt appear out of thin air someone has to pay for it and no one will want to develop it if they cant make a living doing it. Science and investment cost money, businesses expect a return on their money or they could go invest someplace else, in another industry.
If you are one of those people, make sure to check GoodRx and you may find some of your drugs are cheaper using them over your health insurance plan.
As far as our so called "broken" drug system. I dont think it's broken at all. If you kill the motivation for profits you will kill the massive costs of developing these drugs. It's why the entire world almost relies on USA drug companies for solutions. It's simple math. A close family member most likely would not be alive right now if he lived in another country and he is so far living a good life.
It's sad that some people cant afford them and I get it but it's not a fair world, I mean this stuff doesnt appear out of thin air someone has to pay for it and no one will want to develop it if they cant make a living doing it. Science and investment cost money, businesses expect a return on their money or they could go invest someplace else, in another industry.
Well, it is low if the premium is low because you can than put the extra money that you would be paying into a Health Savings Account, which is tax free and can accumulate for the rest of your life if you dont use it up every year. Even once you are no longer working you continue to use it for medical expenses and over the counter stuff including the cost of medical insurance.
It's an option, options are good.
no no no no thank you
I think most people's insurance mandates that the pharmacy substitute generics if available. A doctor can note on the RX that substitution isn't "allowed" and in that case, the insurance says "you pay for it" if you don't get your doctor to re-write it.
Some doctors get kick backs for writing non-generic prescriptions.
No wonder the baler I bought last year was so expensive.
I don't take any prescription meds but my daughter has Type 1 diabetes. After I pay around $900/mo for health insurance we still pay about $150-200/mo for her meds until the deductible is met. Could probably be a little cheaper but she likes to use the pen injectors for her insulin and she uses a continuous glucose monitor also. We do it through Express Scripts.
I reached out to the manufacturer of the medicine that I take and they lnock $60 off of the price at checkout.
I have prescriptions for a number of drugs currently filled by Express Scripts in 90 day increments. Total cost on Mark Cuban's site is less than half of my Express Scripts co-pay. I will definitely go there when my prescriptions are renewed in the next week or so.
While I'll save 80 bucks or so every 3 months, I suspect I'll save Tricare an order of magnitude above that.
They changed the laws about that kind of stuff. No more antipasto plates or trips. Nothing like that anymore. As far as what do doctors prescibe when there are 4 different drugs that treat the same indication... well, that's another side of the business. I just develop them and transfer my responsibilities to others once they get approved.
They have cracked way down on that.
Don’t forget the thousands and thousands of pain pills they prescribe every year.
