You also got a top of the line baler that was Made in America. Lots of my sweat and tears go into our products. Hope it is working awesome for you. My health insurance costs me 44 dollars a week and just for me. Its not free at the least.
Prescription Costs
- Thread starter Passport1
- Start date
My wife’s hospital used to not cover birth control (Catholics) so she was paying for it out of pocket . She figured out to mail order from Canada at fraction of price.
Finally her Indian born dr thought it was insane who worked under hospital system. She said too many babies in this world and “diagnosed” a medical reason they had to cover it.
Finally her Indian born dr thought it was insane who worked under hospital system. She said too many babies in this world and “diagnosed” a medical reason they had to cover it.
Other than insulin, there are almost no price controls on prescription medication in the USA, Only recently is Medicare even allowed to negotiate some prices. Sometimes, Big Pharma has discount programs for patients who cannot afford full cost. Which means price discrimination, based on the ability to pay is permitted here.
There is a cost of developing a drug, and then a cost of manufacturing a drug once developed. Once developed, drugs are relatively cheap to manufacture. When drugs are sold more cheaply in foreign countries with price controls, Big Pharma is not losing money. It is just accepting less profit.
Big Pharma's political lobby is strong. There is no logical reason, other than political clout, that drugs should cost more in the USA than in France, Germany, or Canada.
There is a cost of developing a drug, and then a cost of manufacturing a drug once developed. Once developed, drugs are relatively cheap to manufacture. When drugs are sold more cheaply in foreign countries with price controls, Big Pharma is not losing money. It is just accepting less profit.
Big Pharma's political lobby is strong. There is no logical reason, other than political clout, that drugs should cost more in the USA than in France, Germany, or Canada.
I assume when you say "Medicare" you mean the federal government, rather than the various entities (health plans and PBMs) that administer prescription plans in the Medicare space and have been negotiating rebates on the list price of prescription drugs with pharmaceutical manufacturers for years.
Our health insurance structure, and subsequently prescription drug coverage structure, laws and regulations lead at least in part to these (surface level) pricing disparities between the US and other countries. Pharma manufacturers pay more rebates to other parts of the healthcare supply chain in the US than in any other country. The gross to net pricing disparity for branded prescription medication is large (that's an understatement as easily seen in pricing at GoodRx for example), and rebates and discounts on largely branded medication are rerouted to other entities throughout the supply chain, but rarely directly to the end consumer.
Combine that with various healthcare channels (commercial, medicare, medicaid, etc.) and what economic incentives apply to each channel (for example does a health plan have different cost and coverage incentives if they cover prescription only versus medical and prescription) and legislative rules (for example, the removal of the AMP cap in 2024 may cause manufacturers to pay rebates in excess of 100% to state medicaid programs, effectively legislatively incentivizing state medicaid to prefer certain drugs for budget favorability and passing the burden of those rebates to other parts of the healthcare ecosystem). Look at the explosion of 340B program and what entities make up the the main contract pharmacy players. Look at the way we treat biosimilars in the US compared to France, Germany and Canada, both in legislation and in market penetration through health insurance coverage.
So far I could not be more happy with my drug plan or Medicare Advantage Plan. My total premium cost is near or at $0 per year.
I also would not want to be in any other country for treatment and wealthy people who can afford to leave their own countries and come here.
Monthly $175 deduction from Social Security is all I pay for my Aetna Smart Fit Advantage C plan includes prescription drugs, dentists, eye care, eye wear, gym if I want too. PLUS $1,200 a year free paid for healthy activity stuff, such as coaching, equipment.
Where else can I get such great coverage with no deductible and a MAX $4,500 limit?
My net cost for insurance payment is $0 after using all the above features of the plan. How can that be?
So far this year my plan paid for: (rough numbers)
Paid $379.00 for Apple Watch 9
Paid $100 for Pickle Ball paddle that leaves me with another $700 to spend on healthy stuff that they will pay for this year
Paid $1,700 to my dentist
Paid $300 for my contact lens
Paid $90 in over the counter non prescription stuff
I have VERY little prescriptions, only two and they are free. One is a statin and the other a prostrate drug.
My co-pays this year so far have been $10.
I get tired of people complaining of health insurance costs but I agree, they are OFF the wall high, my wife putting off retirement a little long till she gets closer to Medicare age.
With that said, the VAST MAJORITY of Americans bring on these high costs all by themselves. Our diets and what we eat suck. SO let's stop blaming others for eating all the garbage we put in our mouths and that includes EVERY fast food place you eat and many restaurants. I know about restaurants. I never eat fast food, never eat fried food so let's move onto eating dinner out with my wife.
I only really know one national chain that I LOVE to go to because I KNOW I can eat healthy meals there and that is Bonefish Grill.
Every other place I go to its a real challenge to find something on the menu (but usually can) that is considered healthy.
