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I understand that Colorado has a referendum on enacting a single payer health system. If they do, and if it is successful, what happens next? Does the whole industry change? Can it change? will they let it change?
As that pharma guy said, were not in the business to help people. And that other young turk pricing those cancer drugs at an insane level. He promised to bring down the prices, and quietly didn't. I understand that one company then lowered their prices for the same drugs to $1.00. Who says all corporate guys are pure evil, well, not quite all of them I guess. You hope he isn't just being self serving. The greed sure won't go away, they'll just have to accept lower profits. Anything is preferable to what's going on now. the price gouging is on an epic scale. It can't be sustained in my opinion, as it is.
As that pharma guy said, were not in the business to help people. And that other young turk pricing those cancer drugs at an insane level. He promised to bring down the prices, and quietly didn't. I understand that one company then lowered their prices for the same drugs to $1.00. Who says all corporate guys are pure evil, well, not quite all of them I guess. You hope he isn't just being self serving. The greed sure won't go away, they'll just have to accept lower profits. Anything is preferable to what's going on now. the price gouging is on an epic scale. It can't be sustained in my opinion, as it is.
I find the assault on free thought disturbing,
I find the willingness to give it up frightening.
I find the willingness to give it up frightening.
Replies
which itself is a laudable goal.
I think that there are other fixes that have to happen before the rate of price increases will come down -- including incentivizing healthier lifestyles/behaviors (otherwise, people like me end up having heart attacks and screwing up things for everybody else by incurring huge costs).
$50 or $70 dollars charged to you for a bag of saline when it cost about two cents is a good place to start, and also allow drugs to come in from Canada, hell we let in seafood from Asia that has been raised on pig crap, and veggies from Mexico grown in human crap---NOT milorganite. Also would help if states could negotiate for drugs.
I find the willingness to give it up frightening.
Good to hear from you again Michael.
More people get covered and the rates in CO don't go down. How odd.
http://www.9news.com/story/money/2015/10/24/individual-health-insurance-costs-rising-steeply-in-colorado-next-year/74528386/
And this is the biggest problem. It's how much we pay not who pays. ACA attacked the wrong end of the problem in my opinion.
http://www.politico.com/story/2014/12/single-payer-vermont-113711
https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2015/01/25/costs-derail-vermont-single-payer-health-plan/VTAEZFGpWvTen0QFahW0pO/story.html
Even if the ACA attacked the "right" end of the problem, what could it do? Medicine is largely privatized and capitalism. How do you bring down the costs of drugs, operations, lab tests etc.? Those making the big bucks would say government is interfering. They would say "I spent $3 million on R&D, and if I want to charge $750 a pill, that's my business. Not my problem if most can't afford it."
Crooow:This music would work better with women in bikinis shaking all over the place. I guess that's true of any music really.
How high should be the return on investment taking into account not only the investment in the drug but the need to at least recoup the costs of drugs that don't work?
The return for discovering and developing a new drug should be the satisfaction of knowing people's health problems have been solved or lessened. If some drugs don't work, don't make or distribute them.
You can't eat satisfaction.
Not a consideration, abundant food is available.
You don't get no, satisfaction?
First, R&D is already written off.
Second, if I spend $100 on R&D, my expense net of taxes is $65.
With utilities, the government will say, "You're allowed a certain ROI." Can you do that with Pharma? What ROI is worth the time and effort of the company and its people? How do you make sure people just don't do crazy stuff, run up the investment, and get the guaranteed return.
Just saying let the government do it sounds nice, but could be a recipe for disaster. There's a really fine line and there's no reason to expect anybody to know where it is.
Remember the Good Intentions Paving Company.
I see what you did there..
Mike
Are all kinds of food available? What if I prefer steak over squash, but somebody likes the reverse? Some engineer in Washington going to figure out how to keep us all happy?
Or will it be diced turkey over mashed potatoes with a side of green beans and a carton of milk everyday?
No pastrami? F-ck that.
If you get to write off all of your R&D, how can you say you have R&D expense to recoup? Nobody is saying you cannot have ROI, just that it cannot be $749 per pill, as a consumer the government can say what they will pay especially since they are the ones protecting your patent.
Wow, so now the technocrtats will decide what we eat too. Jeez this sounds better and better by the day. Who wouldn't want this.
Whilst overhead pigs shall fly, equipped with sensors, cameras and mini-missiles to eradicate any bad citizen caught eating verboten food, smoking or drinking.
George Will
When people cannot make money from poisoning food to preserve it or increase the yield, they will voluntarily cease committing long term suicide. People are not naturally stupid, they act that way because the money system encourages their greed. Take away the money system and people's common sense will return, no need for the draconian practices you suggest and that exist today in the form of drones (pigs) that fly and assassinate people marked for extermination.
Ahhhh...to dream about a life filled with unicorns and rainbows and gumdrops on every tree...
A write-off is just a legitimate expense that one can deduct for tax purposes. The savings is the amount spent x tax rate. No different than having your own business and deducting some portion of your car expense.
Are you proposing the government reimburse all R&D expense through tax credits?
If we turn the question around and ask why healthcare costs so much less in other high-income countries, the answer nearly always points to a larger, stronger role for government. Governments usually eliminate much of the high administrative costs of insurance, obtain lower prices for inputs, and influence the mix of healthcare outputs by arranging for large supplies of primary-care physicians and hospital beds while keeping tight control on the number of specialist physicians and expensive technology. In the United States, the political system creates many “choke points” for diverse interest groups to block or modify government’s role in these areas.
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/07/why-do-other-rich-nations-spend-so-much-less-on-healthcare/374576/
The Affordable Care Act avoids anything remotely resembling price regulation.
The ACA is built on the idea that, through competition among insurance companies, costs can be brought under control. This is a fantasy.
http://pnhp.org/blog/2013/07/24/why-does-u-s-health-care-cost-so-much-the-hidden-in-plain-sight-answer/
There is no sugar in technocracy land...put away those gumdrop fantasies fatty.
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