Re:The Danger of Managing Drug Prices
by beagle3 on Sunday September 13, 2015 @02:18AM
(#10210522)
> Death panels, anyone? By making it even harder to refuse to pay for a treatment, a single-payer system would increase demand and therefore prices even further. This is Econ 101 stuff; it's not some rabid flight of fancy.
Your interpretation of Econ 101 apparently is a rabid flight of fancy, - because if you look at the data, single payer systems pay less (often an order of magnitude less) for the same drugs.
First of all, the number of payers doesn't actually figure into Econ 101 arguments, because the demand is driven by the number of customers, who are generally speaking independent of whether the payment flows through one or 20 payers. If anything, it lets producer strongarm any one payer - as the customers shift to paying through other payers. There isn't much incentive for affordable prices.
In a single payer system, if the producer will charge too much, they have no one to sell to - which gives them an incentive to price it affordably.
Furthermore, the market is not free, neither in the US nor in single payer markets. The US market is regulatorily tilted towards producers (e.g., it is illegal for you to buy your medicine abroad, even if it is the same one produced in the US by the same factory and company, and maybe even same batch). Single payer markets are tilted towards the buyers.
Death panels already exist in the US, except they are privatized. Do you really believe that private-for-profit insurance companies just give everyone everything that could help them? If you do believe that, then - yes, I think it's some rabid flight of fancy. I've known quite a few cases in which they don't. And if you don't, then you agree that death panels already exist.
Your interpretation of Econ 101 apparently is a rabid flight of fancy, - because if you look at the data, single payer systems pay less (often an order of magnitude less) for the same drugs.
First of all, the number of payers doesn't actually figure into Econ 101 arguments, because the demand is driven by the number of customers, who are generally speaking independent of whether the payment flows through one or 20 payers. If anything, it lets producer strongarm any one payer - as the customers shift to paying through other payers. There isn't much incentive for affordable prices.
In a single payer system, if the producer will charge too much, they have no one to sell to - which gives them an incentive to price it affordably.
Furthermore, the market is not free, neither in the US nor in single payer markets. The US market is regulatorily tilted towards producers (e.g., it is illegal for you to buy your medicine abroad, even if it is the same one produced in the US by the same factory and company, and maybe even same batch). Single payer markets are tilted towards the buyers.
Death panels already exist in the US, except they are privatized. Do you really believe that private-for-profit insurance companies just give everyone everything that could help them? If you do believe that, then - yes, I think it's some rabid flight of fancy. I've known quite a few cases in which they don't. And if you don't, then you agree that death panels already exist.