SO if you want to talk about how great insurance is in other countries, remember that the wealthy of other countries come here for treatment and remember the pathetic eating habits we as a nation have. My own cardiologist even told me to my surprise (because he knows I like to eat healthy) said " god the way we eat as a nation, you wouldnt believe the shape of some of my patients"
Check this out to your favorite other country and let's talk about cost of health care and who is responsible.
I also would not want to be in any other country for treatment and wealthy people who can afford to leave their own countries and come here.
Monthly $175 deduction from Social Security is all I pay for my Aetna Smart Fit Advantage C plan includes prescription drugs, dentists, eye care, eye wear, gym if I want too. PLUS $1,200 a year free paid for healthy activity stuff, such as coaching, equipment.
Where else can I get such great coverage with no deductible and a MAX $4,500 limit?
My net cost for insurance payment is $0 after using all the above features of the plan. How can that be?
So far this year my plan paid for: (rough numbers)
Paid $379.00 for Apple Watch 9
Paid $100 for Pickle Ball paddle that leaves me with another $700 to spend on healthy stuff that they will pay for this year
Paid $1,700 to my dentist
Paid $300 for my contact lens
Paid $90 in over the counter non prescription stuff
I have VERY little prescriptions, only two and they are free. One is a statin and the other a prostrate drug.
My co-pays this year so far have been $10.
I get tired of people complaining of health insurance costs but I agree, they are OFF the wall high, my wife putting off retirement a little long till she gets closer to Medicare age.
With that said, the VAST MAJORITY of Americans bring on these high costs all by themselves. Our diets and what we eat suck. SO let's stop blaming others for eating all the garbage we put in our mouths and that includes EVERY fast food place you eat and many restaurants. I know about restaurants. I never eat fast food, never eat fried food so let's move onto eating dinner out with my wife.
I only really know one national chain that I LOVE to go to because I KNOW I can eat healthy meals there and that is Bonefish Grill.
Every other place I go to its a real challenge to find something on the menu (but usually can) that is considered healthy.
SO if you want to talk about how great insurance is in other countries, remember that the wealthy of other countries come here for treatment and remember the pathetic eating habits we as a nation have. My own cardiologist even told me to my surprise (because he knows I like to eat healthy) said " god the way we eat as a nation, you wouldnt believe the shape of some of my patients"
Check this out to your favorite other country and let's talk about cost of health care and who is responsible.
Yeah I qualify for a discount at my local clinic based on income and pay $75 a month. Out of pocket it's $400 per Month. I also had to have my physician call my insurance company and tell them to cover it as they initially wouldn't.
I am a bit on the fence about the issue of drug / treatment / surgery cost.
Is it fair to mandate some ridiculous cost because you are first to the market and has a patent? You basically are enslaving people with a disease they have and you are predatory.
However, without these kind of incentives nobody would spend billions in research to get these drugs out there in the first place. Would humanity be better off not treating these prohibitively expensive diseases and just let people die, and us as a genetic pool evolute these bad genetic conditions off our pool and secure a better future because of this? This has been our past 200k years of life and we were lucky that today's medicines are developed so fast people have avoided death unlike any time in the past.
What is the limit? Should we try to make every human pay because someone is not able to let go of their fear of death or pain? How much is the limit and what is the number for a human life? I probably would value myself at 30M but insurance company may value someone else at 4M, and a rural Amazonian tribal member may value a pig as blood money for a murder between tribes.
Human is not very good at dealing with these kind of questions and in the end, the only way to solve these problems are through competitions: multiple sources and multiple patients. I wish more countries would do R&D for treatments and not leading to monopoly on drugs. If one med is too expensive there should be another way to treat it, instead of forcing someone to pay or suffer.
Unfortunately the only way to prevent gouging is patients willing or unwillingly dying and the manufacturers having a better return by accepting a bigger pool of patients and include the poor nations' patients. It is a tough life to be poor.
Is it fair to mandate some ridiculous cost because you are first to the market and has a patent? You basically are enslaving people with a disease they have and you are predatory.
However, without these kind of incentives nobody would spend billions in research to get these drugs out there in the first place. Would humanity be better off not treating these prohibitively expensive diseases and just let people die, and us as a genetic pool evolute these bad genetic conditions off our pool and secure a better future because of this? This has been our past 200k years of life and we were lucky that today's medicines are developed so fast people have avoided death unlike any time in the past.
What is the limit? Should we try to make every human pay because someone is not able to let go of their fear of death or pain? How much is the limit and what is the number for a human life? I probably would value myself at 30M but insurance company may value someone else at 4M, and a rural Amazonian tribal member may value a pig as blood money for a murder between tribes.
Human is not very good at dealing with these kind of questions and in the end, the only way to solve these problems are through competitions: multiple sources and multiple patients. I wish more countries would do R&D for treatments and not leading to monopoly on drugs. If one med is too expensive there should be another way to treat it, instead of forcing someone to pay or suffer.
Unfortunately the only way to prevent gouging is patients willing or unwillingly dying and the manufacturers having a better return by accepting a bigger pool of patients and include the poor nations' patients. It is a tough life to be poor.
